MATCH REPORT: BYJL South & South Wales final round
Report by David Makepeace
The sixth and final round of the 2022 BY&JL South & South Wales region competition, sponsored by Bret Tucker Carpet Flooring & Property Maintenance, took place in front of good sized crowd at the very grippy Southampton Raceway, with a total of 65 riders, with 22 riders, over a third of the competitors, girls racing across the categories providing some very close, exciting competitive racing, bundles of enthusiasm, and quite a number tightly fought races throughout the day,
The final round victors saw two 2 from the host club Southampton Tom Comben in the Under 8s & Leon Penketh the Under 16s, as well as 2 each for Exeter, Harvey Yard Under 14s & Shannon Tucker Girls and Newport, Kalem Martin Under 10s & Luie Lewis Under 12s whilst Feroze Langoo of Poole won the Under 18s – whilst in the team comp Poole won the regional match, Newport were second.
The overall series saw some swings in fortune on the final day and the overall podiums spots were in the Under 8s title was won, unsurprisingly, by Southampton’s Tom Comben completing a clean sweep for the season, second and third place were the fast-improving Exeter pair Ed Geach and Deacon Wickes.
In the under 10s Horspath’s Roman Boaler competing with a broken arm secured the title with Kalem Martin and Sam Comben tying in second place.
A win in the under 12s for Poole’s Jamie Randall was secured with nearest rivals Teddy Curtis and Esmae Lewis, who didn’t have the luckiest of days, both racing in the B final doing enough for 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Southampton’s George Whale took the Under 14 top spot , with Harvey Yard in second and Riley Nation of Poole third.
Sadly Poole’s Kenzie Bennet missed the final round, being stranded in Turkey due to flight reschedule, depriving him of a chance of taking the U16 title which was eventually shared by Exeter team mates Owen Geach and JJ Wildman, whilst Leon Penketh was third.
The Girls title was secured by winning the final ‘double points’ round by Shannon Tucker pipping Poole’s Maddie Saunders, a stalwart of the BYJL for many years riding in her last event, by 2 pts with club mate Lexie Curtis third as well as collecting the Under 15 Girls trophy presented for the first time
U18 winner was Feroze Langoo, Poole club mate Josh Nottle second and Ben Truscott of Newport third
The 2022 overall club title was unsurprisingly secured by perennial winners Poole, ahead of second placed Newport, third Exeter, fourth Southampton, fifth Horspath and sixth East Newport