Report by Andy Schofield

Last weekend Hull staged a feast of racing in The British Cycle Speedway KO Cup.  On Saturday six teams competed to make the final four the following day.  First off Horspath showed their intentions with a solid win over Ipswich with Edinburgh a game third place.  Sean Bennett was unbeaten for the Oxford side with Ash Hill taking well to the Raceway for Ipswich with Jay Berry mixing it well for Edinburgh. 

Next up Great Blakenham narrowly held off Birmingham in a battle of the pre-meeting favourites with Sheffield also very competitive.  Paul Herd and Ben Mould were used sparingly but with good effect for the Midlander’s while Noah Woodhouse showed a great turn of speed for the side from the Ipswich area and Pawel Idziorek impressed in his usual fashion for Sheffield.  The third match saw Birmingham narrowly defeat Horspath to ensure both teams place in the semi-finals with Edinburgh endearing themselves to the crowd with a determined display.  Birmingham’s Ben Mould and Paul Herd again put in strong displays with Luke Draisy also on top form while Will Jeffrey led a strong Horspath side and Jack Brownell showed he can compete at this level for the Scottish side.

The final match of the day saw Great Blakenham ensure they led the qualifiers with a good win over Ipswich who also did enough to hold off any late challenge from Sheffield for a ride on Sunday.  Great Blakenham were again strong through the side with Adam Peck unbeaten and Luca Woodhouse looking rapid on a slick Hessle track with Lewis Foxley using his track knowledge to good effect.  Ash Hill had good support from James Porter and Richard Felgate with Sheffield’s Kieran Hale backing up Pawel Idziorek for Sheffield.

Saturday:

Match A: Ipswich 63 Horspath 75 Edinburgh 39

Match B:Sheffield 55 Birmingham 60 Great Blakenham 62

Match C:Horspath 66 Birmingham 69 Edinburgh 43

Great Blakenham 70 Ipswich 56 Sheffield 52

Great Blakenham 6 match points, 132 race points

Horspath 5 / 141

Birmingham 5 / 129

Ipswich 4 / 119

Sheffield 2 / 107

Edinburgh 2 / 82

Sunday continued with fine weather and good racing conditions and found Great Blakenham in commanding style in the first semi-final to cruise to a 116 points to 63 win over Ipswich.  Luca and Noah Woodhouse were unbeaten for Great Blakenham with Noah taking the track record in heat 9 before Luca claimed it with 40.1 seconds in the following race.  Ash Hill again rode well for Ipswich who kept fighting to the end against their local rivals.

What followed next was one of the best matches ever seen at Hessle with fast, hard, no ground given racing between the evenly matched Horspath and Birmingham sides.  Horspath built up a six point lead by heat 11 and despite not providing a race winner from here onwards they defended well to win by one point.  The final race brought a last gasp effort from Birmingham’s Ricky Johnson to pass Mark Boaler on the pointed top bend but the referee ruled he had cut the corner and Horspath were through to the final.  Lee Smith, Mark Boaler and Lucas Nowaki led a strong team display from Horspath with Ben Mould producing a superb unbeaten six rides for Birmingham with good support from Paul Herd and Chris Timms.

The final produced another excellent advert for the sport with Horspath opening up a narrow lead after six heats but from this point onwards Great Blakenham would gradually pull away to take a deserved first British team title.  It may have been that the extra break and less arduous semi-final just gave them that edge but Horspath fought to the penultimate heat to try to retain the ‘bin’.  Great Blakenham put in a great team display with Josh Brooke, back at his British Individual title winning track, on top form and Noah and Luca Woodhouse catching the eye while Mark Boaler led his Horspath side well, all who should be proud of a good weekends racing.

The racing was well refereed in an unobtrusive manner by Darren Kent and Bob Prince and Hull’s volunteers did an excellent job over the full weekend.

Sunday:

Semi-finals:

Great Blakenham 116 Ipswich 63

Horspath 89 Birmingham 87

Final:

Great Blakenham 95 Horspath 83