Perry holds pro ambition

Cycling

As racing starts again in the UK, Ashford cyclist Toby Perry has achieved some impressive early season results.

The road racing season started in Europe started in March.

Perry, 21, was unlucky when his Belgian team folded at the end of 2019 before he had actually raced for them, but he now finds himself at Equipo La Tova - Asesoría Almudévar in northern Spain, having secured funding from the Dave Rayner Fund. Perry’s racing season started with second place at Trofeo Joan Escola in Catalonia in March, which attracted a high-quality field as one of the first races in Europe in 2021.

He followed this a week later, again probably the best result of his career so far, with victory at the Memorial Zunzarren-Estella, a 140km race at Navarra.

Perry’s second victory of the season came at last weekend’s GP Vila-Real, where an attack on a descent proved decisive and he rode solo for the last 30km of the 145km race.

Perry said “With the current situation in the world, it’s very hard to have specific goals for the season due to the chances of races being cancelled.

“I have just been taking each race one at a time and treating it as it’s my last one. I have an overall goal of moving into the pro ranks and if I had to choose a race goal it would be the national championship if it goes ahead and if I can get back to England to do it.”

Bowls

With a free weekend, Ashford Rail played a club mixed pairs and a men’s pairs event. On Saturday, six men and six ladies played in two games across two groups. The winner of group one was Alan Crawford and Christine Breeds, with Chris Knapp and Debbie Anderson winning group two. They go through to finals weekend in early September.

The following day, 12 men played in the men’s pairs in the same format, playing two games of 18 ends.

The winner of group one was Lewis Head and Keith Smith winning two games. Everyone won a game in group two so it went down to shots overall. With a better shot difference, Adam Varley and Graham Williams progressed to finals weekend.