Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

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Wednesday, 11 July 2007

There were two matches raced tonight. At Somerset the Rebels raced a second leg Knockout up tie against Edinburgh while at King’s Lynn the Stars took on Newcastle in a Premier League match.


Knockout Cup (second leg): Somerset 58, Edinburgh 32 Somerset won on aggregate by 99-80

Somerset were at full strength while Edinburgh had Aaron Summers making his debut at number 6.

Edinburgh held a seven point lead from the first leg but that had disappeared after the first two heats. After that it was one way traffic as the Rebels qualified with ease.

Somerset started with two 5-1s in the opening two heats with Stephan Katt and Magnus Zetterstrom winning the opening race from Theo Pijper after early race leader Derek Sneddon had fallen then Danny Warwick and Simon Walker gating to do the same in the reserves race. Already the Rebels led by a point on aggregate although a Ronnie Correy win in heat 3 from Emil Kramer prevented them from adding to that lead. Things didn’t improve for the Monarchs when Henrik Moller retired from heat 4 to collapse in some pain on the centre green. After examination the medics withdrew him from the meeting much to the fury of the young Dane who was adamant that there was nothing seriously wrong with him. Danny Warwick won the race from Matthew Wethers for a 4-2 which took the score to 17-7.

Emil Kramer won heat 5 but Pijper and Sneddon kept Frampton at the back for a shared heat then Zetterstrom won heat 6. However Stephan Katt had an engine failure so this race was shared too. In heat 7 Ronnie Correy made a good start but found Danny Warwick rounding him on the outside to win the race. Ritchie Hawkins finished third so a Rebels’ 4-2 increased their lead to 12 points, 5 on aggregate. Another Katt engine failure in heat 8 resulted in another shared race as Warwick headed home Sneddon and Wethers tasking the score to 30-18.

Somerset eased two more points ahead in heat 9 when Emil Kramer beat Matthew Wethers with Jordan Frampton third but heat 10 was shared. Magnus Zetterstrom won the race but Ronnie Correy finished second and Andrew Tully dived inside Danny Warwick for third place, a decision which was not met with universal approval! Edinburgh conceded a 5-1 in heat 11 when first Simon Walker then Ritchie Hawkins passed early race leader Theo Pijper so they played their TR card in heat 12 with Ronnie Corrie wearing the black and white helmet cover. This was not a success as Correy lifted and crashed into the fence attempting a wide drive round the outside. His exclusion left Matthew Wethers to follow Emil Kramer home in the rerun with the home side picking up another 4-2 which took the score to 46-26.

A comfortable Rebels’ 5-1 in heat 13 from Zetterstrom and Hawkins was followed by Edinburgh’s only heat advantage of the match in heat 14. Matthew Wethers rode round the field to win the race on the outside line from Simon Walker while Andrew Tully finished third ahead of Frampton for a Monarchs’ 2-4. The inevitable 5-1 from Kramer and Zetterstrom in heat 15 tied up a 26 point win for Somerset and an aggregate success by 19 points.

Scorers: For Somerset – Emil Kramer 14 (5), Magnus Zetterstrom 13+2 (5), Simon Walker 11+1 (5), Danny Warwick 9 (4), Ritchie Hawkins 6+2 (4), Stephan Katt 3 (3), Jordan Frampton 2+1 (4).

For Edinburgh – Matthew Wethers 13+1 (7), Ronnie Correy 8 (5), Theo Pijper 5 (5), Derek Sneddon 3+1 (4), Andrew Tully 2+1 (4), Aaron Summers 1+1 (4), Henrik Moller 0 (1).



Premier League: King’s Lynn 55, Newcastle 38 King’s Lynn won the aggregate bonus point by 100-83.



King’s Lynn had Simon Lambert again at number 7 while Newcastle were without Christian Henry and Ross Brady. They had Kyle Legault at number 1 in place of Henry and used Rider Replacement at number 4 in place of Ross Brady.

Having drawn the Premier League match against King’s Lynn at Brough Park, Newcastle faced a daunting task to take anything from this match. However they provided the man of the match in Josef Franc who recorded a 17 point haul to give the depleted Diamonds side respectability.

Once again the Stars had this match well and truly sewn up inside the opening six heats by which time they led 26-10. In fact Newcastle were struggling after conceding 5-1s in the opening two races thanks to Tomas Topinka and Chris Mills in heat 1 and Simon Lambert and James Brundle in heat 2 which had to be rerun after Sean Stoddart had fallen and been excluded. Josef Franc made the gate in heat 3 and held on to win, despite being under challenge from Daniel Nermark, to share the race but the Diamonds conceded another 5-1 in heat 4. Paul Lee and Simon Lambert did the damage beating Benji Compton while Jonas Raun fell at the back after completely missing the gate. The score now stood at 18-6.

Daniel Nermark won heat 5 after passing Carl Wilkinson at the beginning of the last lap. Kyle Legault took third to share the race but King’s Lynn struck again with another 5-1 in heat 5 as Chris Mills and Tomas Topinka scored their second maximum heat win. Newcastle then gave Josef Franc a Tactical Ride and he responded by winning heat 7 from Brundle and Lee for a 3-6 advantage to the Diamonds cutting the gap to 13 points. An excellent heat 8 in which Benji Compton passed Simon Lambert and Carl Wilkinson passed Chris Mills both on the opening lap resulted in a shared race when Chris Mills repassed Carl Wilkinson for the win. This took the score to 32-19.

Daniel Nermark and Trevor Harding added a 5-1 in heat 9 before the interval but after the break the home side did not manage another heat advantage as each of the last 6 races were shared! Josef Franc, Kyle Legault and Carl Wilkinson made sure the home side did not have it all their own way by winning the last five heats between them while Tomas Topinka inflicted the only defeat of the match on Franc in heat 10.


Scorers: For King’s Lynn – Daniel Nermark 12 (5), Tomas Topinka 10+3 (5), Chris Mills 8+1 (4), Paul Lee 7+2 (4), James Brundle 7+2(4), Simon Lambert 6+2 (4), Trevor Harding 5+2 (4).

For Newcastle – Josef Franc 17 (5)(with 6 point TR), Kyle Legault 8+1 (5), Carl Wilkinson 7 (5), Benji Compton 4+2 (6), Jonas Raun 1 (4), Sean Stoddart 1 (5).