British U16 Club Champs,report

The third round of this years British Club Championship arrived in Ipswich with the British U16’s taking centre stage. Eight teams looked to become this years champs and also put vital grand prix points to their respective clubs scores in search of that coveted title British Club Champions .

Semi final 1

The first semi saw Leicester ,Poole, Hellingly and Exeter in an even looking contest, this on paper looked like going down to the last heat with Poole most probably slight favourites to progress with Hellingly and Exeter fighting it out for the other spot. After the first four heats just five points covered all four teams ,by half time Poole and Hellingly had open up an eight point cushion Poole 26,Hellingly 23, with the other two teams locked on 15 points apiece .

The second half saw both Poole and Hellingly move further away and with four heats remaining there was nine points separating second from third place. Exeter made a late surge winning three of the final four heats to come within four points of Poole in second place with surprise package Hellingly qualifying in first place with stand out rider Jesse Moore steering the team home with an 16 point haul .

Final score Hellingly 45 ,Poole 43 , Exeter 39 , Leicester 31 .

Semi final 2

The second semi final brought together reigning champions Ipswich with Wednesfield ,East Park and Sheffield. On paper it always looked like who would take second place with the home team surely not going to miss out on their home track. Ipswich dominated from the off winning the first eight heats from grids one and four, finishing the first half on a maximum 32 points. As expected only three points between the other three clubs with Sheffield holding a slight advantage Ipswich 32 , Sheffield 17, East Park 16 and Wednesfield 14.

Ipswich dropped their first points in heat nine when Matt Haddock secured Wednesfield’s only heat win to put them well and truly back in the race with only two points from second to fourth. Ipswich restored order winning five of the remaining seven heats with East Park’s Brandon Whetton securing the other two. Sheffield secured second place with five second place positions out of the last eight heats .

Final score Ipswich 59 , Sheffield 38 , East Park 34 , Wednesfield 29 .

British U16 Club Final

Referee Terry Ashford got the 2013 Final under way with Poole’s Aaron Smith drawing first blood after Knights for Ipswich spun at the grids leaving him in last place but to his credit fought back the collect an second place. Heat two went to Sheffield’s Hudson with Ipswich picking up a single point for fourth. It was in heat three that the hosts finally came to life with Matt Hill , Fellgett secured a solid second behind the impressive Jesse Moore ,so after four heats Ipswich shared the lead with Hellingly on eleven points .

With Ipswich now coming from their inside grids two’s and one’s punished the opposition with some powerful gating racking up an incredible 29 points with six heats wins and lead the field after twelve heats by twelve points leaving all trailing behind them , while Ipswich were cruising to victory it meant a real battle royal was going on behind them for second place with only four points separating the other three teams with Hellingly holding a one point lead over Poole .

Into the final set of heats with Hellingly off one’s it was Sheffield who with kyle Holland got right back in the mix and with Micky Stretton picking up the fourth meant that a single point between all thre teams ,heat fourteen the balance of power went the way of Hellingly went Etienne Patel secured second behind Knights of Ipswich and Sheffield’s Ellie Sullivan having to settle for a point .

Ipswich’s Richard Fellgett took his tally to fifteen for the afternoon ,but once again all the action seemed to be going on behind him with Sheffield’s Hudson holding off Basssett of Hellingly and
Briggs of Poole. With the title wrapped up Ipswich gave young Pierce Bacon the honours in the final heat with the other left to scrap it out for second place. Hellingly had
Jesse Moore form one ,Richard Hudson from two for Sheffield and completing the line up was Poole’s
Aaron Smith ,after a couple of re runs with the race not getting past the first bend we finally got it on
and with two points between all three teams it was anyone’s race ,Moore held his nerve and his gate to hold Smith for four pulsating laps to give Hellingly an unlikely second place ahead of Poole with Sheffield having to settle for fourth spot on this occasion.

For the second year running there can be no denying who the stand out team were again as Ipswich powered to their consecutive championship and also taking a further step closer to retaining the overall club championship .

Poole and Sheffield will cast an eye back to heat seven with Dan Knights way out in front Callum Albin
Poole and Richard Hudson Sheffield battling it out behind they both came out of bend four together and seemed to get tangle with both rider’s coming down leaving Tristan Bassett able to go from fourth to second – was this the turning point – for Hellingly to snatch second spot on the day when one point became three as the final points tally suggests.

Two riders stood out today that was Hellingly’s Jesse Moore who dropped one point all afternoon and needs to be stepping up for more competive racing and Ipswich’s Matthew Hill who never dropped a point from his six rides scoring twelve points in both the semi and final itself with some awesome gating.

Final scores : Ipswich 52 , Hellingly 38 , Poole 35 , Sheffield 34 .