The Club started the year with four new partners - Atherton Physiotherapy & Sports Injury Clinic, Icon Embroidery, PG Bell Electrical and SAM Joinery, to join five renewals. The Rotary Club of Astley and 33/18 Designs sponsored major events. Kelly Skitterall joined the Committee as Assistant Treasurer and a Social Secretary. The Club won British Cycling’s Go-Ride Club of the Year 2017 award - first out of 370 clubs nationally. We obtained £3,000 from Wigan Council’s Brighter Borough Fund and £1,000 from Forever Manchester, to fund six full size bikes and three sets of jerseys for the new A&T Go-Ride Racing League. We finished the year by winning the Wigan Sports Club of the Year award for the third time. The club successfully renewed its Sport England Clubmark accreditation for another three years. The club generated income of over £17,000. We successfully promoted a British Club Championship day and a British Individual Finals day. We started a new Satellite Club link with Fred Longworth High School, which generated several new recruits. We finished the year with 87 cycle speedway riders, (27 members and 60 casuals). The Road and Off Road sections featured casual users. A new development saw riders represent our club in other cycling discipline events, with riders taking part in cyclo-cross races. The club finished the season with a further 24 regular officials / volunteers, to give a total of 113 members.

The Club enjoyed another highly successful season on the track in 2018. Led by Lee Phillips, the 1st team retained the North & Scotland League Division 1 title, out of 6 teams, with a 100% record. This was followed up with another win in the Northern Regional Final to qualify for the British Cycle Speedway Cup Final. Key to the club’s success were veteran Steve Harris, who signed from Swindon and former Heckmondwike rider, Pawel Idziorek, along with the previous year’s squad. The 1st team lost a first place run-off in the Northern Cup Final and came 3rd out of 7 teams in the Northern Fours League. The club made its first appearance in the European Club Championships at East Park and finished 7th, out of 20 teams. We recorded our highest position, 5th out of 14 teams, in the British Club Championship, with 3rd place finishes by our Veterans team and new Women’s and u-16 Girls teams. We finished 2nd to Stockport in the Manchester League Division 1 series. We finished 2nd out of 8 teams in the North & Scotland League Division 2.

The club really excelled at junior levels again. Under the guidance of new British Youth & Junior League and Little League Team Manager Catherine White, the club again qualified for the national series of the BYJL, after winning the Northern group of both the BYJL and the LL. In the national BYJL series, the team finished 4th, our best finish for 20 years. The u-13 team won the North & Scotland League Division 3 title, out of 8 teams, for the sixth successive year. The juniors won the Manchester League Division 2 title for the fifth successive year and won the Northern Junior League, out of 8 teams, for the second successive season.

Individual successes saw A&T riders winning more medals at the British Finals Weekend than any other club. John White collected his 5th British title, when retaining the u-12 British Grand Prix series and winning the British u-12 Boys Final. Emily Burgess had an immense season at Women’s and Girls racing, winning both the u-14 and u-16 Girls British Finals and finishing 2nd in the Women’s Open British Final, at the age of 14. Steve Harris extended his all time record of British Individual title wins, by winning the o-50 title. Internationally, Ciaran Collins raced for Ireland at both senior and junior international level. Emily Burgess and Max Evans made their debuts for the England Junior team. Steve Harris was the club’s top scorer, with 401 points, while Pawel Idziorek topped the race averages, on 3.57.

1st team photo, back row, l-r: Ciaran Collins, Reece Pollitt, Lee Phillips, Steve Harris, Kyle Holland, Tom Morrissey, Pawel Idziorek. Kneeling, l-r: Max Evans, Paul Graham, Mick Knowles, Emily Burgess.