PREVIEW: British Individual Championships Day 1

This year’s British Individual Championships are being staged in the South-East region in this the 50th Anniversary of the British Finals Weekend. The Finals Weekend was last in the South-East in 2019 and this year Kesgrave will be staging the action on Bank Holiday Monday where the Over 40’s, Under 16 Open, Women and Open British Championships will be up for grabs. The action tomorrow (Saturday) will be staged by the Hethersett and Norwich clubs. All those competing at Norwich are reminded that the venue is Eaton Park and there is chargeable car parking priced at £2 for 4 hours

4 British titles will be decided at Hethersett tomorrow with the Under 12 Open, Under 12 Girls, Under 14 Open and Under 14 Girls Championships up for grabs. The action starts at midday with the Under 12 events where it is anticipated that with 5 riders in the girls event and 14 in the Open event one of the Girls races will be followed by 4 of the Open races and so on. The Girls event will see 3 Poole riders line up, Ava Chapman, Tilly Shear and Tallulah Curtis. They will be joined by Kesgrave’s Alana Barden-Beaty and Wednesfield’s Nyla Aris

The Under 12’s Open features 4 riders who rode in the corresponding event last year at Sheffield. The Hethersett duo of Luca El-Labany and Frank Spauls, who were 5th and 6th respectively last year, Kesgrave’s Caiden Rawlings (10th) and Harry Gibson from Hull (11th) are all back for another tilt at the title. They will face competition from 2 more Hethersett riders Arlo Davies and Ronnie Harding, Horspath’s Roman Boaler, Kesgrave riders Theo Case and Oliver Spurgeon, Great Blakenham’s jasper Johnson, Wednesfield’s Jacob Jewkes, Southampton rider Sam Comben, Norwich’s Stanley Budds and josh Pilkington from the Astley & Tyldesley club

Boaler & Spurgeon will also be racing in the British Under 14 Open Championship which is due to satrt at 1.30pm. They will be joined by 5 riders who rode in the corresponding event at Sheffield last year, namely Frank White (Astley & Tyldesley), Teddy Curtis (Poole), Oliver Banyard (Sheffield) and the Kesgrave duo of Connor Jarrett and Isaac Powling. The line-up is completed by Jayden Jenkins (Newport), James Randall (Poole), Joe Gillespie (Southampton), Oscar Myall (Ipswich) and Zackery Eastwood (Norwich)

The Under 14 Girls British Championship will be the next championship to be decided (start time approx 3pm) and of the 9 riders taking part 5 of them rode in the corresponding event last year at Sheffield. They are Lacey Ackroyd (Sheffield), Yoanna Gilpin (Coventry), Lola Martin (Hethersett), Maisy baker (Ipswich) and Millie Shear (Poole). The line-up is completed by Amberley Gant (Kesgrave), Alana Barden-Beatty (Kesgrave), Tallulan Curtis (Poole) and Tilly Shear (Poole). The latter 3 riders are doing this event as well as the Under 12 Girls event

The first of 6 British Open Qualifying rounds concludes the first day at Hethersett (4.30pm start) and features 4 previous champions who have won the title 6 times between them. The 2010 & 2021 champion Mark Boaler (Horspath), the champion in 2002 and 2008 Gavin Wheeler (Southampton) are joined by Zac Payne (Kesgrave) and the reigning European Open championBen Mould (Birmingham) who were British Champions in 2015 & 2016 respectively. Wheeler, Payne and Mould were also in last year’s final at Astley & Tyldesley. They will be joined by Chris Timms (Birmingham), Tom Colling (Southampton), Sean bennett (East Newport), Leon Mower (Kesgrave), Shaun Kell (Ipswich), Aiden Owen (Sheffield), Kieran Hale (Sheffield), Luca Woodhouse (Kesgrave), Kyle Holland (Sheffield), Leon Penketh (Southampton) and Jack herbert (Ipswich)

Saturday’s action at Norwichwill get underway at midday with a pre-qualifying round for the British Junior Individual Championship where 21 riders will be competing for the 16 spaces in the final. Of the 21 riders 12 of them rode in last year’s final at Hull. They are the current British & European Junior Champion Leon Penketh (Southampton, Noah Woodhouse (Kesgrave), John White (Astley & Tyldesley), the reigning Junior World Champion Kenzie Bennett (Poole), Shaun Kell (Ipswich), Ryker & Torsten Jolly (both Kesgrave), Oliver Saunders (Poole),Sam Stansfield (Edinburgh), Charlie Parr (Kesgrave) and the Southampton duo of JJ Wildman & George Whale. Also competing are Sonny Whale (Southampton), Mitchell Baker (Ipswich), Lily Parr (Kesgrave), Jude Wilcockson (Coventry), Corey Burt (Wednesfield), Tom Alexander (East Newport), Finley Myall (Ipswich) and Noah Lyon (Hull)

The British Over 60’s Championship at 1pm will be the first title to be decided at Norwich where Steve Nation (Poole), Pat Beacock (Heckmondwike), Terry Ashford (Great Blakenham) and Richard Edge (Horspath) are competing, with Ian Lawrence as 1st reserve

The final of the British Junior Championship is scheduled for a 1.45pm start and is followed at 3.30pm by the 2nd of the British Open Qualifying Rounds. Of the 14 riders in this round 1 is a previous champion and 5 rode in last year’s final at Astley & Tyldesley. Andre Cross (Hethersett) is the previous champion, having won in 1996 at Astley & Tyldesley as a Norwich rider. The Kesgrave foursome of Noah Woodhouse, Charlie Parr & the Jolly brothers Torsten & Ryker were all in last year’s final, as was Ipswich’s Matt Hill. Ryker Jolly set a record last year as the youngest rider to ever qualify for the Open final . Also competing in this round are Lewis Brinkhoff (Great Blakenham), Lewis Foxley (Hull), Leon Wild (Sheffield), Ashley Hill (Ipswich), Oliver Saunders (Poole), George Whale (Southampton, Noah Lyon (Hull) and Wil Bristowe (Poole). Newport’s Callum Goward was due to take part in this round but has withdrawn due to injury. Poole’s Aaron Smith has also withdrawn due to injury and he well be replaced by Coventry’s Jude Wilcockson

The 3rd of the British Open Qualifying rounds starts at 5pm and features 4 riders who qualified for last years final, 2 of which are previous winners. Paul Heard (Birmingham) and Josh Brooke (Great Blakenham) have won 4 of the last 5 British Finals between them, Brokke winning at Hull in 2018 with Heard taking the title in 2019, 2022 and last year. Ben Clarke (Ipswich) and Kenzie Bennett (Poole) are the other 2 riders who rode in last year’s final. Also entered in this round are James Porter (Ipswich), John White (Astley & Tyldesley), Owen Wells (Ipswich), JJ Wildman (Southampton), Adam Bennett (East Newport), Richard Felgett (Ipswich), Luke Dunningham (Ipswich) and Sonny Whale (Southampton), Emily Burgess (Astley & Tyldesley) and Harley Hamill (Hethersett) were also scheduled to ride but both have withdrawn