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BRITISH Speedway bosses have given a vote of thanks to supporters for their continued backing of the sport.2012 has been a difficult year for many, with clubs up and down the country seeing numerous fixtures fall victim to the worst weather in recent memorywith the continuing economic climate also causing problems, and the sport has run alongside a packed calendar of sporting and national events including the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee.And speedway has also had to come to terms with the tragic loss of Great Britian star Lee Richardson in May, with a recent memorial meeting attracting a massive crowd to Lakeside.BSPA Chairman Alex Harkess said: I would like to take this opportunity to thank all fans of British Speedway, whatever club you support, for your loyal support.It has been a tough year both on and off the track, but the fans have stayed with us and there is a lot to be said for that.Theres no doubt this wonderful sport enjoys the backing of some very, very loyal people. It is appreciated.The major events have not been immune to the weather problems, with the Premier League Riders Championship abandoned after four races last month before being re-staged in mid-October.FIM meetings staged at Berwick and Coventry, along with the Premier League Pairs at Somerset, were all affected by wet weather too, but there have also been some major highlights.There were milestone wins for Joe Haines in the British Under-21 Finalhis second in the competitionand for Scott Nicholls, who secured a record-breaking seventh British Final victory in an incident-packed meeting at Wolverhampton.Workington and Berwick celebrated Pairs and Fours triumphs respectively, and Craig Cook won the re-staging of the PLRC in an exciting event sadly marred by late crashes.SpeedwayGB Events Co-Ordinator David Hoggart said: 2012 has been a very difficult season for British Speedway with unprecedented weather and national events causing chaos with our fixtures and continuity.Speedway businesses have suffered and supporters have sufferedyour patience and loyalty has been stretched beyond belief, and I sincerely thank you for your tolerance and forbearance.The ending of the PLRC was a real shame, because wed had some great racing through the qualifying races. We had a lot of riders around the same standard, and they were all giving it everything to try to winunfortunately we had the three guys (Josh Auty, Rene Bach and Jason Doyle) all come to grief.It was so disappointing because we had a great crowd, a fantastic atmosphere and 20 brilliant heats. Because of the crashes there were so many disruptions that it was impossible to build-up to the normal exciting climax at the end of the meeting. It wasnt the way wed all have liked it to finish.SPEEDWAYGB EVENTS SERIES:BRITISH UNDER-21 FINAL: JOE HAINESPREMIER LEAGUE FOURS: BERWICKBRITISH FINAL: SCOTT NICHOLLSPREMIER LEAGUE PAIRS: WORKINGTONPREMIER LEAGUE RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP: CRAIG COOKELITE LEAGUE RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP: Swindon, Saturday October 20
NATIONAL LEAGUE MAJOR EVENT DATES:NATIONAL LEAGUE PAIRS: MILDENHALLNATIONAL LEAGUE FOURS: MILDENHALLNATIONAL LEAGUE RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP: ASHLEY BIRKS
BRITISH SPEEDWAY FIM EVENT DATES:WORLD UNDER-21 TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL: AUSTRALIAGRAND PRIX QUALIFIER: CHRIS HARRISWORLD UNDER-21 CHAMPIONSHIP Round 3: MICHAEL JEPSEN JENSEN
ELITE LEAGUE LATEST
BIRMINGHAM boss Phil Morris was satisfied with his sides performance in restricting Coventry to a six-point lead in the first leg of their KO Cup semi-final at Brandon.Morris said: The boys did fairly well considering we had a few ups and downs. Some of them had some good rides and bad rides but in general it was a decent night.We should be able to go to Perry Barr and get the win on aggregate I believe. We have got enough in the team and if the guys can ride like they did but do a little better on their home circuit then I am confident.COVENTRY manager Blayne Scroggins says the Bees are planning a positive approach when they resume their KO Cup semi-final at Birmingham on Thursday with a six-point advantage.Scroggins said: When we go to Birmingham well have the opportunity for the match race if we do go eight points down. We can whack it straight in and try to get three back, but our attitude there will be to go there and win if we can.If you go there just to defend you can get caught out, so we have to go there to win and see what happens on the night, and well be confident because the riders do like the Birmingham track.PETERBOROUGH star Ryan Sullivan could be set to give the club a KO Cup semi-final boost after a successful return from injury.Sullivan rode in Poland on Sunday, scoring 13-points for Torun, and is now likely to be back for the Panthers when they face Poole next week, although Linus Sundstrom and Tomas H Jonasson remain on the sidelines, and Richard Lawson dislocated a shoulder last weekend.POOLE promoter Matt Ford is calling for more of an all-round effort from his side in order to secure aggregate victory over Swindon in the Elite League Grand Finalhaving lost the first leg 44-51.Ford said: The team are going to need to dig deep on Wednesday and find something special to turn this around.Im not happy that we allowed ourselves to fall so many points adrift. This is a final and its about a team, not certain individuals to score all the points. We are in it and should want to win it. I want more commitment, more passion and more emotion on Wednesday.SWINDON star Simon Stead says the Robins feel capable of defending their seven point first leg advantage in the second leg of the Elite League Grand Final.Stead said: We got a win and we have to be confident going there and doing what we do best. We just have to go there on Wednesday knowing the job we have to do, and try and make it happen.Theres still 15 heats of racing left and thats a long way. Its about getting no last places, we can go there and get 3-3s all night and win the league.WOLVERHAMPTON star Ty Proctor admits injuries and inconsistency have played a part in the club being unable to challenge for a play-off place this season.Proctor said: For the team it has obviously been a very frustrating year with injuries and stuff at the wrong times. Those injuries hit us early on and we tried to bounce back but we were always on the back foot from there.If everyone was on their game on the same night we would have smashed teams but we were all inconsistent and it never came together which was very disappointing.
PREMIER LEAGUE LATEST
BERWICK are facing up to a big challenge at Glasgow on Sunday in the Premier Challenge Trophy, where a narrow defeat would be enough to book a place in the Final.Manager Ian Rae said: Its ironic that were racing to the best form of our whole season which of course was completely ruined by injury. Now were in a good place with regard to getting into the Premier Challenge Trophy Final so long as we can go to Glasgow next Sunday afternoon and make sure we dont lose by more than 10 or 11 points which to be honest at Ashfield is not the easiest ask in the World at all!EDINBURGH star Craig Cook became the first Monarchs rider in 15 years to win the Premier League Riders Championship, following in the footsteps of Peter Carr.Cook said: I won the Nationa League Riders Championship three years ago, so this is another step up the ladder for me. I would like to thank everybody at Edinburgh and also the supporters who have been fantastic to me this seasonI definitely want to be back at Armadale in 2013.IPSWICH will have a busy conclusion of the season with appearances in at least two Finals already booked, the League Cup decider against Somerset to come first.Co-promoter Chris Louis said: It's good that everything has been decided so promptly which has allowed us to arrange the dates quickly for the two legs of the final. I can confirm that we will be travelling to Somerset for the first leg on Friday 19th October with the return leg at Foxhall next Thursday (25th October). We have now progressed through to at least two finals which should give our fans some excellent racing to look forward to in the last few weeks of the season.NEWCASTLE will take an 18-point lead to Workington on Saturday for the second leg of their KO Cup semi-final, following a 54-36 win over the Comets at Brough Park last weekend.Manager George English said: Tonight was a good performance by our lads and I think that lead should see us through to the final where Ipswich are already there awaiting the challenge, so were hoping to put in another good showing in Cumbria next weekend.REDCAR are to host a fans forum at their stadium clubhouse on Thursday as they await news this weekend over whether they have reached the Premier Challenge Trophy Final.Promoter Brian Havelock said: 'This has been a tough season for the sport in general with the worst weather conditions since Speedway was launched in the UK in 1928. Times are tough and that needs spelling out to some. We also need to give a preliminary indication of how the future will be panning out for the Redcar Bears. So a meeting that the true fan would not wish to miss.RYE HOUSE boss John Sampford paid tribute to the achievement of Rockets star Anders Mellgren in finishing second in last weekends Premier League Riders Championship at Sheffield.Sampford said: Its a superb achievement for Anders. He came here expecting to have a good meeting but to make it onto the rostrum shows the clear improvement hes made through this season. It really has capped off a tremendous year for him.SCUNTHORPE are left anxiously sweating on the result of the Edinburgh v Workington fixture on Friday to determine whether they have qualified for the Premier League play-off Final.Manager Richard Hollingsworth said: What we didnt want to see tonight (Saturday) was an away win for Edinburgh, because it would have meant that the Monarchs could have overhauled us by beating Workington at home next Friday. It looks like the Monarchs gave it a real good go, but just missed out in a last-heat decider.The ideal result would have actually been a draw! That would have left both Workington and Edinburgh on four points, and left Workington needing a four-pointer (an away win of seven points or more) from Edinburgh. But, as it is, the Comets still need an away win next Friday to go through.SHEFFIELD promoter David Hoggart expressed sympathy for Tigers skipper Richard Hall, whose hopes of PLRC glory effectively ended with a cruel mechanical failure despite several spectacular rides.Hoggart said: Richard made some truly breathtaking manoeuvres during the meeting but again he had a machinery problem.Its a real shame for Richard because he was looking good and as we know, he always gets better towards the end of a meeting. He rode very well but just that slice of bad luck meant that he couldnt go any further, but he did the club proud.SOMERSET continue their chase for major silverware this Friday when they host Ipswich in the first leg of the League Cup Finalwith Ryan Fisher guesting for injured No.1 Jason Doyle.Rebels promoter Debbie Hancock said: It seems somewhat ironic that we opened our 2012 season, challenge match apart, with League Cup group matches with Ipswich and here we are in October facing each other again in the Final of the competition. But we are here now and it is everything to play for, both sides have been well matched on their previous encounters this year, so it has all the makings of being a close run affair.So what we would now like, apart from some good weather of course, is for Somerset fans to turn up in their droves at the Oaktree Arena on Friday night to support the team as the boys look build up a healthy first leg advantage to defend for when we go to Ipswichs Foxhall Stadium for next weeks second leg.WORKINGTON are reflecting on the impact of a difficult weekend for the club where bad weather and injuries once again caused problems in four different competitions.Comets team manager Tony Jackson said: It has been yet another tough weekend starting with our double-header at home on Saturday where pre-meeting rain made for difficult track conditions and took away some of our home advantage in our play-off clash with Edinburgh, and although we won the match we dropped a home point and now need to win at Edinburgh this Friday if we are to reach the league championship final. Then, the second match saw rain halt proceedings after nine heats when we looked set to overhaul the Witches in our League Cup semi-final. A lack of available dates to re-stage the match has meant that the Witches go through to the final based on the races completed over the two legs.Sunday fared no better for us with Rene Bach crashing out of the PLRC in the Final and suffering a hand injury that ruled him out of our KO Cup semi-final at his former track Newcastle later that day then, at Newcastle, a fall for Richard Lawson put him out of action with a dislocated right shoulder. Both incidents severely restricted our scoring at Brough Park and it has left us with a lot to do in our home leg at Derwent Park this weekend. The one bright spot from last weekend was the sensational return to the side of Adam Roynon following his six-week lay-off with a back injury; he came back looking like he had never been away.
FIXTURE PICTURE
TUESDAY OCTOBER 16:BANKSS OLYMPIQUE: Wolverhampton 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 2nd leg: Isle of Wight v Mildenhall 7.30
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17:ELITE LEAGUE GRAND FINAL 2nd leg: Poole v Swindon 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE: Kings Lynn v Buxton 7.30
THURSDAY OCTOBER 18:ELITE LEAGUE KO CUP S/F 2nd leg: Birmingham v Coventry 7.30PREMIER CHALLENGE TROPHY: Ipswich v Rye House 7.30
FRIDAY OCTOBER 19:PREMIER LEAGUE PLAY-OFF: Edinburgh v Workington 7.30LEAGUE CUP FINAL 1st leg: Somerset v Ipswich 7.30NATIONAL TROPHY: Mildenhall v Stoke 7.30
SATURDAY OCTOBER 20: ELITE LEAGUE RIDERS CHAMPIONSHIP: Swindon 6pmPREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP S/F 2nd leg: Workington v Newcastle 7pmPREMIER CHALLENGE TROPHY: Rye House v Sheffield 7pmNATIONAL TROPHY: Stoke v Mildenhall 7.30
SUNDAY OCTOBER 21:PREMIER CHALLENGE TROPHY: Glasgow v Berwick 4pmNATIONAL TROPHY: Buxton v Isle of Wight 3pm
MONDAY OCTOBER 22: ELITE LEAGUE KO CUP S/F 1st leg: Peterborough v Poole 7.30
TUESDAY OCTOBER 23:NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY-OFF FINAL 1st leg: Dudley v TBC 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP FINAL 2nd leg: Dudley v Mildenhall (follows previous fixture)
THURSDAY OCTOBER 25:LEAGUE CUP FINAL 2nd leg: Ipswich v Somerset 7.30
FRIDAY OCTOBER 26:PREMIER LEAGUE PLAY-OFF FINAL 1st leg: Somerset v TBC 7.30
SATURDAY OCTOBER 27:PREMIER LEAGUE: Workington v Berwick 7pm (prov)ACE OF HERTS: Rye House 7pm (prov)
SUNDAY OCTOBER 28:NATIONAL TROPHY: Stoke v Isle of Wight 3pm
