THERE was an excellent turn-out of 30 riders at the opening Manchester League Grand Prix Round, at Astley & Tyldesley Cycle Speedway.

Astley & Tyldesley's Przemek Binkowski raced unbeaten in the Senior category, although he had to work hard in the race of the night, heat 14. Barely a bike's length separated all four riders for the entire four laps, with Frank Finnigan leading for three laps, with Binkowski back in third place. Binkowski came through on the last lap to win, while Finnigan was relegated to third with Garry Pearce taking second place and Chris Smith fourth.

Bury's Tom Doyle won the U-19 category. Astley & Tyldesley's pair of Warren Mee and Joe Twiss shared the honours in the U-16 category, whilst Bury's Chris Dyson top scored in the U-13 category. Astley & Tyldesley won both the senior and junior team categories, in which the scores of each team's top five riders only, count to the team total.

Astley & Tyldesley tracked five riders for Round 3 of the British Youth & Junior League, North & Midlands section at Coventry on Saturday.

There were excellent performances all round, with four of the riders reaching their respective Grand Prix A Finals, on a day where there was a large entry.

In the U-14 category, Becky Heslop excelled on the dry, slippery track, putting in a great ride to go round her arch rival, Lucy Whitehead of Leicester, to win her first race. Becky went on to record a 16 points maximum, and to win her third successive Grand Prix A Final, to maintain her lead nationally in the series. Daniel Swales put in a great showing, and his pass on Whitehead was the deciding factor in making the Grand Prix A Final, at the expense of the Leicester rider. This was Daniel's first Grand Prix A Final and he finished in third place.

Dylan Radcliffe was in great form in the U-10 category, dropping just two points, as he went on to claim second place in the Grand Prix A Final.

Last out for A & T was Warren Mee, and he reached his first ever Grand Prix A Final, by virtue of a 13 points score in the U-16 category, where he finished fourth. Five-years-old Ellie Radcliffe weighed in with an important 11 points in the U-8 category.

The low number of riders tracked by A & T resulted in a fifth place finish on the day, but saw them move up to second place in the League, behind runaway leaders Sandwell.

On Sunday, Astley & Tyldesley take on Hull in a Northern League match at Gin Pit. First race starts at 2pm.