Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

.

.

Saturday, 23 June

There were three Premier League matches scheduled for tonight but only two of them made it to the tapes when the match at Rye House between the Rockets and Sheffield was called off due to a waterlogged track. The matches which did go ahead were at Workington where the Comets took on Birmingham and the match at Stoke where the Potters raced against King’s Lynn. In addition to these matches there was an event at Berwick where the Bandits celebrated their 40th Anniversary with an individual meeting.



Premier League: Workington 45, Birmingham 45


Both Workington and Birmingham were at full strength.

Workington returned from their match at Somerset last night, where they went down by 11 points, to face newcomers to the league, Birmingham. The Brummies had seen off the Isle of Wight on Wednesday and were stopping off at Workington on their way to Glasgow for tomorrow’s match.

This was a cracking match with never more than six points between the two sides. The Comets were unfortunate to lose Mattia Carpanese with a dislocated shoulder after his second ride in heat 6 and, with Carl Stonehewer managing only one race win, were not quite at their best. But all credit to Birmingham who pulled back from 30-24 down after heat 9 to lead 41-43 going into the last race.

After exchanging 4-2s in the first two races, three shared heats saw the teams level at 15-15 before a 1-5 from Lee Smart and Emiliano Sanchez ahead of Stonehewer shot the Brummies into a four point lead. Stunned by this Workington’s reply was to hit home a 4-2 from Nieminen and Charles Wright split by Jason Lyons and then two 5-1s from Wright and Branney in heats 8 and 9. It was Charles and John in heat 8 then James and Craig in heat 9!

Now trailing by 30-24, Birmingham hit back with a 1-5 from Jon Armstrong and Jason Lyons with Carl Stonehewer again on the receiving end. Two more shared races were followed by a 2-4 for the visitors in heat 13 when Stonehewer could only split Emiliano Sanchez and Ulrich Ostergaard to level the match again. Heat 14 saw the Brummies move ahead with a 2-4 when Jon Armstrong won again from Craig Branney with Lee Smart third but a terrific race in heat 15 gave the Comets the 4-2 they needed for a draw. James Wright won the heat but the action was behind him where Lyons and Ostergaard tried to shut out Nieminen. Nieminen got passed Ostergaard then nearly caught Lyons on the line. It was a fitting ending to a thrilling match.


Scorers: For Workington – James Wright 13 (5), Kauko Nieminen 10 (5), Carl Stonehewer 7 (4), Craig Branney 6+3 (4), Charles Wright 6 (6), John Branney 2+1 (4), Mattia Carpanese 1 (2).

For Birmingham – Jason Lyons 11+1 (5), Emiliano Sanchez 8+1 (4), Ulrich Ostergaard 8 (5), Lee Smart 7+1 (6), Jon Armstrong 6 (4), Ben Powell 4+1 (3), Aidan Collins 1+1 (3).



Premier League: Stoke 53, King’s Lynn 37


Stoke were at full strength, to start with at any rate, while King’s Lynn had Simon Lambert at number 7 in place of Grant MacDonald.

It was Stoke’s turn to take on the league champions, King’s Lynn, in the knowledge that they had been hammered in the Premier Trophy Group match by 37-52 earlier in the season. However tonight was a different kettle of fish with the Potters getting revenge for that defeat despite losing Glenn Cunningham in the opening heat leaving them to battle on a heat leader short for the whole match.

Things certainly looked ominous for the home side when Cunningham crashed on the first bend of the opening heat and went under the air fence. He had to withdraw from the meeting and King’s Lynn took advantage by taking a 2-4 in the rerun with Ben Barker’s pass on Chris Mills preventing a 1-5. The next two races were shared with Jack Hargreaves suffering an engine failure in heat 2 and Claus Vissing falling in heat 3 but the Potters took a 5-1 in heat 4 from Rusty Harrison and Jack Hargreaves to wipe out the arrears and go two points in front at 13-11.

They added another in heat 5 when Complin and Vissing beat Topinka into third then added a 4-2 from Ben Barker and Barrie Evans split by Trevor Harding to race into an eight point lead. King’s Lynn hit back with a Nermark/Lee 1-5 in heat 7 from Harrison but Stoke replied in kind with a 5-1 from Barker and Evans ahead of Simon Lambert after Chris Mills had fallen and been excluded taking the score to 31-23. James Brundle had laid his bike down to avoid a collision and hurt his hand in the process which caused him to withdraw from the meeting.

The Stars could make no inroads into the Stoke lead when the next three heats were shared so gave Tomas Topinka a Tactical Substitute ride in heat 12 from 15 metres in an effort to retrieve the situation. This was unproductive but, since Nermark won the race, no further ground was lost as the score moved on to 40-32.

Topinka was out for three on the trot in heat 13 and won it but Harrison and Hargreaves kept Harding at the back so there were still eight points between the teams with two races left. Lee Complin and Barrie Evans then clinched the match for the Potters with a 5-1 in heat 14 ahead of Paul Lee then, in an excellent heat 15, Stoke wrapped up a brilliant short-handed display with a further 5-1 as Ben Barker passed Tomas Topinka for the lead and Lee Complin passed Nermark and Topinka for second place to give the Potters a 16 point win.


Scorers: For Stoke – Lee Complin 13+1 (5), Ben Barker 13 (5), Barrie Evans 10+4 (6), Rusty Harrison 8 (4), Claus Vissing 5+2 (4), Jack Hargreaves 4+3 (5), Glenn Cunningham 0 (1).

For King’s Lynn – Daniel Nermark 11 (5), Tomas Topinka 11 (6), Trevor Harding 6 (4), Paul Lee 4+2 (4), Simon Lambert 2+1 (5), James Brundle 2 (2), Chris Mills 1 (4).



Fortieth Anniversary Meeting at Berwick


Unfortunately this meeting was eventually rained off too which was a great shame given all the hard work, effort and expense which had gone into arranging it. The morale from this year is - never organise an outdoor event in June!