Monday May 18, 2015
(SPEEDWAY 1 – SUNDAY REVIEW)
EDINBURGH maintained their unbeaten start to the Premier League season with a 48-42 win at Newcastle on Sunday.The Monarchs never lost the advantage after going in front with a 5-1 in Heat 2 although they were unable to build a big lead thanks to an outstanding show from the Diamonds’ Steve Worrall, who scored 17 from six rides, dropping his only point to visiting skipper Craig Cook (13).Newcastle’s hopes of a comeback were hit by a Heat 11 disqualification for captain Ludvig Lindgren, who came to grief after a close battle with Sam Masters.Cook said: “I was happy with everyone’s contribution. My own gating wasn’t good but I had enough speed on a track I like.”Newcastle boss George English said: “I’m disappointed to lose the match but we were struggling with a weakened team. We could have maybe got away with it against a weaker team but full credit to a strong Edinburgh side.“Lindgren was very unlucky to be excluded in Heat 11 which was the defining moment of the meeting.”Rye House swept through to the quarter-finals of the Travel Plus Tours KO Cup with a 60-30 home win over Workington to overturn a 12-point first leg deficit.The Comets arrived without two of their top riders as Kenneth Hansen was racing in Poland and Kyle Howarth had picked up a knee injury on Saturday.Five of the home side scored double figures, led by Nikolaj B Jakobsen on 13+1, and that total was matched by Ricky Wells for the Comets.Rye House skipper Edward Kennett said: “It was a great all-round performance by the boys this evening. They all worked hard, which also made my job today a lot easier. It was particularly good to see Dan (Greenwood) get amongst the points as fair reward for the effort is putting in.“The most important thing is that we are through to the next round, and looking forward to that already. It’s been a great weekend.”In the City Gearboxes National League, Mildenhall got the better of Eastbourne 46-43 in a thrilling encounter at West Row.Fen Tigers skipper Danny Halsey recovered from two early falls to win his final three rides, including the crucial Heat 15 ahead of Bradley Wilson-Dean, with Jack Kingston passing Marc Owen for third place.The visitors lost Richard Andrews with a suspected broken thumb in a crash on the first bend of the first race, and he is set for X-rays.Mildenhall promoter Kevin Jolly said: “This is the entertainment level I want the fans to enjoy when they visit Mildenhall. I am not sure my heart could take this every week but what a great afternoon. “We did throw away a lot of points that maybe made Eastbourne look better than they were, but full credit to them, they are an entertaining side who certainly gave us loads to think about and they have some fine talent in their line-up. There were some harsh words during the interval but the lads responded as we wanted and we are proud of their efforts.”Eagles chairman Martin Dugard said: “It was a great effort from the team. I think the result might well have been different had Richie not been injured.“That’s speedway and we will have to wait and see if the initial diagnosis is confirmed.”
(SPEEDWAY 2 – MONDAY PREVIEW)
WOLVERHAMPTON will be without No.1 Freddie Lindgren for their Elite League clash with fellow top-four club King’s Lynn on Monday.Lindgren suffered rib damage in a crash in his European Championship qualifier on Saturday, and with Tobiasz Musielak also on the injured list the home side will bring in Danny King to guest for the Pole and operate rider-replacement for Lindgren.Promoter Chris Van Straaten said: “Unfortunately we hit a brick wall in terms of our search for a guest for Freddie. By the time we learned Freddie would be unable to ride we had unfortunately missed out on Chris Harris, who had already been booked to ride for someone else only 20 minutes earlier.“We’ve spoken to other riders, but anybody of the quality we were looking for is riding in Poland (on Sunday) and Sweden on Tuesday. There was no problem getting a rider into the country from Poland, but unfortunately every flight out of the country to Sweden on Tuesday is fully booked.”King’s Lynn boss Rob Lyon is looking to complete the double over the Monmore club after a home win last week.He said: “It was a tight meeting on Wednesday, really, but the boys pulled away mid-match and gave us a bit of a cushion. “We need to continue that form on Monday and try to pick something up at their place. It won’t be easy as they are unbeaten at home this season, but a win is achievable.”Harris, meanwhile, has been booked to guest for Poole at Belle Vue after Maciej Janowski reported he had aggravated a knee injury in the Finnish Grand Prix on Saturday.Janowski rode in Poland the following day, stating that the wide, open circuit would have negligible effect on his knee.Poole promoter Matt Ford said: “I can understand where Magic is coming from as he was very concerned about the effect a small tight track would have on his full recovery. He has been undergoing intense therapy to try and heal fully the broken bones in his knee and he has been pushing the barriers by riding when still not 100 per cent fit.“Magic explained the situation and said that the last thing he wants to do is to let his Poole fans down but he feels that if he aggravates it (on Monday) then it could put his whole season in jeopardy. “Last season he was an almost ever present for us and this year he has been sidelined almost as much as he has ridden for us and he told me that in itself hurts his pride a great deal.”Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon said: “Poole will definitely come on strong, I've no doubt about it, but what I don’t want is for the boys to get distracted by their game plan. We need to concentrate on what we’ll deliver on the day.“What we can’t afford is a slow start against these guys. It’s taken the boys a few heats to get going in our last couple of matches and that’s something which needs to be addressed.”Meanwhile Kent take on a team representing Wimbledon in the annual John Cearns Cup clash at Central Park.Dan Halsey, Matt Willamson and Darryl Ritchings lead the line-up for the Dons in a meeting which acknowledges the contribution to the sport made by the Cearns family, just one day off the 87th anniversary of the opening of Wimbledon Stadium.
(SPEEDWAY 3)
STOKE promoter Dave Tattum has confirmed the power failure which caused the abandonment of Saturday’s KO Cup clash with Cradley has been traced.The meeting had to be halted with two races still to run as the stadium electrician and his team were unable to resolve the issue on the night.Tattum said: “We can confirm that the issue we had was nothing to do with the generator and we did actually still have the red lights, exclusion lights etc but unfortunately the air fence had gone down due to the fault and therefore we couldn’t run at least the final two races. “We have been trying to make further improvements since the season has started and over the past week some electrical work had taken place, and it seems that one of the improvements has unfortunately overloaded the 3-phase electric system, and one of those phases blew resulting in a power loss. “While we managed to get some of the electric back we could not get all three as one had unfortunately burnt out and therefore we had to abandon the meeting. This is very frustrating for us as we are actively trying to turn things around for the club and it feels like we’ve taken one step forward and two steps back in this situation.“We’re trying to make things slicker on a race night for the supporters and we seemed to be doing that (on Saturday) with 13 heats completed by 8.15pm and then everything happened. I can only apologise to our customers and assure them that the problem will be rectified for our next home meeting.”(FIXTURES)
MONDAY MAY 18:ELITE LEAGUE: Belle Vue v Poole 7.30, Wolverhampton v King’s Lynn 7.30CHALLENGE: Kent v Wimbledon 6.30
WEDNESDAY MAY 20:BRITISH SEMI-FINAL: King’s Lynn 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP Q/F 1st leg: Birmingham v Eastbourne 7.30
THURSDAY MAY 21:ELITE LEAGUE: Swindon v Leicester 7.30TRAVEL PLUS TOURS KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Ipswich v Berwick 7.30; 1st leg: Sheffield v Edinburgh 7.30
FRIDAY MAY 22:PREMIER LEAGUE: Somerset v Scunthorpe 7.30TRAVEL PLUS TOURS KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Edinburgh v Sheffield 7.30LEAGUE CUP: Plymouth v Ipswich 7.15
