(SPEEDWAY 1)
GREAT Britain launch their World Cup campaign at King’s Lynn on Monday - and are looking to repeat their spectacular opening victory of 2014.Alun Rossiter’s side got the better of fierce rivals Australia at the Adrian Flux Arena last July, and they meet again in Event 2 of this year’s competition along with the USA and Latvia.Tai Woffinden, Chris Harris, Danny King and Robert Lambert compete for GB who need to win on the night to book an automatic place in Saturday’s Final at Vojens.Rossiter said: “Australia were firm favourites last year, but after our performance against them in 2014 we shouldn’t be worrying about anybody. We should just worry about ourselves.“It’s not all about Australia. You never know, Latvia might just pull something out of the bag on a track like King’s Lynn.“The plan is to make it two years out of two and go straight through. We’ve got to be looking at that for sure.”
(SPEEDWAY 2)
GLASGOW star Kozza Smith suffered a suspected broken thigh and hip in a Heat 9 pile-up at Ashfield on Sunday.Smith locked together with Scunthorpe’s Ben Wilson going into the third bend, sending both of them tumbling to the ground, and although Scorpions guest Richard Hall laid his machine down, it followed on and struck Smith as he lay on the track.Team-mate Richard Lawson said: “We all feel for Kozza and hopefully he’s back with us soon. It’s sad to see because he was picking things up and going really well.“It’s come at a bad time for him, but hopefully we can all bounce back from it.”
(SPEEDWAY 3)
PETERBOROUGH have been hit by another injury blow - as captain Ulrich Ostergaard has suffered a suspected broken toe and ankle ligament damage.The 34 year-old crashed in a Danish Championship quarter-final and now appears to face a race to be fit for the club’s return to action on Friday when they entertain Ipswich in a Premier League derby clash at the East of England Showground.Promoter Ged Rathbone said: “Ulrich was hit by another rider and that just about sums up our luck with injuries this season.“He went to hospital after the crash and underwent x-rays which suggested he has suffered ligament and tissue damage to his ankle. We will be in regular contact with him in the current days, but both Ulrich and ourselves are optimistic he will be able to ride on Friday.”
(SPEEDWAY 4 - SUNDAY REVIEW)
SOMERSET extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to six points with a 48-42 win at Newcastle on Sunday.The home side narrowed the gap to two points with a 5-1 in Heat 14, but the Rebels responded in the last race with maximum points from Josh Grajczonek and former Diamond Richie Worrall, who got the better of brother Steve and Lewis Kerr.Rebels boss Garry May said: “We came to Newcastle looking to get points from this match and the boys really came up trumps!“Every one of them rode their socks off tonight and even when Newcastle closed us down going into the final heat I just knew that Josh and Richie would do the business for us and get those three league points.”Newcastle promoter Alan Hedley said: “It was a fair result, Somerset were the stronger side and are a team on form, although it was disappointing that we didn’t perform to the best of our ability.“We nearly saved the meeting in heat 15 but every time we got the scores close they pulled away, they were sharper out of the gate and had more confidence.”Meanwhile Glasgow continued to make progress in the top six as they overcame Scunthorpe 57-33 at Ashfield.Richard Lawson stormed to an 18-point maximum for the Tigers, whose day was marred by injury to Kozza Smith (see separate story) whilst ex-Glasgow man Theo Pijper collected 11+2 for the Scorpions, for whom Carl Wilkinson took no further part after a Heat 7 mechanical failure.Lawson said: “Everything is falling into place after the troubles I’ve had with the bike. It’s working brilliantly - long may it continue.”Scunthorpe boss Dave Peet said: “It wasn’t ideal to come up to Glasgow, one of the strongest teams in the league, with just four of our own riders, but it’s just one of those things, due to the injuries we’ve suffered.“Carl blew his bike to bits while on a tactical ride. He had just one bike of his own for this meeting, since the other one is away being fixed after a previous blow up, and we didn’t really have anyone who could lend him a bike, plus Carl didn’t want to be responsible for bending someone else’s machine.”Eastbourne have moved to the top of a hugely competitive City Gearboxes National League - where the top five clubs are separated by just one point!The Eagles are one of four teams on 13 points after their 54-39 win over Rye House at Arlington, with Marc Owen top-scoring on 10+1, and are now targeting success on the road.Manager Glenn Martin said: “We've met the top teams away and come very close to victory but we now need to convert that promise to victories. It was a great all-round team performance against Rye House here and a decisive win, although they did come back at us in the closing stages.“What was really pleasing was see Kelsey Dugard back scoring points again. He looked really confident and this is a huge boost to his confidence.”Meanwhile Stoke gained their first win of the league campaign with a comfortable 50-27 victory over Mildenhall at Loomer Road.The match was curtailed after 13 races due to visibility issues caused by dust, with Potters skipper Jon Armstrong (10+1) heading up a solid all-round team performance.Armstrong said: “It was a really good result for us, and I feel sorry for the way things have gone for (promoter) Dave (Tattum) with the dust problems, and the supporters who have had loss after loss, so it was a good win and it gets some points on the board because we really want to do well for them. “Lee (Payne) is on fire at the moment and the reserves Ryan (MacDonald) and Paul (Burnett) chipped in with points also.”A successful third round of the British Youth Championship at Leicester resulted in wins for Jack Parkinson (500cc), Kyle Bickey (250cc), Jolyon West (150cc) and Joe Thompson (125cc).
(SPEEDWAY 5 - MONDAY PREVIEW)
STOKE skipper Jon Armstrong says the Potters’ weekend home win means they travel to Kent on Monday in good heart.The Loomer Road side picked up their first City Gearboxes National League win of the season against Mildenhall on Sunday and now visit Central Park with the chance of moving off the foot of the table.Armstrong said: “We go well at Kent and I’m looking forward to it as I normally go well down there. “We have a good record around Kent and we will be looking to hit them early on and get a result out of the meeting.”
(FIXTURES)
MONDAY JUNE 8:WORLD CUP EVENT 2: King’s Lynn 7.30CITY GEARBOXES NATIONAL LEAGUE: Kent v Stoke 6.30
WEDNESDAY JUNE 10:CITY GEARBOXES NATIONAL LEAGUE: Cradley v Kent 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP Q/F 1st leg: King’s Lynn v Buxton 7.30
THURSDAY JUNE 11:PREMIER LEAGUE: Ipswich v Newcastle 7.30, Redcar v Berwick 7.30
FRIDAY JUNE 12:PREMIER LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Glasgow 7.30, Peterborough v Ipswich 7.30, Plymouth v Berwick 7.15, Scunthorpe v Workington 7.30
