North Wirral hat-trick

A LAST kilometre in 1-02.80 gave North Wirral Velo-Kodak a championship record 4-20.15 and a hat-trick of titles by beating City of Edinburgh RC in the final.

Simon Lillistone, Chris Newton and Paul Jennings rode throughout and Julian Ramsbottom, who went in the qualifying round, came back for the final after Paul Manning had taken over in the quarters and semis.

Led away by Lillistone, they took close to 1.5 seconds out of their opponents on the opening lap and - losing Ramsbottom four laps from the end - were always on top with kilometre splits of 108.62,1-04.19 and 1-04.54 before their finishing flourish put the seal on a slick team display.

The bronze match between De Laune CC and VC St Rapahel was an absolute thriller with the lead changing no less than seven times. The gap between the two was as little as 0.04 and never higher than 0.71, but after trailing with two laps left the more experienced De Laune squad produced the better finish to squeeze home by just over half a second. The VC St Raphael team have time on their side. Adrian Worthington is 18 years old, the other three are all 19.

Qualifiers

1. North Wirral Velo 4-26.58
2. City of Edinburgh RG 4-30,04
3. VC St Raphael 4-34.54
4. Harlow CC 4-36:84
5. De Laune CC 4-38,29
6. VC Venta 4-43.64
7. Stockport Clarion CC 447.64
8. Westmead Team 88 4-48,55,

Quarter-finals

De Laurie CC 4-34,24 bt Harlow 436:01
VC St Raphael 4-37,26 bt VC Venta ct in 322.56
City of Edinburgh RC 4-28,01 bt Stockport Clarion ct in 3-11.54
North Wirral Velo 4-25.60 bt Westmead Team 88 ct in 2-01,74.

Semi-finals

City of Edinburgh RC 4-27.62 bt De Laurie CC 4-30.17
North Wirral Velo bt VC St Raphael rt in 1-25.22.

3rd place

De Laurie CC (Justin Clarke; Domin c Cooper, Daniel Rudd, Stuart Shand) 4-31:46 bt VC St Raphael (A. Mummery, A. Worthington, M. Ascroft, R. Prince) 4-32:18.

FINAL

North Wirral Velo-Kodak (Simon Lillistone, Chris Newton, Julian Ramsbottom, Paul Jennings) 4-20.15 bt City of Edinburgh RC (Nicky Hall, Martin Williamson, Jamie Henderson, Graeme Herd) 4-26.21