4Old firm’ back on the track

Press, 28 November 1977, Page 20

4 Old firm’ back on the track

The old aggressive firm of Blair Stockwell and Paul Jesson is clearly back in the business of track cycling. Stockwell, for the first time this season, and Jesson—for the second—were back with a vengeance at Denton Park on Saturday. The task of making things hard for the sprinters has largely been in the capable hands of Kim Reid this season. When he has some allies, such as Jesson and Stockwell were at the week-end meeting, the test is on. The best example of this was in the 8000 m which concluded the meeting. There was a field of 1& within 2000 m it was down to 13; and with 3000 m still to good, the effective field was a mere four. The four were Reid, Jesson, Stockwell and Toni Horne. It was not the result of aggression and attacking by the first three that only Horne could stay with them, so much as hard, consistant lapping. However, with 600 m to ride, and partly because Horne’s effort was not nearly as wholehearted as that of the others, Murray Steele and Greg Cumming regained contact; and Steele, a first-year junior, did well to take third place behind Horne and Jesson.

Stockwell, just edged out by Steele, had commendable performances otherwise, though. He ran second to an impressive Gavin Sutherland in the feature race, the open kilometre, and second again to an equally impressive Reid in the “Devil take the hindmost.” Jesson, for his part, was easily the fastest in the station pursuits. The other feature of the meeting was the sharp sprinting of Ray Knight, welcome form with

E the national trials for the i internal tour only two weeks > away. He had easy first and second round sprints victories, s and beat Reid surprisingly s easily in the final. Reid was in the lead approach- ■ ing the final 200 m, but Knight . Hew at him and Reid responded ; far too late to be able to catch J him. Knight had an equally • impressive win in the Aces 400 m. • Earlier, Kelvin Steele had [ shown very convincing form to ■ beat Horne, but struck Reid and ■ Sutherland in the semi finals. With some prophesying that ! there would soon be a crash at j English Park, the season’s first ; mishap was instead at the ’ Hornby track. Martin Sanders was the novice to suffer, though 1 not too badly, when he came down in a tightly-packed field ! with 50m to ride in the A grade ‘ 1000 m. > Nick Purcell and Steve Burden ! were also affected, without . coming off, and Vaughan Harvey went on to win from Purcell. , Burdon had earlier had his taste ; of success, in the Aces 400 m, . rather surprisingly ahead of the more experienced Purcell. However, the most impressive I of the novices was Steve Woods, 1 who took full advantage of his I

handicaps, and also rode a commendable 1600 m pursuit, less than a second slower than Purcell. Results;— AMATEUR 800 m sprints.—K. Steele beat T. R. Horne, 13.5; K. W. Reid beat P. A. Jesson and G. Tump, 13.6; R. E. Knight beat J. Degarnham and I. R. Steele, 13.9; A. M. Duder beat A. J. Strang and G. Cumming, 13.5; G. Sutherland beat B. Salisbury and L. A. Sword, 13.5; M. Steele beat T. D. Gyde and G. R. Monk, 14.4; Reid beat Sutherland and K. Steele, 13.4; Knight beat M. Steele and Duder, 13.8. Final: Knight beat Reid, 13.6. 1600 m station pursuits.—Horne, 2:11.5, beat Cumming, 2:11.9; Strang, 2:15.9. and Tump, 2:18.6. Jesson. 2:8.0, beat Degarnham, 2:14.4, Gyde, 2:14.9, and A. Fraser. 2:27.6. Scratch. —Open 1000 m: Sutherland 1, B. G. Stockwell 2, Jesson 3, I. Steele 4, Strang 5. Time: 1:28.8. Open “Devil take the hindmost:’’ Reid 1, Stockwell 2, Strang 3. Aces 400 m: Knight 1, Duder 2, Strang 3, Reid 4. Time: 34.8. Aces promotion 400 m: Sutherland 1. M. Steele 2, Salisbury 3. Time: 32.6. Open

8000 m: Horne 1, Jesson 2, M. Steele 3. Time: 11:14.1. Handicap.—A grade 2000 m: Sutherland (140ni) 1, Salisbury (140 m 2. M. Steele (140 ml 3. Time: 2:26.6. B grade 800 m: Monk (40m) J, Tump isom) 2, Sword (20m) 3. Time: 59 7. NOVICE 1600 m station pursuits.—N. Purcell. 2:16.1, beat M. Sanders, 2:19.1, P McEwen. 2:21.0. and S. F. Burdon, 2:22.6. S. Woods, 2:17.0, beat J. Cattermole, 2:21.7, V. Harvey. 2:26.9, and J. Wild, 2:29.4. Scratch.—Aces 400 m: Burdon 1, Purcell 2, Cattermole 3. Time: 34.5. Aces promotion 400 m: B. N. Gyde 1, Harvey 2, McEwen 3. Time: 35.0. B grade 1600m.' P. Turnbull 1, M. Childs 2, M. Morgan 3. Time: 2:34.0. A grade 1000 m: Harvey 1, Purcell 2, Woods 3. Time: 1:t9.6. Handicap.—A grade SOOin: Woods (40m) 1, Burdon (25m) 2, Cattermole (55m) 3. Time: 58.3. B grade 400 m: K. Law (30ml 1, Turnbull (25m) 2, Childs (10m) 3. Time: 32.4. B grade 800 m: Childs (25m) 1. G. C. Shepherd (10m) 2, Morgan (scr.) 3. Time: 67.2. Open 800 m: Woods (40m) 1, Cattermole (50m) 2, Morgan (80m) 3, Harvey (55m) 4. Shepherd (85m) 5. Time: 60.8.