Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

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Saturday, 22 September

Two Premier League matches and a Challenge match were raced tonight. At Berwick the Bandits met Mildenhall while at Rye House the Rockets took on Somerset. The other match was at Stoke where the Potters raced against Birmingham in the second leg of the Midland Shield.


Premier League: Berwick 45, Mildenhall 45


Berwick were missing Matej Kus, Michal Makovsky, Stanislaw Burza and Byron Bekker (have I missed anyone?). They tracked William Lawson for Kus, Tony Atkin for Burza and Paul Clews for Bekker while they used Rider Replacement at number 4 to cover for Makovsky. Mildenhall were without Tom P Madsen, Kyle Legault, who is out for the rest of the season with a broken wrist, and Mark Baseby. They had Josef Franc at number 1 in place of Legault and used Rider Replacement for Madsen at number 3 while Scott James filled the number 6 spot for Baseby.

Details to be added if, as and when they become available.

Scorers: For Berwick – Jacek Rempala 14 (6), Paul Clews 13+3 (7), Tony Atkin 8 (6), William Lawson 7 (5), Sam Martin 2+1 (3), Arlo Bugeja 1+1 (3).

For Mildenhall – Josef Franc 14+2 (6), Shaun Tacey 11+1 (6), Jason King 9 (5), Paul Fry 5 (4), Scott James 4 (4), Tomas Suchanek 2+1 (5).



Premier League: Rye House 56, Somerset 37 Rye House won the aggregate bonus point by 98-88


Rye House were at full strength with Stefan Ekberg moving to number 1 and Chris Neath to number 2. Somerset were missing Simon Walker so had to use Rider Replacement at number 2.

It was Somerset’s turn to face the Rye House steamroller with a nine point lead from the match at the Oak Tree Arena in search of the bonus point. Although they lost by 19 points it was the best total scored by a visiting side to Hoddesdon for some considerable time!

The opening heat was shared. Chris Neath was the winner while behind him Magnus Zetterstrom ran Stefan Ekberg wide and the Rocket fell and remounted. He fell again on the third lap too while at the back and the race was shared with Jordan Frampton taking third place. The Rye House reserves scored a 5-1 in heat 2 to go four points up then Tai Woffinden won heat 3 from Emil Kramer while Tommy Allen took third place for a 4-2 but heat 4 was shared. Adam Roynon won the race from Ritchie Hawkins but Steve Boxall finished at the back after getting out of shape on the opening bends. The score was now 15-9.

Rye House stepped up a gear and won the next two races by 5-1. In heat 5 Zetterstrom gated but Tai Woffinden on the inside and Tommy Allen on the outside passed him down the back straight to take maximum points then in heat 6 the race was awarded to Chris Neath and Stefan Ekberg when Ritchie Hawkins fell at the back. Somerset stopped the rot in heat 7. Emil Kramer took a Tactical Ride and won the race from Boxall and Bowen but Katt finished at the back limiting the Rebels’ success to a 3-6. Heat 8 was shared after Adam Roynon had shed a chain on the second bend and fallen leaving Chris Neath to win the race from Ritchie Hawkins and Danny Warwick and take the score to 31-20.

Tai Woffinden won heat 9 from Ritchie Hawkins and Tommy Allen for a 4-2 then Ekberg and Neath added a 5-1 in heat 10 from Kramer and Katt but the Rebels hit back with a 2-4 in heat 11. At last Magnus Zetterstrom won a race beating Luke Bowen in a heat rerun after Danny Warwick had fallen and Steve Boxall had been excluded as the one to be blamed for causing the race to be stopped. Adam Roynon fell in heat 12 at the back while Tai Woffinden passed both Emil Kramer and Jordan Frampton to share the points and take the score to 45-30.

Magnus Zetterstrom, now fully into his stride, led Ekberg and Boxall home in heat 13 for a 3-3 but the Rockets added another 5-1 in heat 14 with Bowen and Allen leading Frampton home. In the last heat Chris Neath led from the start but he went wide on the fourth bend and Magnus Zetterstrom was through for his third consecutive race win. Tai Woffinden was third so the race was shared.

Scorers: For Rye House – Tai Woffinden 13+1 (5), Chris Neath 13+1 (5), Luke Bowen 8+1 (4), Stefan Ekberg 7+1 (4), Tommy Allen 6+2 (4), Adam Roynan 6 (4), Steve Boxall 3+1 (4).


For Somerset – Magnus Zetterstrom 12 (5), Emil Kramer 10+1 (5)(with 6 point TR), Jordan Frampton 6+1 (6), Ritchie Hawkins 6 (4), Daniel Warwick 3+2 (5), Stephan Katt 0 (4).



Midland Shield (second leg): Stoke 47, Birmingham 43 Birmingham won the Shield on aggregate by 99-84.

Stoke were without Rusty Harrison who has stepped down for the season and used Rider Replacement at number 4. Birmingham were again missing Henning Bager (or is it Paul Hurry?) and Henrik Moller so had Chris Schramm as a guest for Moller at number 2 and used Rider Replacement at number 1.

Nineteen points is a big deficit to pull back but that’s the task which was facing Stoke in this second leg tie. They got four of them back in the opening heat though when Lee Complin and Ben Barker scored a 5-1 from Phil Morris as Chris Schramm fell and remounted. Birmingham replied with a 2-4 from the reserves race won by Ben Powell then Glenn Cunningham won heat 3 for the Potters by beating Jason Lyons and Phil Morris for a shared race. Manuel Hauzinger suffered an engine failure on the first bend of heat 4 leaving Claus Vissing and Jaimie Smith to score a 5-1 over Lee Smart and take the score to 15-9.

Jason Lyons was fast away in heat 5 and together with Chris Schramm the Brummies put a spoke in the Potters’ wheel by scoring a 1-5 with Lee Complin (R/R) suffering an engine failure on the last lap leaving Glenn Cunningham to pick up the third place point. This cut the gap to two points and the Potters’ hopes of winning on aggregate were now looking slim but they fought back with a 5-1 in heat 6 through Barker and Complin again with Ben Powell third after Manuel Hauzinger had made the gate. Heat 7 was rerun after Barrie Evans fell on the third lap. In the rerun Jason Lyons led home Claus Vissing who passed Phil Morris for second. Morris fell but was able to remount for the gift third place point giving the Brummies a 2-4. Chris Schramm gated to take the three points in heat 8 for a shared race and the score was now 26-22.

Stoke edged two points more in front in heat 9 when Glenn Cunningham beat Ben Powell while Claus Vissing finished third as Manuel Hauzinger had an engine failure after slipping from first to last. Heat 10 won by Jason Lyons was shared as was heat 11. Barrie Evans won the heat from Chris Schramm and Ben Powell while Claus Vissing, who had gone from 15 metres back after breaking the tapes, fell while chasing Schramm having passed Ben Powell. Birmingham won the trophy on aggregate when they took a 2-4 in heat 12. Jason Lyons gated to beat Glenn Cunningham with Ben Powell picking up the gift third place point after Jaimie Smith had fallen and been excluded. This took the score to 38-34.

Chris Schramm won heat 13 for the Brummies for a shared race and heat 14 produced the same result when Ben Barker led Powell and Morris home. Finally in heat 15 Jason Lyons gated to another win from Complin and Barker with Schramm at the back for a third consecutive shared race.

Scorers: For Stoke – Ben Barker 12+3 (6), Lee Complin 10+2 (6), Glenn Cunningham 9 (4), Claus Vissing 8 (5), Barrie Evans 5 (5), Jaimie Smith 3+2 (4).

For Birmingham – Jason Lyons 17 (6), Chris Schramm 10+1 (6), Ben Powell 10+1 (6), Phil Morris 4+2 (5), Lee Smart 2 (4), Manuel Hauzinger 0 (3).