Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

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Friday, 13 July

There were two Premier League matches due to be raced tonight but, in true Friday the 13th style, the match at Edinburgh between the Monarchs and Rye House was washed out when, after a beautiful day, the rain arrived right on schedule to KO any action. This left the match at King’s Lynn between the Stars and Sheffield as the sole survivor.


Premier League: King’s Lynn 64, Sheffield 29


King’s Lynn had Benji Compton at number 7 but were otherwise on the usual lines. Sheffield were missing Ricky Ashworth, injured last Sunday in the Four Team Championships, and used Rider Replacement at number 1 instead.

On their last visit to Saddlebow Road, Sheffield had the ignominy of losing every heat 5-1 in a 75-15 whitewash. They could hardly have done any worse but again failed to shine providing only one race winner in the match although it was the one where they gave Andre Compton a Tactical Ride. Although Compton won the race for the six points and rattled up a personal total of 16 points, the Tigers still couldn’t reach the 30 point mark as Compton scored three points more than the rest of his team put together.

Second places for James Cockle in heat 2 and Andre Compton in heat 3 provided the only resistance Sheffield could muster in the opening four races which resulted in two 5-1s and two 4-2s to the Stars giving them an 18-6 lead.

Andre Compton faced Daniel Nermark for the second time in heat 5 when he took the R/R ride and had to battle again for second place as he had to do in heat 3. A King’s Lynn 4-2 in that heat was followed by a 5-1 before Andre Compton was out again this time taking a Tactical Ride. This time he won the race beating James Brundle and Paul Lee in the process for Sheffield’s sole heat advantage – a 3-6. Chris Mills won heat 8 while Ben Wilson took second for a 4-2 to the Stars which took the score to 34-17.

Joel Parsons split the Nermark/Harding pairing in heat 9 for a 4-2 before there was more respite for the Tigers in heat 10. The Stars were on a 5-1 with Topinka and Mills leading from Andre Compton when Mills fell exiting the fourth bend of the second lap. The race was stopped and Mills excluded from the rerun. Topinka again led from the start to win the restart while Compton and Birkinshaw finished behind him for a shared race. Another 5-1 to the Stars in heat 11 was followed by another second place for Andre Compton when he finished behind Daniel Nermark in heat 12. Benji Compton was third so King’s Lynn scored another 4-2 and led by 50-25 with three heats to go.

Paul Lee and Tomas Topinka took another 5-1 in heat 13 then Ben Wilson took a Tactical Substitute ride in heat 14 replacing James Birkinshaw. There was no success as a result of this move for the visitors as Harding and Brundle wrapped up another maximum race win. Daniel Nermark won heat 15 for a full maximum but Andre Compton had the satisfaction of passing Tomas Topinka for second place ruining Topinka’s maximum hopes.

Scorers: For King’s Lynn – Daniel Nermark 15 (5)(full maximum), Tomas Topinka 11+2 (5), James Brundle 10+1 (4), Paul Lee 9+2 (4), Chris Mills 8+1 (4), Trevor Harding 6 (4), Benji Compton 5+1 (4).

For Sheffield – Andre Compton 16 (6)(with 6 Point TR), Ben Wilson 4 (6), James Cockle 3 (5), Joel Parsons 3 (6), Paul Cooper 2 (4), James Birkinshaw 1+1 (3).