THE recent 25th anniversary meeting was a particularly pleasing occasion for one young Bury-Border Flooring rider.

Matthew Parr, now 18-years-old, 'discovered' cycle speedway during the 1977 "Summer Fun" recruitment campaign. As the son of a former rider from Liverpool back in the 1950s, he soon took to the sport with the help and encouragement of Dad Rowland, along with team manager Paul Mann and captain Neil Howarth.

During an impressive series of Wednesday evening sessions, Matthew developed his skills to the point where he won the Finale Individuale meeting. As the oldest of a new batch of recruits, Matthew did sterling work in his first season and established himself as a valued member of the first team.

In some respects he was a victim of his own success and missed out on quite a bit of junior racing where he could have been picking up trophies against lesser riders. He received the acknowledgement of the club for his contribution to the club well-being when he was awarded the Turners Trophy last winter. He also won the Edinburgh Intermediate Open championship during the Boxing Day bonanza meeting.

A similar situation has continued again this year and now well established as a member of the first team, he wasn't selected to represent 'young England' as he was considered to be too good for the level of competition. Three of his younger club mates were in the line-up.

While youngsters Ben Scranage (taking all before him in last year's under-13 events) and this year Robert Pearce in the under-16s, have somewhat overshadowed Matthew's efforts, he has become established without dispute as the top under-19 rider in Greater Manchester and one of the very best in the North of England. He has also lost out somewhat in official age category events through his education and family commitments preventing him from entering competitions he could well have won.

In the light of all this, Matthew's victory in the Chairman's Cup Intermediate Individual event, where he scored a magnificent 20 points maximum from five race wins, was all the sweeter.

Matthew's opponents on the day included multi-British champion Derek Garnett and veterans such as Dave Morgan and Steve Mann, along with many of the best junior riders in the region.

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