Cowra Riders Shine

Cowra’s Ben & Zach Cook contributed to their British League Team, the Poole Pirates’ win in the Championship League last Friday night.

After having been postponed on three occasions due to the weather, it was a long wait for the final chapter of their season. The Poole Pirates rode in their final match against Leicester Lions at Kings Lynn in the second leg of the Finals as Leicester was unable to get their track prepared in time due to recent rain. The Pirates had solid scoring from the Cook brothers, both of whom were making their track debuts at the neutral venue after the fixture was switched from Leicester to Kings Lynn. The Pirates had a convincing win of 101 to 79 aggregate. Ben & Zach arrive back in Australia this week and will both be competing in the NSW Titles in December and the Australian Championships in January.

It’s been a big year for all Cowra riders competing internationally, with Brady Kurtz captaining the Bellevue Aces to a 2022 British Speedway Premiership Champion win in October to the running of Todd Kurtz’s Testimonial in March which had been postponed in 2020 due to Covid.

Todd had intended on riding for Sheffield for the 2020 season and retiring after the completion of the season, but with the 2 year delay, Todd made the hard decision confirming he wasn’t going to return to the UK in 2021 and his Testimonial would double as a Farewell meeting. It was an emotional night for Todd and his family to see Todd ride in the UK for the last time. The meeting was a credit to Todd’s popularity with an outstanding line up of riders and he received a standing ovation from the crowd after completing his final laps at Sheffield during the meeting.

And not to forget the youngest Cowra speedway rider who competed overseas this year, Maurice Brown who has also taken the big step and travelled overseas where he based himself in Poland this year and rode for various clubs to try and seal a contract for next year. It was a big learning curve for him and he learnt a lot from the experience. Maurice is back in Australia for the summer and will return to Poland to continue where he left off early next year.

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