Isle of Man dominate thrilling Celtic Match Race contest at Jurby

The Isle of Man won the Celtic Match Races for the seventh time overall at the weekend, over two days of vastly contrasting conditions at Jurby.

The hosts accumulated 250 points from six counting races on Saturday in dry, but blustery conditions, with Wales runners-up on 231, Scotland 210 and Ireland 202.

Sunday began extremely wet and windy, indeed at midday any serious hopes racing looked unlikely.

But event organisers, Andreas Racing Association, held their nerve and qualifying began shortly after 1.30 as the rain had eased and conditions began to steadily improve.

Three hours later, the near-impossible had been achieved.

Turning the clock back to Saturday lunchtime, Ryan Cringle and Mikey Evans set the ball rolling for the island with a double success in the opening two concurrently-run Celtic races.

Riding the same 955 Ducati V2 that Scotsman Johnny Stewart scored a MGP double on in late August, Cringle dominated the Next Generation/Supersport race with a start-to-finish victory over first cousin Kyle Casement (765 Triumph), with Caolin Irwin of Ireland a close third.

Evans was first in the Post-Classic Superbike category on Graham Thomas's 750 Suzuki, edging out Paul 'Potchy' Williams of Wales by a fraction over half a second on his 750 Suzuki.

Other Manx finishers were Paul Cassidy (third Classic Superbike) and reserve rider Billy Kneen on the Yamaha R6, who actually beat the aforementioned Stewart of Scotland.

Adopted Manxie Francesco Faraldo extended his excellent run of form to win the Supertwin/Sportbike class on Bob Taylor's Aprilia RS660, edging out the Yamaha R6 of fellow local Lex Geval, first home in the Pre-injection 600 class.

More good home points were harvested by teenager Aron Redmond, third overall and second Supertwin/Sportbike, despite a 10s penalty for a jumped start.

TT regulars Stephen Kershaw and Rhys Gibbons won the non-Celtic sidecar race, doubling up in the Celtic race when seeing off locals Darren Hope/Paul Bumfrey and Welshman Wayne Lockey with local passenger Ben Binns.

The original start had been red-flagged after the home crew of Stu Bainborough and Will Beale flipped the Baker Suzuki on the grass approaching Snuffy's. Fortunately, both were okay.

Favourites Ryan and Callum Crowe had led by a comfortable margin but, in the restart, clutch issues forced their retirement, leaving Scotland's Kershaw/Gibbons almost 20s clear of Hope/Bumfrey.

There was an Isle of Man 1-2 in the Open Solo, with Centre champion Rory Parker getting the early jump but ultimately beaten by Marcus Simpson on the ex-FHO BMW originally built for Josh Brookes.

Ireland's Derek Sheils, who last graced Jurby in 2002, finished third on his BMW from fellow countryman Mark Hewitt.

Ballyclare’s Sherman-Boyd brothers scored a double in the Open 500 and Junior Supersport races.

Ruben won the Open 500 from locals Paul Metcalfe and Cassidy, with Ramsey's Tomo Burnett edging out Scotland’s Fraser Mutch for the CB500 honours. Ozzy Madey was eighth overall, third CB500.

Buster Sherman-Boyd won the Junior Supersport on both days, by 1.87s on Saturday from Darren Cox of Scotland and 12.7s from Matthew Thomas of Wales on Sunday.

Ramsey’s George Cowie was third in both, squeezed out of second by two tenths of a second on Sunday.

Ryan Cringle also won Sunday's Supersport race from Casement after an early overtaking manoeuvre by County Limerick’s Irwin ended abruptly when he lost the front-end of his RK Racing Suzuki at the next corner!

The concluding sidecar race was led from start to finish by the Crowes from Derek Lynch/Anthony McDonnell (Ireland), with a close race for third between the home crews of Hope/Bumfrey and Craig Melvin/Jake Roberts narrowly going to the former.

This extended the IoM's overall lead to 40 points over Wales.

That went out to 52 when Geval, Faraldo and Redmond scored the first 1-2-3 of the meeting for the island. It was a thrilling contest between the Supertwin Aprilia of Faraldo and the Pre-injection 600 of Geval who got the stronger drive out of the final corner to outsprint the Italian to the line.

Geval later crashed out spectacularly in a non-Celtic race - luckily he was not seriously hurt, but his R6 was badly damaged.

Only six lined up for the second Open capacity race at 3.55pm on a steadily drying, but windy circuit.

Recently-crowned IoM Centre champion Parker won on his Honda Fireblade by 8.9s from team-mate Simpson who made a slow start and only grabbed second from Ireland’s Hewitt and Sheils with a third of a lap to go, on the brakes into the Bus Stop chicane.

The seventh local win out of 11 extended the island’s lead to 60 points over Wales.

Most riders were on dry tyres for the concluding CB500/Open 500, led away by Tony Davies (Wales) on the Kawasaki ZX4.

He was soon ousted by Ruben who won by 1.92s on a similar machine from Colby's Paul Metcalfe (250 Honda) and Castletown's Paul Cassidy (400 Yamaha) who was eighth after a poor start. He picked his way through the field to grab third in the closing seconds.

Matthew Souter came off at the final corner of the race, escaping serious injury but his Honda looked decidedly second-hand.

Scotland decided not to contest the Celtic races on Sunday as the final round of their domestic championships is this weekend and many of the riders were not comfortable with the conditions.

Final standings: Isle of Man 525, Wales 472, Ireland 389, Scotland 272.

A Lord of Jurby (Reejerey) invitation race took place at the end of each day, both won by Simpson, with Sheils and Parker sharing second and third places.

- The 2027 event will be at Mondello Park, Ireland on September 25-26.