MATCH REPORT: European Club Championships Day 1
Report by Mike Hack
Day 1 of the European Cycle Speedway Club Championships saw all twelve teams racing at the new Kaszczorek track in the Polish city of Torun.
Swietochlowice took the win in match A, finishing three points clear of Torun, with Leszno third and Poczesna a distant fourth. No rider raced unbeaten, with Swietochlowice’s Dawid Zajac top scoring with 14 points.
Match A result: Swietochlowice 51 Torun 48 Leszno 42 Poczesna 18.
Match B was another close encounter with Zoledowo taking a three points win over the home Kaszczorek team. Zielona Gora took third place against the Track Reserves team. Radoslaw Morawiak, deployed as a tactical reserve, raced unbeaten for Zoledowo.
Match B result: Zoledowo 50 Kaszczorek 47 Zielona Gora 34 Track Reserves 26.
The two British clubs, Birmingham and Horspath, made their entrance in Match C. This proved to be another close match, with just two points separating the top three teams at the end. Gniezno took the win, after Arkadiusz Szymanski defeated Horspath’s Mark Carmichael, in a run-off, after both teams tied on 42 points. The 2015 World Champion, Bartosz Grabowski, was the match top scorer, with 14 points for Wroclaw.
Match C result: Gniezno 42 Horspath 42 Wroclaw 40 Birmingham 31.
All twelve teams will race again on Saturday, in Day 2 at the TSZ Torun track. The top six teams from the two rounds of matches will qualify for the semi-finals. The remaining teams, with the exception of the Track Reserves team, will contest a Repechage match, with the top two teams from that match qualifying for the semi-finals.
To keep abreast of the tournament schedule, draws and live updates of race results, go to the ICSF’s European Club Championships folder on Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1f48r26L_OdMUS4HU2BFF4zvtrp2a-j5h