Great Britain clinched silver medals in the Speedway Under-21 World Championship Final with the help of two West Cumbrian rising stars.

Maryport's Dan Bewley and Kyle Bickley, of Workington, were part of the five-man team which took to the shale at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester with silverware in their sights.

The side had to settle for second to the Poland team who won with 41 points ahead of GB on 33.

It was a torrid battle for the medals as Denmark and Australia fought hard right to the end with 31 and 21 points respectively.

Not surprisingly the Poles took control almost from the off, taking nine points in the opening four races.

Bewley won heat two to raise the roof at the but the huge Polish contingent of loud fans knew they were in for a glorious night.

Bickley found it hard going along with Drew Kemp but they were far from disgraced as they battled hard for places.

Apart from Robert Lambert and Bewley scoring a flurry of wins and placings, it was always going to be an uphill battle to hang onto the Poles.

Denmark only trailed GB by one point going into the last race, only for Lambert to wrap up silver in style.

It was yet more glory for Poland on the under-21 stage.

Lambert said: “It was a tough night, it was always going to be like that because the Poles are very strong.

“But I felt all the boys did brilliantly.

"I know that Dan [Bewley] and I did the majority of scoring.

"However, they really raced hard and were unlucky not to get more.

“It’s a great learning experience for us all.

"Three of our guys are 17 or 16 and they will take a great deal from this.

"But I think it’s awesome we got silver.

“The Danes and Aussies are also excellent teams with great futures so to beat them was a very decent result for us.”

Scores

Poland 41: Bartosz Smektala 13, Dominik Kubera 12, Maksym Drabik 11, Wiktor Lampart 5.

GB 33: Robert Lambert 20, Dan Bewley 11, Drew Kemp 2, Kyle Bickley 0, Leon Flint 0.

Denmark 31: Mads Hansen 11, Fredrik Jakobsen 8, Patrick Hansen 6, Jonas Jeppesen 6.

Australia 21: Jaimon Lidsey 12, Jordan Stewart 5, Kyle Thomson 2, Matthew Gilmore 1, Zach Cook 1.