IPSWICH Eagles junior cycle speedway team have won the National British Youth and Junior League by a record winning margin following a storming final round on home turf.

Stuart Watson

IPSWICH Eagles junior cycle speedway team have won the National British Youth and Junior League by a record winning margin following a storming final round on home turf.

A record total of 133 riders turned out at Whitton Sports Centre for the final round of the Wosskow Brown sponsored national event and it was the host club that shined.

The Eagles tracked 38 riders and easily went on to win the round, amassing a record-breaking 356 points.

It meant that Ipswich deservedly won the overall league title with 23 points, their six point gap over second place Wednesfield proving the biggest ever margin of victory.

The Suffolk club also had success in the individual section of the competition, with Ollie Knight finishing runner-up in the Under-8s category and Adam Overett coming third in the U12s group.

The closest finish came in the under-18s when Josh Brooke (Great Blakenham) won the final round in style to snatch the title from Birmingham's Chris Timms by a mere two points.

Ipswich Cycle-Speedway Club chairman Ivan Pike was delighted with his own club's performance and, as regional organiser for the competition, with the success of the event overall.

He said: “When this competition was first started in 1997 there was only 29 riders from five different clubs taking part over three different age groups. Now we have six age categories and this year there was nearly 400 riders taking part across the country.

“Two years ago, when we first added the Under-8 category, there was barely a handful of riders. Now it is the most popular.

“As far as I'm concerned it is the best competition cycle-speedway has got because it's encouraging the future of the sport. I'd even go as far to say it's the best cycle-speedway competition in the world because I travelled to places like Poland and Australia and none of them have anything like this.

“We're already seeing the benefits of this junior competition at the top level. I was Great Britain's junior team manager in 2005 and all eleven of the riders I took out to Australia had come through the British Youth and Junior League.”

And with Ipswich dominating junior competition on a national stage, Pike is confident that the club will be supplying junior and senior Great Britain internationals for years to come.

Ipswich's 17-year-old rider Josh Brooke finished third in the European Junior Championships earlier this year, while 21-year-old Daniel Pike will make his senior GB debut at the World Championships in Australia next February.

“The kids love seeing Daniel's success because it makes them realise that they can be as good as that.”