CLUB NEWS: Kell misses out on Under 14 BYJL title
The final National round of the British Youth & Junior League took place on Saturday 17th September at Astley & Tyldesley with Will Blackmore and Shaun Kell representing the Stars. Will finished 3rd in the Under 12’s B Final which placed him 7th overall on 41 GP points. In the Under 14’s event Shaun went into this needing to outscore Kesgrave’s Ryker Jolly by 3 GP points to clinch the championship but could only qualify for the B Final which he won to confirm him as runner-up on 67 GP points. Of the other Norwich riders who have ridden in the BYJL National rounds Frank Spauls finished 13th overall in the Under 10’s with 13 points whilst Tom Blackmore’s 2 3rd place finishes in the opening 2 rounds were enough for him to finish 3rd overall in the Under 18’s with 36 GP points, As a team Norwich finished 6th out of the 8 teams who took part.
The following day saw the Stars travel to Hethersett for a re-arranged fixture in South-East Division 2 and the Youth League. In the Division 2 match Hethersett built up an 11 point lead by the interval due to some bad luck and unforced errors by the Stars who went down to a 75-83 defeat. Ben Loombe scored 22 points, Paddy Wenn 16, Shaun 12, David Adams 11, Jamie Medler 6, McKenzie Loombe 5 and Gary Colby 3. The Youth League match looked like being another close affair until a couple of incidents led to a lengthy delay after which some of the Stars lost interest allowing Hethersett to take victory by 71 points to 55
Saturday 24th September saw 5 Norwich riders take part in the penultimate South-East Grand Prix at Great Blakenham. Frank finished 4th in the Under 10’s A Final, Will Blackmore was 3rd in the Under 12’s A Final, Zachary Eastwood was 4th in the B Final whilst Shaun (Under 14’s) and Paddy (Over 40’s) won their respective A Finals
The following day saw the Stars make the trip to Hellingly for matches in South-East Division 2 and the Youth League. The Division 2 match was a close affair throughout with no more than 2 points separsting the sides at any stage during the first half which saw Hellingly 40-39 up at the halfway stage. The first 2 races saw Norwich pick up a 7-3 (the only one of the match) and a 6-4 to open up a 5 point lead before the Lions replied with a 6-4 to reduce the gap to 3 points. The next 3 heats were shared before Hellingly scored a 5-4 and a 6-3 (courtesy of 2 debatable exclusions for Paddy) to win the match by 1 point and clinch runners-up spot in the table. The Youth team lost their match 67-63.
Tonight (Wednesday October 5th) sees the final Norfolk Grand Prix of the season for Under 16, Girls and Senior riders take place at Harford Park then on Saturday the South-East Grand Prix comes to a conclusion for 2022 at Kesgrave where several Norwich riders are expected to take part. Steve Copping and Paddy will not be at Kesgrave as they will be competing in the final round of the Eurovets for 2022 at Birmingham. Steve currently sits in 10th place in the Over 35’s competition and 8th in the Over 40’s competition so he will be looking to improve on those placings whilst Paddy will be looking to maintain 2nd place overall in the Over 50’s category.
Norwich’s final League matches of 2022 will take place at Eaton Park on Sunday 16th October where Kesgrave will be the visitors in South-East Division 1 and 2 as well as the Youth League, the latter will be against the Kesgrave Pumas (the match against the Panthers having been raced earlier in the season)