Bury 65, Leicester 113
Combination
Bury 52: S Ellsworth 13+1, C Dyson 7, C Parrish 8+2,
T Doyle 11+1, A Simpson 5, W Collins 8+1
Leicester 67: R Jones 15, D Crouch 8+2, C Jarvis 9+1,
P Hunt 13, R Venson 6+1, T Sensicall 16

With Bury able to peg the Leicester juniors at the back for the first 4 races it looked like this was going to the wire, things went Leicester's way from heat 5 onwards though after Carl Jarvis battled from the back to join Paul Hunt for a 7-3. Race of the day was heat 7 with both Rob Jones and Dec Crouch forcing their way through to a 7-3 over Simpson/Collins, Tom Sensicall though never looked in any trouble in notching his maximum.
Full credit to the Bury youngsters who made life hard for the Monarchs.

This victory gives Leicester the MN2 title, the Premier league already having been won, a testament to the clubs youth policy as all the second team started at Leicester as novices.

On the subject of juniors, several clubs are trying to resurrect MN2 to give the juniors more rides, any club that has not been in touch and is interested please contact me.

BRITISH U13 TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS (BTC),
at Exeter, September 11th 2004

Watching the qualifiers it was always likely to be a close fought final and so it proved. Pre meeting favourites Hethersett deserved their win as they had the greater strength in depth, last seasons winners Leicester losing points through 2 exclusions and a fall.

Leicester 114 (D Hemsley 20, K Burns 18+2)
Coventry 65 (D Ryckarski 15)

A pretty poor showing from 7 man Coventry, but not due to lack of effort, with the Osborne brothers always in the thick of things and Dominik Ryckarski spoiling the maximum hopes of Mark Newey.

Combination (Track Score)
Leicester 77
R Jones 10+2, N Wragg 12, P Hunt 8+1, G Watts 8+2,
J Harrison 8+1, T Sensicall 8+2, C Jarvis 9+2, L Whitehead 14

Coventry 53 D Ryckarski 15

With one exception Coventry were forced to double up with first team riders, hence giving away 41 penalty points, which meant that the match was over as a contest before it started, however it did prove entertaining but Coventry couldn't match Leicester's overall strength in depth.

LEICESTER v WEDNESFIELD (Prem.Lge/M&N/M), August 1st 2004

Kicking off with a junior match at one o'clock this turned out to be a great days racing between Leicester and Midlands rivals Wednesfield in front of a crowd approaching the 200 mark.

After an early start due to pre qualifying races, an excellent days racing followed with all the pre meeting favourites dropping points to each other. Leicester's Declan Crouch finished victorious after defeating Lee Richardson in a run off, Lee falling on the 3rd lap whilst giving chase.

Exeter's Tom Reed took 3rd spot after a run off with last years champion Carl Jarvis and surprise packet Rachel Edge who left some very notable names in her wake.

1. Dec Crouch 19
2. Lee Richardson 19 (after run off)
3. Thomas Reed 16
4. Carl Jarvis 16
5. Rachel Edge 16 (after run off)
Phil Adams 15, Alec Briggs 15, Jazz Abbott 12, Mark Carmichael 12,
Andy Turnbull 11, Ben Mould 11, Jamie Brown 9, Chris Dyson 8,
George Soloman 7, Stephen Jarvis 7, Ben Collins 6

LEICESTER v STOKE (Prem.Lge/M&N/M), June 6th 2004

The normally hotly contested affairs between Leicester and Stoke turned out be a anti climax this time around, Stoke fielding a much weakened team than normal, Leicester running out 115-64 winners.

At Coventry's request the combination match was run first, Leicester running out easy winners 82-46 despite being short of 3 key riders (Sensicall on holiday, Watts thigh injury, Jarvis broken ribs). However the home side should be congratulated on fielding 7 riders without giving away any penalty points, a policy that will pay dividends in the future.
Jones, Hunt and Harrison were all unbeaten for Leics whilst Jon Davidson and Matt Cook showed determination for Cov.

If some of the refereeing decisions were "odd" in the combination match then the 1st team event was farcical, Joe McLaughlin excelling himself.

During the first 9 heats Leicester managed exclusions in 7 of them, and only fared marginally better in the second half, circumstances that prompted Coventry riders and officials to apologise for the refs actions whose decisions had to be seen to be believed. Just for the recordLeicester won by a single point, but not until after Mark Newey had beenexcluded from the final race! And no one predicted that would happen! Much.

Scorers are not particularly important in a match such as this, but Diminik Rycharski was impressive for Cov whilst Dave Hemsley dropped just one point "on track" for Leicester for whom Nigel Wragg made a welcome return.

I can honestly say that Joe scored more points for his team from the centre green than he would be likely to on a bike.

A much weakened Sandwell team went down by 124-56 against a full strength Monarchs, including Dave Hemsley for his first non PL match, Sandwell battled hard but could not match Leicester from the gate.

The combination match was much more entertaining, Leicester lost Gavin Watts with a hip injury in the first heat after he hit Peter Clarke's back wheel, and then to make matters worse Carl Jarvis suffered rib injuries in the next, after passing Danny Hill he was going inside Lyndon Share but crashed heavily, Share adjudged to have legged the young Monarch. Both Watts and Jarvis attended hospital but nothing was reported broken.

Both teams had strong reserves in Jamie Ball and Paul Hunt and these two had plenty of work to do, Leicester eventually winning 67-51, although the score does not reflect the closeness of the racing.

All reports by: Tim Jarvis