Dicken is Somerset 'junior' champion.

With the Somerset "Mike Manning Audio" Rebels Premier league home fixtures at an end, Friday evening saw the Oak Tree Arena host the Somerset Junior Individual Challenge, for junior, and unattached riders.

The field of sixteen, made up of Premier League reserves, Conference league, and unattached rides, contested this 20 heat event, with Newport's Lee Dicken eventually running out the winner, from Simon Walker, and Steve Bishop.

Dicken, who has had a quiet time since taking over the Newport Wasps reserve spot from Karlis Ezergalis, dropped only one point on his way to lifting the title in a run off with Simon Walker. The pivotal point of the meeting came as early as Heat 9, which saw Dicken take on Walker, Steve Bishop, and Karlis Ezergalis, all three previously unbeaten.
Dicken flew from the outside gate, and powered around the outside of Walker, who had made an equally good start from the Red gate. Bishop was left in third place. Walker did not give up easily, and challenged hard up the inside, on the next lap, but Dicken had the fast outside line, and held the hard charging Walker to the finish. This put him level on 8 points with Walker, and one in front of Bishop in the race for the title.

In Heat 10, former Rebel Lee Smart staked his claim on the silverware by taking his second win to take a share of the lead. After a level start off the inside gate Smart led at the first turn from Paul Candy and Billy Legg. Lee Derbyshire, who was also in with a chance of sharing the lead, was left trailing in fourth. Smart easily took the heat, whilst Derbyshire tried valiantly to salvage a point, but could not find a way past Legg despite challenging hard for the final two laps.

Steve Bishop, who has not ridden competitive speedway all season, came out of retirement for this event, and showed that he has lost none of his old flair, with some good rides. He only dropping points in the hotly contested Heat 9, and considering his activity has been restricted to a couple of second half outings to blow the cobwebs away, this was a creditable performance by the likeable Bristolian.

Of the others Lee Derbyshire, and Jonathon Bethall, both of Buxton, gave good accounts of themselves finishing on 8 points. Lee Derbyshire was in contention until Heat 10, and after a quiet start Bethall produced a win and two seconds to finish strongly.

Tyron Proctor, a young Australian who can only ride in this type of event, as he is currently ineligible to ride in the Conference League, gave a good account of himself. He scored only 5 points, but scored in all his heats except his last ride when he retired. He was involved in one of the races of the night, Heat 12. If and when he does become eligible, performances like this, and one at Exeter in a similar event recently, will have a few clubs sitting up and taking notice.

A level break between Shane Colvin, and Danny Warwick saw them contest a very tight opening lap from Proctor in third place, before Warwick pulled out a good lead. Proctor got a great run around the outside of bends 3 and 4 on the third lap to take second spot off Colvin, and then set about chasing down Warwick, he got tremendous drive off the final turn, but just failed to get up. In the meantime Colvin and Andrew Bargh had been having there own battle, which had drawn them closer to the lead, leaving all four riders to finish right on top of each other.

The most unusual result of the night came in Heat 17, and there couldn't have been too many in the arena that could have predicted the outcome. Jessie Lamb, and Tim Webster took reserve rides for Sam Hurst, and Paul Candy respectively.

As the tapes went up the two surviving participants from the original programme, Ezergailis, and Bargh, disputed the lead, with Ezergalis leading off the first bend. His lead was short lived however, as his machine expired on the back straight, his third retirement in a row. On the next lap Webster also retired to leave Proctor to lead from Lamb. Going into the final lap Proctor was also subject to machinery problems, as he too had to retire, leaving Jessie Lamb to take, what must rank as the most leisurely win of her career.

The evening had provided some good racing, and came to a climax with two run offs. Firstly Steve Bishop took the inside gate against Lee Smart for the third spot run off, both having finished on 13 points.

Bishop was quickly away from the gates taking a useful lead into the back straight. Smart, who had ridden well all night, dropping points only to Bishop and Walker, then suffered his first bit of bad luck of the evening as his machine let him down on the back straight. He tried, in vain, to coax it back into life, but to no avail, leaving Bishop to take a bloodless victory.

Dicken and Walker contested the first place race off, as they had finished tied on 14 points. Dicken took the inside gate to good effect, as he shot from the tapes to lead at the first turn. He knew that walker is good around the boards, and moved wide to block off his run. The manoeuvre worked as Walker could not get to the front in time to stop the Newport man. Once there, Dicken made the best of his way home. Walker tried all he knew to pass Dicken, but with the fast line already occupied he could not make his move stick.

Carrying off the Somerset Junior Challenge title in style will be a great boost to the newly married Dicken, and a reminder to many of what he is capable of after a lean time of late.