MATCH REPORT: Manchester League Individuals at Bury

Report by Alan Taylor, photos by Ian White

This season’s Manchester League’s Individual Finals were staged at Bury on Saturday afternoon (28th September) with a combined Junior rider event followed by a combined Open and Veterans event.

Following one withdrawal and one no-show, seven A&T riders took to the track using a mini ladder format to contest the junior event.

After each rider had raced in four qualifying races, the finals for each category were held with gate positions being decided by an open draw.

Alex Lawless beat Elijah Rechembei in the Under 10 Final.

Frank White retained the title he won last year as he comfortably won the Under 13 Final starting from the outside gate four but a good race developed behind him with Levi Edwards, from gate three, making a good move on the first bend to drop under both Josh Pilkington and Oscar Belt, leaving them to fight it out between them for the third place overall. Oscar managed to get ahead of Josh and despite a few unsuccessful attempts from Josh it was Oscar who finished in third place.

Frank White picked up the Under 16 trophy being the only rider to enter that category.

John and Frank White raced against each other in the qualifying heats with John winning on each occasion and that’s how it continued in the Under 19 Final as John retained the U19 title that he won last year.

Referee – Mark Radford (Bury)

Two of the original entrants failed to turn up for the Senior final leaving just seven riders in a combined Open and Veterans final. John White, Kris Ramsden and Frank White won the first three heats before Kris beat both John and Frank in heat four to lead the field after all riders had completed two races each whilst John White, Steve Harris and defending champion Reece Pollitt were all just one point adrift with seven points each.
Kris Ramsden dropped his first point in heat nine as Reece Pollitt took the win. John White won his final two races to finish on15 points with Kris Ramsden joining him on 15 when he won heat eleven. Reece Pollitt beat Frank White and Steve Harris in heat 12 to become the third rider to finish with a total of 15 points. A three rider race-off to decide the overall placings saw Pollitt draw gate one, John White on gate two and Ramsden on gate three. Reece Pollitt won from the gate to make it three successive senior titles in three years. John White resisted the challenges of Kris Ramsden to take the runners up trophy with Ramsden having to settle for the bronze medal position.

1st Reece Pollitt (Bury) 15, 2nd John White (A&T) 15, 3rd Kris Ramsden (Bury) 15 after race-off.
Frank White (A&T) 13, Steve Harris (A&T) 12, Eryk Motala (Bury) 11,



The Vets title was contested between Steve Harris and Mark Radford and with Steve getting the better of Mark when they met in heat 5, took the title with an adjusted 16 point maximum with Mark taking runners up spot with 15 points.

Referee – Danny Taylor (Bury)