MATCH REPORT: Yorkshire League Round 1

Report by Rob Mawhood

Hull got off to the perfect start to defend their Yorkshire League title at a dry and dusty Graves track in Sheffield on Wednesday night. The forecast rain did not arrive, but the dry track still provided some entertaining racing.

Hull were at full strength, with Sheffield using the five riders who were involved with the Home Internationals at Fife (though Kyle Holland was there as a manager). Heckmondwike fielded five home-grown riders, and were depending on Darren Kent scoring heavily.

Team managers Andy Schofield (Hull) and Luke Morton (Sheffield) had the same idea of putting their number one rider at reserve, this gave us four races where Ed Morton raced Lewis Foxley. Ed got the better of the meetings, with three race wins. While the win for Lewis resulted in a Hull 6-4.

Hull hit the maximum 7 points in each of their four races against the Heckmondwike pairings, while Darren Kent put a spoke in the Sheffield challenge taking a second place in heat 4 and winning heat 7.

A special mention for Heckmondwike’s Jack Le-Brasse, who at 14 was by far the youngest rider competing. He consistenly made quick starts and was deserving of more than the 6 points he scored.

Round 2 will be at Heckmondwike on the 15th June.

Scorers

Sheffield (57) – Kielan Burton 12, Laura Watson 10+1, Kyle Holland 10+1, Patrick O’Shea 10+1, Ed Morton 15.

Heckmondwike (36) – Stuart Hardaker 8, Tony Le-Brasse 6, Darren Kent 14, Jack Le-Brasse 6, Chris Green 2.

Hull (63) – Nathan Everett 15+2, Matt Eglen 11, Jack Lister 12+3, David Cooper 10, Lewis Foxley 15+1