(SPEEDWAY 1 - FRIDAY REVIEW)
SWINDON are now firm favourites to book an Elite League play-off place after an emphatic 55-36 win at Coventry on Friday.Darcy Ward scored a four-ride paid maximum for the Robins with skipper Troy Batchelor carding 12+2 as the Robins provided eleven of the fifteen race wins at Brandon.The victory moves Swindon five points clear of fifth-placed Belle Vue, and still with two matches in hand on the Aces.Robins boss Alun Rossiter said: “I’m very happy with that, it was a fantastic performance and I’d been a little worried beforehand about coming here with no reserves.“But they lost their best reserve too, I think they rely on Jason (Garrity) quite a bit, and once I knew he was out I could smell some blood to be honest. We’ve been mustard lately, and full credit to our top five. We took our opportunities, and Aaron (Summers) has been fantastic with ten points two nights running.”Coventry manager Gary Havelock said: “This meeting came at completely the wrong time for us. We came up against a really good team at the wrong time.“Danny (King) felt good after he had physio earlier, but clearly he wasn’t his normal self at all, and Jason is a huge concern - he’s one of the real heartbeats of this team even though he’s at reserve, and it isn’t the same without him.”Elsewhere, Poole are now five points clear at the top after a 50-40 win at Lakeside in the final match of the season at Purfleet.Reserve Kyle Newman piled up a bumper haul of 15+2 from seven rides as the Pirates collected all four points from the meeting despite the withdrawal of skipper Maciej Janowski.,The Pole was forced out of the meeting with shoulder and chest injuries after a Heat 13 crash with Andreas Jonsson, and Janowski is now a doubt for the Pirates’ vital home match against Swindon on Monday.In the Premier League, leaders Edinburgh took another step towards securing top spot with a 55-35 win over Somerset at Armadale.Sam Masters returned for the Monarchs scoring 8+2, and the result also gave the home side the Premier Shield as the two league matches between the teams counted for that trophy too.Edinburgh boss Alex Harkess said: “I felt the team were really up for this match tonight, they knew it was important, and doing well in the early heats really put us in charge.”Somerset were hit by an injury concern for Josh Grajczonek, who missed his last ride after hurting his back.Boss Garry May said: “We withdrew him from the meeting as a precaution as much as anything else as there was no point risking him further by letting him take his remaining ride in heat 13 with the match already lost and two more meetings at Berwick and Glasgow for us to get through this weekend.“if you give a team like Edinburgh that sort of advantage early on, then you are going to find what was already a difficult task doubly difficult to achieve.”Peterborough are back into third place thanks to a 51-41 win over Newcastle at the Showground, with Ben Barker scoring a 12-point maximum on his Panthers debut.Michael Palm Toft and Emil Grondal were both also in double figures for the home side, whilst Diamonds guest Matej Kus picked up 15.Panthers boss Carl Johnson said: “I’m really impressed with the way the boys performed and it was terrific to see Ben come in and start his Panthers career so well.“The guy is pure quality and a racer who never gives less than 110 per-cent. You only had to see the reaction from the fans to realise he will be very popular. He is a great lad to have on your side on the track and he is also a top man in the pits.”Newcastle manager George English said: “We told the referee before the start of Heat 2 that the lights at the tapes weren’t working properly and that they needed to be tested.”“The green light didn’t come on so it was very annoying that the referee had ignored the problem which then gifted the Panthers a 5-1.“It was unlucky in Heat 10 when we were robbed of a 5-1, the referee managed to spot lots of things wrong on the night but failed to see Grondal make a flying start in that heat.”Elsewhere, bottom club Scunthorpe got the better of Berwick 47-42 with the Bandits taking the meeting to a last-heat decider and securing a league point.Reserve Alex Davies led the way for the Scorpions on 16 points whilst guest Ryan Fisher (17) and Thomas Jorgensen (14+1) were in fine form for the Bandits.Berwick boss John Anderson said: “This is more like the standard we expect from Berwick and know that they have the potential to produce such results. “I’m sure the travelling fans will have got a lot more to cheer about tonight as this was good speedway well worth watching.”In the City Gearboxes National League, Cradley’s title hopes took a blow as they were limited to one point from a 44-46 defeat at King’s Lynn.The Heathens trailed by ten points with two heats to go but forced a dramatic finale with two successive 5-1s - before a shared race in Heat 15 secured victory for the Young Stars.Cradley boss Will Pottinger said: “I suppose a point is better than nothing, but it's disappointing because we dropped a lot of points from scoring positions.“It was always going to be tough given the riders we had missing, but it's very frustrating because we put ourselves in the positions to win but didn't take advantage.”In the second half of a double-header, King’s Lynn progressed to the KO Cup semi-finals with a 53-37 win over Buxton for a four-point aggregate victory.(SPEEDWAY 2 - SATURDAY PREVIEW)
LEICESTER boss Norrie Allan has described his team’s final two home matches of the season as ‘must win’ if they are to avoid the Elite League wooden spoon.The Lions welcome back Sam Masters and Simon Lambert after spells on the sidelines for their basement battle with Wolverhampton, who are looking to improve on a poor away record.Allan said: “The Wolves match is a must win for us and so too is our final league match at home against Poole on Bank Holiday Monday.“We desperately need to get back to form after losing both of our previous two home meetings and to not let slip another three points. Wolverhampton will want to win just as badly which will ease the pressure on them and they are not just looking over their shoulder at us but setting their sights on catching Lakeside above them.”Wolves skipper Peter Karlsson said: “It was a good win for us on Monday, and although we know it's going to be a different story at their place we are hoping to push them all the way. “If we can go there and make starts we'll be in the mix for sure. We are going to go there with high hopes and try our best to come away with a win.”In the Premier League, Somerset continue their Northern tour with a trip to Berwick, where an away win would move the Rebels back into the top three.The Rebels do have a concern over Josh Grajczonek who crashed at Edinburgh on Friday and missed his final ride.Manager Garry May said: “At this stage of things it is too early to say whether Josh will be ok to ride at Berwick.“We will see how he is in the morning and take it from there - if he isn’t fit enough to ride then we will have to use rider replacement in his place as this is the only facility available to us with all of the other six riders in the team eligible to take his rides if it does come to that.”Berwick boss John Anderson said: “We battered Sheffield last week with a good few fighting performances before we ran out of riders. Kevin Doolan should be back, and if the quality of racing and entertainment value is as good as last Saturday, it should be a cracker.”Meanwhile Rye House face Ipswich at Hoddesdon with the Rockets again without Nikolaj B Jakobsen who is on World Under-21 duty - whilst the Witches bring in Tero Aarnio to guest for Stefan Nielsen.Rye House boss John Sampford said: “We are re-building momentum after Sunday’s win against Workington, and we’re determined to maintain it on Saturday. “It would have been easy for our heads to have fallen on Sunday when we realised that Nikolaj was unfit to ride, but we have been in that situation so many times this year already that it is just water off a duck’s back now.”In the City Gearboxes National League, Stoke can move into the top four with a win over bottom club Rye House at Loomer Road - although boss Malcolm Vasey is taking nothing for granted.Vasey said: “We are under no illusion that we have a very tough meeting on our hands with Rye House as we are two evenly matched teams and we will need to be at our very best to get the right result against them. “They have three ex-Stoke riders who on their day are capable of scoring well, but I feel we can just edge the meeting and gain all three points and continue our quest for a top four position.”
(SPEEDWAY 3)
EASTBOURNE have put the start-time for their home clash with Birmingham on Sunday back by four hours.The National League match will now get underway at 7.30 due to an adverse weather forecast for Arlington earlier in the day.The club say the track will be packed down hard to allow as much water as possible to run-off, thus allowing track preparation when dry to bring the circuit up to racing standard.(FIXTURES)
SATURDAY AUGUST 22:ELITE LEAGUE: Leicester v Wolverhampton 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Berwick v Somerset 7pm, Plymouth v Scunthorpe 7.15, Rye House v Ipswich 7pmCITY GEARBOXES NATIONAL LEAGUE: Stoke v Rye House 7pm
SUNDAY AUGUST 23:PREMIER LEAGUE: Glasgow v Somerset 3pm, Newcastle v Redcar 6.30CITY GEARBOXES NATIONAL LEAGUE: Buxton v Rye House 3pm, Coventry v Cradley 4pm, Eastbourne v Birmingham 7.30 NATIONAL TROPHY: Mildenhall v Kent 3.30
MONDAY AUGUST 24:ELITE LEAGUE: Belle Vue v Wolverhampton 7.30, King’s Lynn v Leicester 7.30CHALLENGE: Kent v Arena-Essex 6.30
