Workington reserve Adam Roynon and Newcastle’s Steve Worrall emerged victorious from a keenly-contested Cumberland Pairs meeting at Derwent Park on Saturday evening, which fittingly saw all three Cumbrian-born riders in the field involved in the Grand Final.

Having qualified for the Grand Final with 26 points the Worrall-Roynon pairing faced the all-Cumbrian pairing of former Comet Craig Cook and up and coming prospect Dan Bewley from Maryport in the deciding race.

Cook and Bewley had reached the Grand Final by topping the qualifying score-chart with 27 points and had earlier emerged on top when the two pairings had met in heat 10.

But, on this occasion, they had to give second best from the start in what proved to be an enthralling final race.

As the tapes rose it was Worrall that made the best getaway to lead Cook into the first turn, while Roynon tucked into the important third place ahead of Bewley to put them in a winning position.

For the first two laps Cook pressed Worrall but without much success as the Newcastle rider headed towards his third, and most important, race win of the night.

Meanwhile, as the third lap commenced, Cook cleverly tried to slow the race down in order to allow his partner Bewley to gain ground on Roynon in the hope that he could block Roynon and allow Bewley to get into a title winning position.

However, despite Cook’s best efforts this did not happen and, as they came off the final bend, Roynon was able to round Cook and take second place as they raced towards the chequered flag.

Nevertheless, such was the competitiveness of the qualifying races that had Comets reserve Matt Williamson not been excluded from his final qualifying ride in heat 13 it would have been the Comets pairing of Kenneth Hansen and Williamson that faced Cook and Bewley in the Grand Final.

At the time of the incident in heat 13 Williamson was leading his partner Hansen when he locked up in the middle of turns three and four on the second lap, almost coming to a standstill.

But, while Hansen was able to avoid him, third placed Hugh Skidmore could not and ploughed into him, causing both riders to fall heavily.

Williamson was soon up on his feet but excluded from the race as being the cause of the stoppage while Skidmore required medical attention for a suspected right wrist injury.

However, had Williamson not fallen, the ensuing 7-2 heat advantage for him and Hansen (using the 4,3,2,0 scoring format adopted for pairs competitions) would have put them level on points with Worrall and Roynon but, because they defeated them when the pairings met in heat 2, it would have been Hansen and Williamson that progressed to the final.

In the early stages of the meeting it had appeared that another all Comets pairing of Claus Vissing and Mason Campton were on course to reach the Grand Final and after three of their five qualifying races they were the leading pair on 19 points, ahead of Cook and Bewley on 18.

But, a disappointing heat 12 where they were defeated 7-2 by eventual winners Worrall and Roynon, severely dented their hopes while bringing Worrall and Roynon back into contention.

This meant that when Vissing and Campton faced Cook and Bewley in the final qualifying race, heat 15, they had to gain a heat advantage in order to reach the Grand Final.

But while Cook led Vissing from the gate it was Bewley that produced a fine ride to keep Campton at the back and hold onto the crucial third place, which booked his place in the Grand Final while condemning the Vissing-Campton pairing to third place overall.

Meanwhile, for the Comets skipper Ricky Wells it proved to be a frustrating night as despite scoring 15 points he was never in contention for the title as his partner, former Comet Simon Nielsen, struggled with mechanical issues in the early stages of the meeting.

Similarly, his Comets team-mate Rasmus Jensen did not have the best of nights as, despite scoring 11 points, he and partner Hugh Skidmore finished in last position on the night.

Indeed for Skidmore it was a disappointing meeting all round as not only did he crash out of his final ride but a potential heat win over eventual finalists Cook and Bewley in heat 3 came to nothing when he suffered throttle problems on lap three when seemingly set for a race win.