Going into tonight’s final round of the Inter Club League, Keith Hooks (North Down CC) was the only rider who still had a mathematical chance of catching Jamie Clarke (North Down CC) in the overall ICL standings (where each rider’s best 5 results from the six rounds counted). But that chance was snuffed out when Jamie got the better of Keith in the final sprint. Jamie took a clear win overall, from Ian Carson (Ards CC) in second with Keith ending up third overall.

Ards CC secretary Stephen Beattie presents the 2025 ICL trophy to Jamie Clarke. (The sign behind hints at what direction the trophy will hopefully be heading again in 2026!)
The race itself had lots of other interesting subplots. The handicappers allowed 4 minutes between the front group and a strong looking scratch bunch of 11 riders. After the first lap of five, the front group were working well and scratch had only reduced the gap by 25 seconds.
On the second lap, Ryan and Paul Kane (both Northern CC) decided the front group weren’t working well enough, and were 15 seconds clear by the end of the lap. A lap later the gap was 25 seconds, and with one lap to go it had stretched to 55 seconds.
Scratch still weren’t making much inroads, so on the third lap James Alexander (McConvey Cycles) broke clear to try and bridge over to the front alone. He’d gained 30 seconds by the end of the lap and was a tantalising 1:20 off the main front group with a lap to go.
On the final lap, Ryan dropped his dad to take a solo victory, building on his promising 4th place last week. Paul hung on to take second place, with Aaron Fegan (North Down CC) leading in the remains of the front group. James had managed to catch this group, and fought his way through to take second in the sprint (fourth overall). Nearly 3 minutes after Ryan finished, Jamie won the sprint from the remnants of the scratch group, and did enough to with the overall league.
Here’s the full result for tonight’s race
Name | Club | Time | ICL Pts | |
1 | Ryan Kane | Northern CC | ||
2 | Paul Kane | Northern CC | @30s | |
3 | Aaron Fegan | North Down CC | @57s | 30 |
4 | James Alexander | McConvey Cycles | st | |
5 | James McMaster | Unattached | st | |
6 | Ben Healey | Ards CC | st | 29 |
7 | Dean Bradley | Ards CC | st | 28 |
8 | Tom Henry | North Down CC | st | 27 |
9 | Adrian Moore | North Down CC | st | 26 |
10 | Will Greig | North Down CC | st | 25 |
11 | Jemma Speers | North Down CC | st | 24 |
12 | Owen Bryne | North Down CC | st | 23 |
13 | Johnny Irvine | Crossgar CC | st | |
14 | Jamie Clarke | North Down CC | @2:48 | 22 |
15 | Keith Hooks | North Down CC | @2:49 | 21 |
16 | Andrew Hedley | AHC Racing | st | |
17 | Jonathan Taylor | North Down CC | st | 20 |
18 | Graeme Cross | Northern CC | st | |
19 | William Larmour | Ards CC | st | 19 |
20 | Ian Carson | Ards CC | st | 18 |
21 | Andy Allen | Ards CC | @3:36 | 17 |
22 | Mark Hodgins | North Down CC | @13:20 | 16 |
Kevin Briggs | Ards CC | DNF | 10 | |
Alex Bell | North Down CC | DNF | 10 | |
Stephen Green | North Down CC | DNF | 10 | |
Simon Ridings | Ards CC | DNF | 10 | |
Paul Kirk | North Down CC | DNF | 10 |
And here’s the final standings in the Inter Club League 2025
Name | Club | 29-Apr | 28-May | 02-Jul | 29-Jul | 05-Aug | 13-Aug | Total | |
1 | Jamie Clarke | North Down CC | 25 | 30 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 22 | 137 |
2 | Ian Carson | Ards CC | 28 | 26 | 27 | 25 | 25 | 18 | 131 |
3 | Keith Hooks | North Down CC | 27 | 21 | 30 | 26 | 26 | 21 | 130 |
4 | Ben Healey | Ards CC | 23 | 25 | 20 | 29 | 29 | 126 | |
5= | Aaron Fegan | North Down CC | 21 | 23 | 16 | 30 | 30 | 120 | |
5= | William Larmour | Ards CC | 24 | 28 | 26 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 120 |
7 | Alex Bell | North Down CC | 22 | 29 | 24 | 28 | 10 | 10 | 113 |
8 | Glen Curry | North Down CC | 29 | 25 | 29 | 18 | 101 | ||
9 | Jonathan Taylor | North Down CC | 19 | 27 | 21 | 10 | 20 | 97 | |
10 | Dean Bradley | Ards CC | 16 | 21 | 10 | 21 | 28 | 96 | |
11 | Adrian Moore | North Down CC | 17 | 19 | 10 | 23 | 26 | 95 | |
12 | Owen Byrne | North Down CC | 13 | 22 | 17 | 15 | 16 | 23 | 93 |
13 | Kevin Briggs | Ards CC | 18 | 22 | 14 | 17 | 10 | 81 | |
14 | Mark Hodgins | North Down CC | 17 | 16 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 77 | |
15 | Will Greig | North Down CC | 23 | 28 | 25 | 76 | |||
16 | Kirk Sloan | North Down CC | 20 | 24 | 29 | 73 | |||
17 | Gareth Mc Bride | North Down CC | 26 | 23 | 19 | 68 | |||
18 | Jemma Speers | North Down CC | 20 | 19 | 24 | 63 | |||
19 | Andrew Allen | Ards CC | 19 | 22 | 17 | 58 | |||
20 | Stephen Green | North Down CC | 10 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 10 | 56 | |
21 | Richard Mc Keown | North Down CC | 12 | 16 | 24 | 52 | |||
22 | Simon Ridings | Ards CC | 24 | 10 | 10 | 44 | |||
23 | Richard Hanna | Ards CC | 10 | 15 | 14 | 39 | |||
24 | Paul Kirk | North Down CC | 10 | 18 | 10 | 38 | |||
25= | Tom Henry | North Down CC | 11 | 27 | 38 | ||||
25= | Robert McGarry | North Down CC | 14 | 20 | 34 | ||||
27 | Roman Sarvas | Ards CC | 15 | 18 | 33 | ||||
28= | Barry Mitchell | Ards CC | 30 | 30 | |||||
28= | Kieran McKenna | Ards CC | 30 | 30 | |||||
30 | Gillian Orr | Ards CC | 10 | 15 | 25 | ||||
31= | Simon Reardon | North Down CC | 10 | 13 | 23 | ||||
31= | William Orr | Ards CC | 11 | 12 | 23 | ||||
33 | Yeston Smith | North Down CC | 12 | 10 | 22 | ||||
34 | Colin Wilson | Ards CC | 10 | 11 | 21 | ||||
35 | Michael Mulvenna | North Down CC | 18 | 18 | |||||
36 | Daniel McManus | Ards CC | 17 | 17 | |||||
37 | Michael Rowan | Ards CC | 14 | 14 | |||||
38= | Gordon Mc Ewen | Ards CC | 10 | 10 | |||||
38= | Jack Logan | North Down CC | 10 | 10 |
Thanks to our friends in North Down CC for putting on a great race tonight. And as always, if you spot any mistakes or omissions in the results let us know.
Ards CC still have 5 club races left this year plus the Tour of Strangford sportive. Don’t miss out – click here for more details!