1999 British Individual Championships 30 Aug Sandwell

report by Martin Gamble

Ellis junior joins Dad in record books

An emotionally charged British Individual Final, in front of a large crowd at the Sandwell stadium, had a its own fairytale ending with Shaun Ellis winning the title and becoming the the first ever rider to emulate his father's similar feat.

It was 1971 when dad, Roger Ellis, crowned an already glittering career winning the British title at Uxbridge.

This was a double-sweet occasion tinged with sadness in some ways for the Ellis family. Shaun's mother, Christine, lost her battle against a long illness just a few weeks before the momentous occasion.

The flier from Wednesfield - still his father's club, too - rode with power, control and determination. Picking off the pre-meeting favourites fairly inconspicuously in the early stages of the twenty heat contest, it was only after the third of his five rides that he suddenly emerged as favourite in a typical dog-eat-dog contest.

Lacking the relative experience of some of his counterparts, young Ellis remained steady and cool for his final two rides and didn't even hint at crumbling under the enormous pressure he must have been under. Indeed, having the advantage of going out in the last of the scheduled twenty heats with most of his rivals already finished their sequence of rides, Ellis already knew that a third place would have been enough to win the title outright. Even if a disaster occurred, he only needed to make sure he got the point for finishing in order to make at least a tie-break for first place.

Ellis's confidence remained in tact, however, as he sat for a comfortable second behind Stoke's unfancied Errol Thaw, thereby finishing two points ahead of his nearest rivals on the final show of the scoreboard.

Of his rivals, Tameside's Terry Norman looked the most likely contender. Having done all the hard work in his first three rides, making the most of the opposition's mistakes and melees, Norman was looking good on eleven points from a maximum possible of twelve. However, he became the subject of a terrible gaff of his own in his fourth outing and a third place in his fifth and final race put him just outside of the first three.

Former World Champion, Mark Newey of Leicester, must have rued the referee's good eyesight as he received a disqualification for a foul on Southampton's Gavin Wheeler in his first ride. Newey, racing almost on home soil - until the 1999 season he had always been a Sandwell rider - went on to score fourteen from a maximum possible of sixteen in his final four rides.

Wheeler himself, unlike the unfortunate Terry Norman, had a strong finish but, needing two wins from his last two rides, left himself too much to do in trying to improve on a respectable fourteen points.

Current World Champion, Swindon's Steve Harris, looked good with two unbeaten rides to start his tilt at the British title. A crucial fourth place in heat nine caused some damage to his claim and this was followed up by another last in an unlucky heat thirteen to end his hopes altogther.

Ever popular, Leicester's Norman Venson, took a point from Newey in heat eighteen thereby preventing his teammate's total recovery from his first race disqualification and placing himself in the frame for at least a tie-breaker for second place.

Stoke's Andy Franks appeared to have spent the meeting warming up but by the climax of the meeting, he was on fire and scored two straight wins to put him in any tie-breaker situation.

All that Franks and Venson could do was wait and see if the impossible might happen and Ellis would either make a catastrophic error, get himself disqualified or suffer the embarassment of a machine failure in his final outing.

This was not to be and Ellis received an appropriate ovation from the crowd and his fellow competitors alike. His father, Roger - a gentle giant of men, if ever there was one - couldn't help but be overcome by the moment.

Whilst Ellis punched the air as he crossed the line, it was left to Franks and Venson to compete for the minor placings in the tie-breaker. Although Venson won the toss for start positions and chose the inside position as is customary, Franks was unstoppable and, having passed Venson and left him unceremoniously on his backside, the Stoke man wowed a large contingent of the Potteries supporters who must have thought what might have been had he switched on a little earlier in teh meeting.

In the end, Shaun's title was probably the best thing that could happen to a family which has not had the best of times of late. His late mother and number one supporter, Christine, would have been delighted by the moment and, on reflection, I am sure that there would have been some party in Heaven on that night.

Scorechart:-

British Individual Championship Final - scorechart:-
Shaun Ellis (Wednesfield) 17 points, Andy Franks (Stoke) 15*, Norman Venson (Leicester) 15*, Gavin Wheeler (Southampton) 14, Mark Newey (Leicester) 14, Terry Norman (Tameside) 14, Steve Harris (Swindon) 13, Pete Young (Poole) 13, Craig Marchant (Poole) 13, Shaun Woodhouse (Southampton) 12, Lee Aris (Wednesfield) 12, Kevin Marson (Wednesfield) 12, Errol Thaw (Stoke) 11, Gary Colby (Norwich) 9, Lewis Bates (Stoke) 7, Frank Finnigan (Stockport) [1st reserve] 3, Jason Ashford (Great Blakenham) 2 [retired hurt], Craig Nash (Swindon) [2nd reserve] - did not ride.
(* - after tie-breaker)

The British Cycle Speedway Council can also be very pleased with the day's events. The staging club, Sandwell, had a dreadful close season where everything from dwindling numbers of members to vandalism looked like placing the venue of the British Individual finals in jeopardy.

The sterling work of the club, however, and especially one man, Pete Dalley, ensured that the day went with only the one hitch - the electricity to the stadium went off for a short while but, fortunately former Sandwell rider, former World Champions and current (no pun intended!) electrician, Mark Newey, was on hand to fix the fault in time for the day's proceedings!

Dalley, in fact, was awarded the 1999 Wilkinson Sword Award for his efforts and was presented with the Sword and crystal vase during the half-time break in the senior final.

A final pleasing statistic for the BCSC was that, of the sixteen finalists and two reserves on show for the senior final, all bar four came from British Premier League clubs, the new flagship league competition for cycle speedway in the UK.

Photos from the qualifiers:
The Wednesfield Gate (L to R): G Brown, D Challinor, G Johnston, C Finnigan
The Wednesfield Gate 2 (L to R): J Ashford, G Brown, A Franks, R Pilling
Gary Brown chases Jason Ashford @ Wednesfield
Brown in 2nd place @ Birmingham

Ace Morgans

The Under-16 Final earlier in the day, and also held at the Sandwell stadium, saw the Wednesfield club again celebrating the success of one of their young riders. Mike Morgans dropped only one point to pre-meeting favourite, Somersham's Richard Williamson, in their first race.

Williamson suffered a rush of blood to his head in his second race, finishing fourth after an uncharacteristic mistake left him floundering in second place after the start. Trying to get back on terms and challenge the leader, the Suffolk lad made a hash of it and was relegated to fourth and last place from where he could not recover.

Norfolk club, Eaton, staged the Under-13 Championship a couple of years ago and Darren Slater won easily on his own circuit. Slater was closest challenger to Morgans, given Williamson's misfortune, but with another year at this level, the Norwich lad must be favourite for the 2000 competition.

Southampton's Shaun Woodhouse was the only English rider who prevented a Polish clean sweep of the World Junior titles at Poole earlier in the summer and his third place, winning the tie-breaker against the luckless Williamson, was well deserved.

Of the other contenders, Horspath-Oxford's Steve Beesley, rode steadily without setting the place alight but his final tally of sixteen points, including causing the damage to Williamson's bid in "that" heat six contest, was almost enough for him to sneak a place on the rostrum.

British Under-16 Individual Championship Final - scorechart:-
Mike Morgans (Wednesfield) 19 points, Darren Slater (Eaton) 18, Shaun Woodhouse (Southampton) 17*, Richard Williamson (Somersham) 17*, Steve Beesley (Horspath) 16, Damien Hack (Astley & Tyldesley) 14, Robert Pearce (Bury) 14, Ben Loomb (Spixworth) 13, Mark Bowler (Horspath) 12, Aron Lowey (Poole) 12, Chris Jewkes (Wednesfield) 10, Steven Beighton (Sandwell) 9, Andrew McMinn (Horspath) 8, David Alexander (Hethersett) 6, Leigh Cossey (Hethersett) 6, Adam Taylor (Horspath) 4.