A MUSSELBURGH 11-year-old has beaten competitors two years his senior to prove himself the best under-13 cycle speedway rider in Scotland.

Calum Cairney claimed the under-13 Edinburgh Falcons club championship at Redbraes Park in the Capital on Sunday.

With Edinburgh being the only competitive Scottish track in the non-motorised version of the sport, the club championship is effectively also an unofficial Scottish title for the talented Campie Primary School pupil.

Cairney's under-13 title comes just a year after he became the club's under-10 champion, pointing towards a promising career both in cycle speedway and potentially in the more well-known motorcycle version of the sport.

Dad Colin, himself a keen cycle speedway racer in the 1970s and 80s and now a regular marshal at cycle speedway events, was in no doubt about his son's potential.

He told Courier Sport: "Calum could be racing cycle speedway for the next 50 years if he so desires.

"There is no reason why he cannot defend his under-13 championship for the next two years if he keeps up his current rate of progress; in fact, he could also be competitive in the under-16 category next year." Despite his young age, the young Riverside Gardens resident has already shown a natural ability for cycle speedway, which sees four riders race over four laps on an oval-shaped dirt track.

Though a schools' league featuring schools from Edinburgh and Fife has recently started, Edinburgh is the only Scottish club racing competitively, so the club takes part in the British Northern Cycle Speedway League, meaning that Cairney has been pitting his wits against riders from the likes of Sheffield, Stockport, Bury, Hull and Heckmondwike.

The matches generally involve racing at A and B level, as well as junior races, and Cairney has regularly been taking on much older riders in the B races but has still been holding his own.

This season he has even had the chance to take part in an A race despite his tender years, marking the occasion at Heckmondwike - near Leeds - by picking up his first ever A team race win.

Among his other achievements this season have been going unbeaten in a junior challenge match in Sheffield.

Claiming the club championship at Redbraes on Sunday has been the perfect conclusion to a stellar season for the young speedster, and he is set to receive his trophy at the club awards night on November 9.

Before that, on Sunday he will enjoy the final action of the season at Redbraes, the Club Open Championship, followed by a challenge match against a team of riders from Newcastle.

It will then be a case of trying to keep the fitness up with indoor training through the winter months.

But cycle speedway could just be the springboard into conventional speedway for talented Cairney, a fan of the Edinburgh Monarchs team based in Armadale in West Lothian.

If so, however, he might face some opposition from within the family.

"Calum has hinted that he might want to be a speedway rider when he is older for the Edinburgh Monarchs," said Colin.

"But his mother says 'over my dead body' as it's too dangerous!"