Premier Handicap League Special Edition

Club Evening 10 miles tt 23 August – Official Result

Actual                                                        Handicap

23.07 Levi Huck                                 21.57 Dave Furniss                 12pts

23.14 Jack Ibbotson                            22.02 Adam Oliver                 11pts

23.30 Steve Cowlbeck                        22.07 Levi Huck                     10pts

23.56 Martin Oliver                            22.17 Tony Brown                    9pts

25.15 Mark Robinson                         22.22 Dale Coan                       8pts

25.47 Dave Furniss                             22.30 Steve Cowlbeck              7pts

25.51 Keith Whittaker                      22.34 Jack Ibbotson                  6pts

25.59 John Hadley                             22.35 Alex Wallis                     5pts

26.02 Ron Moat                                  22.45 Mark Robinson               4pts

26.07 Dale Coan                                 22.59 John Hadley                    3pts

26.15 Alex Wallis                               23.02 Ron Moat                        2pts

27.09 John Davis                                23.09 John Davis                      2pts

27.32 Adam Oliver                             23.11 Martin Oliver                  2pts

27.47 Tony Brown                              23.51 Keith Whittaker                          2pts

Handicap League – Final Overall Result

107 Steve Cowlbeck                           68 John Davis

104 John Hadley                                 62 Keith Whittaker

92 Alex Wallis                                  61 Ian Furniss

83 Dave Furniss                                60 Alan Mattinson

80 Ron Moat                                     59 Mark Robinson

74 Levi Huck                                    56 Tony Brown

Not More Senseless Statistical Shenanigans from Sid Scoop

After 17 enthralling club evening 10’s and one cancellation due to a flooded course, the first ever Premier Handicap League Competition was to be decided on the final night. John held a precarious 1 point lead over Steve going into the final visit to the frontier of pain. In the previous 2 events, Steve had beaten John by 1min 52secs and 2mins 7secs. The handicapper announced that John would have an allowance of 2mins off Steve and promptly jumped off the creaking fence as the battle was about to commence.

John opted for an early start position at No 3. 25mins 59secs later he sprinted over the line and the target had been set, Steve needed to clock faster than 23mins 59secs. If I could have referred to my statistics, I could have revealed that the last time Steve was slower than 23.59 was way back on 10 May. Such a revelation though would clearly have spoiled things, but just like the graffiti on Berlin’s most famous landmark, the writing was on the wall.

11mins 31secs later Steve roared over the line to record 23mins 30secs but overall victory required one other rider’s handicap to divide Steve’s 22.30 and John’s 22.59. The official result revealed that Steve had 3 riders to thank for undertaking this dirty deed and he was crowned King of the Premier Handicap League for 2005.

In an exclusive interview the following day, Steve said that since his victory “the phone hadn’t stopped ringing. However, someone from BT has promised to come out and fix it.”  Steve is now to be inducted into the Doncaster Wheelers Hall of Fame

and subject to any drug taking revelations which may appear in the next 7 years, is guaranteed hero status for evermore.

Congatulations to both riders on providing an excellent competition, no-one deserved to finish 2^nd. However, we do not tolerate failure in this club and John’s prize is 5 years exile on the desert island of his choice! Steve though can look forward to such lucrative spin off’s such as Big Brother and I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

Maximum points on the night went to 12 hours hero and long time Premier leader Dave who was only 18secs slower than his pb despite unorthodox preparation of 4 weeks holiday and the ½ day experience. This moved him up the charts by 1 place to 4th. Adam was just 5secs behind but had 5secs in hand over Levi who also improved his league position by 1 place to 6^th.

Thank you to Sizzler and Don for their timekeeping and field placing expertise, to Maurice and Bud for ensuring the riders safety at the turn and to Maurice Jones, Bob and anyone else who pushed off in my absence. The final question to be answered though is, if the 5 July event had gone ahead, would it have made any difference to the final outcome?

Watch out for next week’s newsletter which is a Premier Handicap League Statistical Special Edition full of irritating and useless information. You know you want it!

GHS Final 10 September

Good luck to Laura and Adam Oliver and Alex Wallis in the National 10 miles Championship for Juveniles which is to be held in the London East District. Our 3 young stars are all genetically advantaged, Martin Oliver was 4^th in the recent 12 hours championship while Chris Wallis now has more handicap in the club 10’s than his speedy son! All 3 are in with a great chance of winning individual titles in their age groups as well as amalgamating their talents for the team title. Alex claims to be stronger than ever and you may recall that he snapped his chain with his starting effort in the North Mids Final. He was given special dispensation to ride in the final thanks to our Club Chairman, who as Chairman of the North Mids District is the most feared official outside of the Gestapo.

Sid Scoop