(SPEEDWAY 1)
ELITE League leaders Poole secured a 45-44 away win from their trip to King’s Lynn on Monday in the first leg of the play-off semi-finals.The meeting was delayed by an hour due to heavy rain with Stars promoter Keith Chapman working to get the circuit back into condition for racing.A win for guest Craig Cook in a two-man Heat 12 after Newman and Lewis Kerr had both come to grief ultimately provided the Pirates with their winning margin.Pirates skipper Maciej Janowski, a former King’s Lynn rider, led the way for the visitors with 12+1, whilst Kyle Newman was the top reserve on the night with 9+2. Home captain Rory Schlein scored 10+3 for the Stars.Poole promoter Matt Ford said: “We saw another great performance from Magic (Janowski) this evening - he really has grown in stature over the past six weeks or so, but Vaclav (Milik) was also superb and put in a performance to be proud of, whilst you can't praise Kyle enough for doing a great job down at reserve. “But we aren't in the Final yet and it is all down to next Monday's 15 heats. Anything can happen in a speedway meeting and we know that they (King's Lynn) can ride our track just as well as we can ride theirs.”
(SPEEDWAY 2)
COVENTRY will take an eight-point lead to Swindon next week after a 49-41 win from Monday’s semi-final first leg tie at Brandon.The Bees led for much of the evening but were consistently kept in check by the Robins, who pulled back an early six-point deficit to level in Heat 8. There were three Coventry 5-1s in the second half of the meeting, including in Heat 14 from Kenneth Hansen and Jason Garrity, as the home side built an advantage. The captains top-scored for the respective teams with Chris Harris on 11+2 for the Bees whilst Troy Batchelor picked up 10+1 for the Robins.Coventry boss Gary Havelock said: “If you’d offered me that before the meeting I would probably have taken it, although it’s disappointing that every little incident seemed to go against us.“But that’s the way it goes, Swindon have been installed as favourites to win the league and on any other day we could have possibly gone away with a 12-14 point lead there. The tie is wide open.”Robins chief Alun Rossiter said: “We've held on and given ourselves a chance, it could have been better but it could have been worse.“I was disappointed in some areas of the performance but pleased with others. Eight points makes it very interesting. It's down to the riders now to show us how much they want it and we need the backing of the fans too - next Monday will be a special night.”
(SPEEDWAY 3 – TUESDAY PREVIEW)
CRADLEY and Mildenhall make a second attempt to launch their National League play-off semi-final tie at Monmore on Tuesday.Last week’s first leg was abandoned after seven heats due to rain so the two clubs try again from scratch, although Josh Bates and Jack Kingston remain amongst the absentees for the Fen Tigers along with long-term injury victim Connor Coles.Heathens boss Will Pottinger said: “They are missing a few riders through injury and unavailability so we need to take advantage of this and really push on and gain as big a lead as possible for the second leg at West Row on Sunday.“The lads have been brilliant all season and I’m sure the fans will be with us as we chase the silverware.”
(FIXTURES)
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 30:NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 1st leg: Cradley v Mildenhall 7.30
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 1:PREMIER LEAGUE PLAY-OFFS: Somerset v Scunthorpe 7.30
THURSDAY OCTOBER 2:PREMIER LEAGUE PLAY-OFFS: Ipswich v Somerset 7.30
FRIDAY OCTOBER 3:PREMIER LEAGUE PLAY-OFFS: Scunthorpe v Ipswich 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP S/F 1st leg: Edinburgh v Newcastle 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 2nd leg: Coventry v Kent 7.30
