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NOTE FROM OUR LEADER (POSTED ON FACEBOOK TODAY, 11TH APRIL)
So far this is our confirmed list of events for 2024, just waiting on a couple to complete the fixtures.
*****This has been on display a bit lower down this page for 2 or 3 years now, but here it is again:
THERE IS NO NEED FOR CLUBS TO GO MAD WITH TROPHIES! Times are hard, tone it down, medals are nice enough as mementos. (or W.H.Y.)
Further to that, there will now be NO awards presented to Over 35 finalists unless they are actually Under 39 and not doubling up in the Over 40s Final. (I think I've got that right but check with Fred!).
Euro-Vets Women's Series
Just to be clear, this series is for ALL women, no age limits applied.
And for those who aren't particularly moved by the news, you probably missed their cracking series of races last year!
2023 FIXTURES WERE AS BELOW
EV1 Sat. 8th April Birmingham
EV2 Sat. 29th April East London
EV3 Sat. 13th May East Park
EV4 Sat. 24th June Exeter
EV5 Sat. 22nd July Newport
EV6 Sun. 6th August Glasgow
EV7 Sat. 7th October Heckmondwike.
Once again apologies to clubs that had expressed an interest in staging a round of the GP but as usual the Gaffer had to strike a balance, never easy for him. With more Vets meetings than ever now taking place it will just get harder as we're having our own opportunities gradually reduced.
*IMPORTANT* To 2024 hosting clubs
Please don't feel the need to provide massive trophies, or indeed trophies at all. In the past there have been some stunning examples provided but as nice as they can be there really is no need to go overboard. Medals or any other suitable award will do quite nicely, and considering we currently (2023- changes coming perhaps) require ONLY THREE sets of four so this should be good news for clubs hard pressed for funds or unable to find sponsors.
Calling all Over 34s - let's see you all here!
Welcome to the Euro-Vets web site, we hope it has become the definitive guide to charitable Short Track Racing for the Over 34's. For new, "mature" riders just coming into the Sport, this is the best introduction you could get. See our minimal rules and requirements further down this page.
On behalf of all of us I must offer a huge vote of thanks to the indomitable Fred Rothwell who continues to deliver the goods and enable the whole thing for all of us to enjoy, including from 2017 a much better insurance deal. Fred doesn’t work in solitary though, he has the ever-willing Norman Venson and Geoff Gamage to back him up when required and they do a great job in support.
More thanks are due to the clubs who put us on their fixture list, their hard working secretaries and ground crews and anyone who chipped in along the way.
I'd also like to give a shout out for 2015/2017 World Veterans Champion Craig Marchant who's never off Facebook trying to lever some other ex-rider out of retirement or promoting the next event for us, a real credit to the cause.
yes - YOU!
If you are reading this then you must still have some sort of attachment to Short Tracking (OK then if you must, Cycle Speedway!) whether you'd like to admit it or not. Therefore, if you've never turned a wheel in our fantastic Grand Prix series or you have but not too many times, then why not take the plunge by entering at least one round, maybe your closest one to start with? You'll be doing the Sport a great favour, having a really enjoyable few laps amongst our much travelled troupe of regulars, get a laugh or two, maybe do some catching up with old friends and/or adversaries and just have a great day out. It doesn't matter what your current ability is, middle-age is the only qualification required and you'll be welcomed wholeheartedly.
New, current or ex-rider - you are all most welcome to join our friendly Racing for Grown-Ups circuit. Over 35s race 35 to 40 year olds (possibly subject to change for 2023) and ditto the other age groups although you are allowed to compete against younger opposition unless there are no spaces in the day's programme. We'd love to see some new or old faces taking part this year, and in doing so you are not only helping prolong the life of the Sport but also helping boost its media coverage which is no bad thing these days. There's absolutely no pressure and a genuine air of calm in the pits (most times!). And of course there's the feelgood factor of supporting our chosen charities which we've been quite successful at. We'd really appreciate your presence at at least one round, but if you could manage a couple or more that would be fantastic, so take a look at our fixtures and start planning a ride or nine! We are not governed by British Cycling so you don't need one of their expensive race licences but there is the inevitable insurance cover which costs just a few quid - much more palatable.
If you're old enough you're good enough!
Who does What?
As from the end of 2018 there were FOUR age categories to keep the racing as fair as possible while providing superb entertainment within a spirit of friendly competitiveness not generally associated with regular Cycle Speedway events:
- Over 35
- Over 40
- Over 50
- Over 60
All categories are for riders either AT the magic age or reaching it in the year of competition.
Our "management team" consists of Fred Rothwell, Norman Venson and Geoff Gamage, and they control things before, during and after our meetings. Terry Kirkup looks after this site, our Facebook page and GP statistics. And of course credit to Dave Murphy who's brainchild the whole thing was way back when :)
Meeting Format
Because of the nation-wide nature of our Sport and it's widely distributed venues, it can never be known exactly how many competitors may turn up at any single event. It is therefore not uncommon to find that we have to integrate one or more age groups in order to produce a workable race meeting. Given such adverse conditions it is a regular feature for the Over 50 and Over 60 riders to be grouped together in a single match, and it has even been known for the whole of those present to compete against each other whichever group they belong in, but hopefully this will remain a rarity. Conversely, we've had to suffer the odd series of repêchage races where there have been too many contestants for the normal formulae to work properly and some dilution was required!
When the event is run along these now familiar lines, the two matches are run independently but intertwined, so Over 40s Heat One is followed by Over 50s (/60s) Heat One, etc, etc..
Even so, the format retains a full set of Semi-Finals and Finals ("A" and "B") for each of the four age groups no matter how many riders turn up on the day with awards normally presented to the four "A" Finalists and the Referee, usually provided by the staging Club as their contribution to ease the burden on the Orchid Fund.
Series points are collected and the Champion of each class is the highest scorer overall after the final round. Points are awarded as below:
"A" Final 1st: 25, 2nd: 23, 3rd: 22, 4th: 21
"B" Final 1st: 20, 2nd: 18, 3rd: 17, 4th: 16
*note you drop your lowest score, or in other words only your top n-1 scores count towards the Championship.
You can contact our Main Man Fred Rothwell on FB or the Editor here:
Comments are switched off to stop loonytunes.
A beatiful afternoon for racing as Heckmondwike CSC presented the 2023 Grand Finale sponsored by
Dare I say it, it felt a bit too warm at times! Well done to Darren Kent and his team of helpers from the Yorkshire League/Northern League Division Two club. And thanks to Mick Knowles for stepping in to referee the meeting, good to see our old travelling buddy again.
It's a shame that since Covid and the cost of living hikes hit we've suffered as an organisation (for want of a better word) with depleted numbers, and we had expected a few more participants than we got today. It's rumoured there were quite a few watching who could perhaps have jumped on a bike for the day and made ago of it, shame! One regular who wanted to be here but was forced out with a sudden health problem was Leicester's Nicky Whitehead, and I'm sure you'll all want to with join me in passing on our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.
Anyway, congratulations first to our Dynamic Duo, 2023's dual Champions, Poole's Phil Gard and Horspath's Lukasz Nowacki on their incredible unbeaten tallies in the Over 50s and 60s, and Over 35s and 40s respectively, truly outstanding and thus far I think unique performances from these two. And also to our first ever E-V Womens Champion, Leicester's Lucy Whitehead.
Before I get to blather on a bit with whatever the old brain cell can recall, here are the important bits:- the Final Tables
***AS ALWAYS, LET ME KNOW IF YOU SPOT ANYTHING UNTOWARD!
And todays's match programmes
Like the previous round at Newport, this one also had a compacted entry, most likely due to holidays and/or sheer distance for our more southerly regulars, so the fifteen riders present from all four age groups just mucked in together, not for the first time. The weather, especially with Storm Anton hitting the South of the UK, was wonderfully kind to us today, bonus. Those of us who are regular visitors to Myrtle Park have come to know and love the track, fondly known as "wet'n dry", but nothing to do with sandpaper. The first bend is always wet , the exception being during a long heatwave (yep, they do get them up here now and again) because of the massive tree cover and total lack of drainage, whereas the pits end has nowhere to hide and is almost always bone dry and fairly slippery. It's also pretty much a one-liner so not the easiest track in the universe to pass on.
Anyway, there was only one hole in the programme so that made Fred's job easier sorting it and the match got underway fairly smartly after the pair of us had done the draw. Unfortunately local racer Jim Alexander was injured and unable to take part, but Glasgow still managed to field Virgin Veteran (can I say that?) Andy McDougall, Joe Beuckmann, stalwart Colin Gray and their 2023 "find", Tomasz Majorke so they really gave their full support to the event.
It doesn't seem to matter to the brilliant Phil Gard and Lukasz Nowacki how big or tricky the track is, today they both continued their relentless, unbeaten charge to their respective Over50/60 and Over35/40 dual titles, in fact wrapping them up today with a round still to go [actually Phil had his already safely pocketed after the Newport round, amazing]. They still had to graft for it today though, as ever plenty of pressure coming from their regularly rapid peers Norman Venson, Mark Whitehead, Jason Keith, Kev Burns and Nicky Whitehead. As far as I remember there were only two fallers, Chris Ward (I think in the Over 50s "B" Final and Mark Whitehead in either heat 15 or the 50s "A". Strangely enough Mark had predicted that exact spot when we'd chatted about the surface coming out of the pits bend before the match ?
I had been so wrapped up with my refereeing duties (shared with Norman and Colin) and trying to recover from my now pretty rare track outings that I hadn't noticed the Grand Master arriving, but I did then spend as much time as I could chatting to the indomitable Chic Mackie where Heather had deposited him next to the raffle table ?. He really enjoyed being there. still as keen as ever to take an interest in the racing he's done for so long and the Sport he loves so much. He had me well humbled describing his many and various "secret" lines around his home track which I reckon will forever remain a mystery to us ordinary mortals ?
Following the meeting the now famous Distillery Dishout (the raffle) took place to end the day with a giggle or three just before the sky darkened. As always there was a huge amount of stuff laid out for the winning tickets and Glasgow raised over a hundred pounds to go towards our annual contribution to the Orchid Fighting Male Cancer charity, a magnificent amount considering the number of attendees. Well done 'wegians and the visitors who weighed in!
I'll attempt to borrow a few 'photos of the web later to add here if I can find them.
By all accounts a superbly presented occasion at this the Exeter club's 60th Birthday Weekend celebrations. Once again travel restrictions kept me away so I apologise (again) for the lack of on-the-day content. Perhaps young Mr Dave Murphy may treat me to a paragraph or nine to include later? ?
As always I welcome any corrections you may think necessary. After all, I'm hardly human.
I'll compile the Women's ongoing results sheet after the next round.