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By Matthew Roberts<br />
They’re not in it for the fame or<br />
the fortune. They are literally in it<br />
to win it.<br />
As a result, their look is a little<br />
unkempt, a little wild. But that<br />
was nothing compared to their<br />
tackling.<br />
The first yellow card was flashed<br />
within two minutes of the first<br />
whistle, following a late lunge by<br />
young, up-and-coming Irish roads<br />
man Darryl Anderson on factory<br />
Honda BSB star Andrew Irwin,<br />
brother to Glenn. It is difficult to<br />
get a yellow card so quickly in a<br />
professional football match, let<br />
alone a ‘friendly’, but Andrew<br />
- one of the most notoriously<br />
aggressive riders on the British<br />
Superbike grid – had found<br />
himself on the end of the kind of<br />
move that saw him wipe three<br />
riders out in turn one at Snetterton<br />
last season.<br />
Moments later came my first<br />
touch of the ball, a little loose for<br />
my liking on the hard, unforgiving<br />
artificial surface, and James Kelly<br />
– a former Tandragee lap record<br />
holder and keen Gaelic football<br />
player - was onto me.<br />
Within seconds Paul Robinson – a<br />
gnarly little 125cc legend of the<br />
Ulster Grand Prix and North West<br />
200 - came piling in too. An elbow<br />
in the ribs, a boot around the<br />
top of the shin and the ball was<br />
gone – I still don’t know where, it<br />
didn’t seem to matter. I hunched<br />
over in front of the grandstand to<br />
catch my breath, and could sense<br />
the partisan <strong>Road</strong> Racer majority<br />
in a crowd of hundreds baying for<br />
the blood of this particular penpushing<br />
imposter of an Englishman.<br />
Moments later Keith Gillespie, the<br />
former Manchester United winger<br />
and Northern Irish national team<br />
legend, appearing as honorary<br />
captain for the Circuit Racers,<br />
was brutally sawed down in full<br />
flight by Dean Campbell, a race<br />
winner at the Cookstown 100 and<br />
- fittingly - a carpenter by trade.<br />
Gillespie was livid. He’d opened<br />
up a deep gash on his knee<br />
sustained the previous weekend<br />
in another ostensibly ‘friendly’<br />
international competition shown<br />
live on Sky Sports (the one that<br />
saw Ireland’s Jason McAteer sent<br />
off for kicking England’s Michael<br />
Owen up the arse).<br />
Campbell doesn’t give a shit<br />
about football, or Keith Gillespie’s<br />
reputation, or indeed Keith<br />
Gillespie’s knee. But he clearly<br />
gives a massive shit about winning.<br />
But thanks to the guile of<br />
Gillespie, combined with the<br />
calculated runs of Chrissy Rouse<br />
- a nimble British Superstock<br />
race winner with a maths degree<br />
- and the dextrous Nikki Coates<br />
up front, the Circuit Racers edged<br />
into a 2-0 lead. Aided by the<br />
willing runs of Glenn Irwin, an<br />
elaborate tactician from the wide<br />
left position, and the technically<br />
adept Superstock rider Jordan<br />
Gilbert in midfield, it seemed the<br />
incisive approach of the Circuit<br />
Racers was going to be too much<br />
for the <strong>Road</strong> Racers to cope with.<br />
However, as we emerged from the<br />
dressing rooms for the second<br />
half, a stiff westerly wind turned<br />
the rain sideways off the Irish<br />
sea, and into the faces of the Circuit<br />
Racers. The track technicians<br />
seemed to drop a cylinder whilst<br />
the <strong>Road</strong> Racers found some<br />
extra revs and ripped the throttle<br />
that little bit harder.
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