DANIEL King was left cursing his Rye House team-mate Edward Kennett after being controversially excluded from the final of Saturday's British Under-21 championship.

DANIEL King was left cursing his Rye House team-mate Edward Kennett after being controversially excluded from the final of Saturday's British Under-21 championship.

Ipswich Evening Star Witches reserve King battled his way into the final despite taking a nasty tumble in his third ride at Rye House.

And from the unfavoured gate three, the 18-year-old forced his way into a winning position going round the first two bends.

But just when it looked as though King was going to head the field going down the back straight the large crowd was stunned when King collided with the fence and went tumbling down.

Referee Ronnie Allan excluded King, who was left distraught.

He pulled no punches when he said: “Edward looked across at me and saw me going by.

“The next thing I knew he had moved his bike over and I was in the fence. I could not believe that and I could not believe the referee's decision to exclude me.

“I am absolutely gutted as I had the championship won. The referee would not talk to me, which made it worse.”

Great Britain team manager Peter Oakes gave a diplomatic version of events.

He said: “The referee excluded Tommy Allen in a similar incident in heat 19 and I give him full marks for being consistent.”

A top four finish has confirmed King's place in the world under-21 championships, but he was expected to receive one of the two wild card positions anyway.

King passed Tom Brown and Chris Schramm to win heat three, but he had to admit second best to Steve Boxall in race six.

In his third outing, King was given a nudge going into the third bend when fighting for the lead and went over the track camber to end up in the fence.

He was beaten into second place by Daniel Giffard in heat 15, which meant he had to win his last race to qualify for the semi-final.

This he did in style and from the outside gate in the semi he made a superb first turn to win handsomely.

King lines up for Ipswich at home to Peterborough in a Gemini Travel-sponsored Elite League meeting at Foxhall Stadium this afternoon (start 3.15pm).

This morning he rode for Rye House at home to Hull Vikings in the Premier League.

To make it a busy weekend he played golf yesterday with 2004 British Under-21 champion Richie Hawkins.

Kennett went on to win the re-run of Saturday's final with Schramm second and Richard Hall third.

British Under-21 championship finishing order: E Kennett (13 points), C Schramm (11), R Hall (10) D King (10), D Giffard (10), S Boxall (11), J Brundle 10, T Allen 9, B Wilson 8, A Roynon 6, J King 5, J Robertson 5, W Lawson 3, T Brown 3, D Norton 2, L Priest 1, C Johnson 0, S Lambert 0.

Today's line-ups

Ipswich: H Andersen, K Baran, K Jansson, R/R, P Protasiewicz, D King, R Miskowiak. Team manager: Mike Smillie.

Peterborough: P Karlsson, L Dryml, A Dryml, J Kylmakorpi, S Ermolenko, H Bager, P Lee. Team manager: Trevor Swales.

Referee: Phil Griffin

n Children under 16 will be allowed in free at Foxhall this afternoon as long as they are with a paying adult.