Face-off. The two contenders for the Guardian Cup.
Well, a tougher night than we’ve had in a few weeks greeted the riders who were contesting the Final Fling, the overall Scratch, and most importantly, the Guardian Cup.
Before this last round, Paul Connor found himself leading by a single point ahead of Tony Booth. tonight, it was an all out battle to improve on PB, and hopefully gain more points to edge ahead of the competition.
It was breezy, without too much of a favourable wind direction, although it stayed dry with only a spot or two of rain in the air.
Times came in, and Jim Duffy romped home in first place, continuing with his excellent form this year. Thus, as Dan Robson had previously been leading, Jim leapfrogged Dan by 4 points in the last round, scoring maximum points and winning the Scratch series for 2017, With Tony Booth in 3rd place.
Final Fling
| Position | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Duffy | 22:54 |
| 2 | Pete Kirby* | 23:24 |
| 3 | Andy Milligan | 23:54 |
| 4 | Anthony Booth | 25:56 |
| 5 | Dan Robson | 26:02 |
| 6 | James Lovelady* | 26:15 |
| 7 | Patrick Lucas | 26:25 |
| 8 | Phil Wood* | 26:41 |
| 9 | Paul Connor | 27:03 |
| 10 | Steve Marlow | 27:22 |
| 11 | Rich Munro | 27:46 |
| 12 | Geoff Lovelady | 28:26 |
| 13 | Jonno Gibson | 28:38 |
| 14 | Dave Wilkinson | 30:15 |
| 15 | Nathan Harmston* | 31:47 |
Scratch
| Position | Name | Total points best 7 | Count | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 | Round 6 | Round 7 | Round 8 | Round 9 | Round 10 | Final Fling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Duffy | 150 | 6 | - | 25 | - | 25 | - | 25 | 25 | 25 | - | 25 |
| 2 | Dan Robson | 146 | 7 | 14 | 20 | 18 | 19 | - | 23 | 23 | 19 | 20 | 22 |
| 3 | Anthony Booth | 144 | 7 | - | - | 15 | 18 | 23 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 22 | 23 |
| 4 | Colin Carthy | 139 | 6 | 20 | - | 24 | - | 25 | 24 | 24 | 22 | - | - |
| 4 | Steve Marlow | 139 | 7 | 16 | 19 | 19 | 21 | 24 | - | - | - | 21 | 19 |
| 6 | Paul Connor | 132 | 7 | 11 | 17 | 14 | 16 | - | 22 | 21 | 17 | 19 | 20 |
| 7 | Geoff Lovelady | 124 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 13 | - | 21 | 18 | 19 | 16 | 18 | 17 |
| 8 | Emily Martin | 109 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 17 | 20 | - | 21 | - | 21 | - | - |
| 9 | Dave Fearon | 96 | 4 | 25 | 24 | - | - | - | - | - | 23 | 24 | - |
| 10 | Dave Wilkinson | 92 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 14 | - | - | 17 | 14 | - | 15 |
| 11 | Alison Morton | 88 | 6 | - | 13 | 10 | - | 20 | 16 | 18 | 11 | - | - |
| 12 | Nick Butterworth | 84 | 4 | 19 | - | - | 23 | - | - | 22 | 20 | - | - |
| 13 | Andy Milligan | 73 | 3 | 24 | 25 | 24 | |||||||
| 14 | John Hassall | 65 | 3 | - | 21 | 22 | 22 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 15 | Benn Jones | 64 | 3 | 18 | 23 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 23 | - |
| 16 | Jim Williams | 58 | 3 | - | 22 | 21 | 15 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 17 | Patrick Lucas | 54 | 3 | 13 | - | 20 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 21 |
| 18 | Caroline Fearon | 51 | 4 | 9 | - | 12 | - | - | 17 | - | 13 | - | - |
| 18 | Richard Munro | 51 | 3 | - | - | 16 | 17 | - | - | - | - | - | 18 |
| 20 | Chris Gilbertson | 48 | 2 | 24 | - | - | 24 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 21 | Stu Ward | 46 | 2 | 21 | - | 25 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 22 | Craig Lee | 45 | 2 | 22 | - | 23 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 23 | Ben Ditchburn | 41 | 2 | - | - | - | - | 22 | 19 | - | - | - | - |
| 24 | Clare Hargreaves | 33 | 3 | - | 12 | 8 | 13 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 25 | Jonno Gibson | 31 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 15 | - | 16 |
| 26 | Andy Jeal | 27 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | 15 | - | 12 | - | - |
| 27 | Lynsey Astles | 26 | 2 | 10 | 16 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 28 | Phil Booth | 23 | 1 | 23 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 29 | Steve Malkin | 17 | 1 | 17 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 30 | Stephen Lucas | 15 | 1 | 15 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 30 | Louise Mainwaring | 15 | 2 | 6 | - | 9 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
In the Guardian Cup, excitement was in the air, as the battle royale between Tony & Paul played out. 1 point separated them.
As times came in, and points were totalled, Tony beat his own PB by 2 seconds, pulling in 24 points, which gave him a valuable 3 point lead to take the Guardian Cup for 2017, ahead of Paul Connor, who has had an excellent first season with the club, showing improvements as the season has progressed and much promise for future time-trialling.
Points for the season are below. Well done to Tony Booth and all the competitors this year.
Guardian Cup
| Place | Total Points Best 7 | Name | Counting Rides | Current Handicap | Race 1 10th May | Race 2 17th May | Race 3 24th May | Race 4 31st May | Race 6 28th June | Race 7 5th July | Race 8 19th July | Race 9 26th July | Race 10 9th August | Final Fling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 166 | Anthony Booth | 7 | 25:56 | 25 | 25 | 24 | 22 | 20 | 21 | 25 | 24 | ||
| 2 | 163 | Paul Connor | 7 | 26:39 | 24 | 19 | 22 | 23 | 23 | 25 | 22 | 24 | 21 | |
| 3 | 130 | Dan Robson | 7 | 25:36 | 9 | 18 | 12 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 17 | 19 | 20 | |
| 4 | 128 | Jim Duffy | 6 | 22:11 | 22 | 24 | 21 | 24 | 18 | 19 | ||||
| 5 | 124 | Steve Marlow | 7 | 25:38 | 13 | 17 | 17 | 19 | 22 | 20 | 16 | |||
| 6 | 123 | Geoff Lovelady | 7 | 27:32 | 7 | 14 | 10 | 21 | 18 | 19 | 15 | 18 | 18 | |
| 7 | 120 | Colin Carthy | 6 | 24:57 | 17 | 18 | 23 | 20 | 23 | 19 | ||||
| 8 | 115 | Alison Morton | 6 | 30:19 | 15 | 9 | 25 | 24 | 22 | 20 | ||||
| 9 | 104 | Emily Martin | 6 | 25:44 | 8 | 16 | 20 | 21 | 16 | 23 | ||||
| 10 | 85 | Dave Wilkinson | 7 | 28:03 | 6 | 13 | 8 | 14 | 16 | 13 | 15 | |||
| 11 | 74 | Dave Fearon | 4 | 23:28 | 20 | 21 | 12 | 21 | ||||||
| 12 | 69 | Benn Jones | 3 | 25:41 | 22 | 25 | 22 | |||||||
| 13 | 67 | Patrick Lucas | 3 | 26:04 | 21 | 23 | 23 | |||||||
| 14 | 63 | Clare Hargreaves | 3 | 33:04 | No points | 24 | 22 | 17 | ||||||
| 15 | 61 | John Hassall | 3 | 25:36 | 20 | 21 | 20 | |||||||
| 15 | 61 | Nick Butterworth | 4 | 24:45 | 12 | 17 | 18 | 14 | ||||||
| 17 | 58 | Caroline Fearon | 4 | 28:35 | 11 | 14 | 17 | 16 | ||||||
| 18 | 52 | Chris Gilbertson | 3 | 24:24 | 15 | 19 | 18 | |||||||
| 19 | 45 | Rich Munro | 2 | 26:07 | 13 | 15 | 17 | |||||||
| 19 | 45 | Andy Milligan | 1 | 23:32 | No points | 23 | 22 | |||||||
| 21 | 32 | Jim Williams | 3 | 23:45 | 12 | 7 | 13 | |||||||
| 22 | 30 | Stu Ward | 2 | 24:40 | 15 | 15 | ||||||||
| 23 | 25 | Phil Booth | 1 | 24:58 | 25 | |||||||||
| 23 | 25 | Andy Jeal | 1 | 29:22 | No points | 25 | ||||||||
| 23 | 25 | Ben Ditchburn | 1 | 28:00 | No points | 25 | ||||||||
| 23 | 25 | Jonno Gibson | 1 | 28:38 | No points | 25 | ||||||||
| 27 | 23 | Steve Malkin | 1 | 25:54 | 23 | |||||||||
| 27 | 23 | Lynsey Astles | 1 | 29:15 | No points | 23 | ||||||||
| 29 | 21 | Craig Lee | 2 | 24:18 | 10 | 11 | ||||||||
| 30 | 17 | Louise Mainwaring | 1 | 32:04 | No points | 17 | ||||||||
| 31 | 16 | Stephen Lucas | 1 | 26:04 | 16 |