Around the Premier League Tracks 2008
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Friday, 14 March
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Three matches were raced tonight. At Edinburgh the Monarchs faced Glasgow in the first leg of the Spring Cup. The other two matches involving Premier League teams were staged on Elite League tracks. The first at Coventry was the return leg of the Challenge Match against Sheffield raced at Owlerton last night while the other match was at Ipswich where the Witches tried again to complete the second leg of the East Anglian Cup against King’s Lynn.

Spring Cup (first leg): Edinburgh 51, Glasgow 38

Edinburgh introduced new boys Ryan Fisher and Thomas Jonasson while William Lawson and Aaron Summers were also welcomed back. Glasgow were missing broken collar bone victim, Ross Brady, and used Andreas Bergstrom as a guest. They introduced new faces Mitchell Davey and Josh Grajczonek to the side.

Edinburgh became the fifth track to kick-start their season and it looked as though the weather gods were going to be kind. But after a sunny day in the area a heavy shower shortly before the start left the track wet and slippery.

The Monarchs started in style with a 5-1 in the opening heat. Ryan Fisher saw off Shane Parker on the first bend and Derek Sneddon joined him up front for a home maximum. They looked like scoring another 5-1 in the reserves race but Andrew Tully fell on the second lap while his partner, Aaron Summers, ran into him. In the rerun Lee Dicken got the jump from the gate then Aaron Summers fell on the second lap while chasing him. Although he remounted the Tigers had headed off for a 1-5 to level the scores. All eyes were on Thomas Jonasson in heat 3 which had be rerun after Mitchell Davey had crashed into the second bend fence but it was William Lawson who impressed with a tapes to flag win. Jonasson rounded Trent Leverington on the first two bends and Edinburgh again looked like scoring a 5-1 but again it was not to be. Jonasson’s bike began to slow and Leverington passed him leaving Monarchs’ new boy to limp home for third place and a 4-2. It was all square again after heat 4. Robert Ksiezak flew from the gate and was joined up front by Lee Dicken. Although Matthew Wethers passed Dicken he couldn’t catch Ksiezak and the scores were tied at 12-12.

Thomas Jonasson was excluded under the two minute time allowance in heat 5 as was his replacement, Andrew Tully, so the Monarchs went with one rider. However William Lawson streaked from the gate to win the race in the fastest time of the night leaving Shane Parker and Andreas Bergstrom to follow him home. Edinburgh were back in front after heat 6 with another 5-1 from the Fisher/Sneddon pairing. This time Ksiezak did not make a good start and the Monarchs’ pairing raced to a comfortable maximum and four point lead. They added another 5-1 in heat 7 when Andrew Tully made a fine start and was followed home by Matthew Wethers with Leverington in third. Heat 8 won by Derek Sneddon from Lee Dicken was shared so the score was now 28-20.

Heat 9 had to be rerun after Thomas Jonasson had spun and fallen on the outside of the first bend but again William Lawson stormed off to win the race. Ryan Fisher, from gate 4, was eased out of contention on the first bend of heat 10 but gave chase to leaders Derek Sneddon and Trent Leverington. On the third bend he went under Leverington but the two came together and fell. Leverington was none too pleased and was frustrated again in the rerun. Having battled his way passed Sneddon the race was stopped again when Mitchell Davey crashed into the fourth bend fence causing another rerun. This time Sneddon made no mistake and pulled away from Leverington for a 3-2 to complete a paid maximum. Shane Parker finally showed his true form by winning heat 11 with a good bit to spare for a 3-3 then in heat 12 Edinburgh had only one finisher for the fifth time in the match after Thomas Jonasson, making a nightmare debut, fell on the first bend as Leverington, making the faster start, clamped him on the line. In the rerun Leverington, under pressure from Summers, fell on the fourth bend and remounted for third place as Aaron Summers won from an improving Josh Grajczonek for another shared race which took the score to 40-31.

Then came the race of the night! Robert Ksiezak and Shane Parker rocketed from the gate but Ryan Fisher cut back off the second bend to slingshot past both Tigers riding in tandem down the back straight to lead into the bend. Parker was having none of it though and a fantastic race ensued with Parker and Fisher exchanging the lead several times. Parker prevailed so Glasgow took a 2-4 to cut the Edinburgh lead to seven points. However William Lawson still had two more rides to come and he won them both with ease in fast times to complete his maximum. In heat 14 Andrew Tully took third behind Lee Dicken for a 4-2 and in heat 15 Ryan Fisher followed him home ahead of Shane Parker for a 5-1 giving the Monarchs a 13 point lead for the second leg.

Scorers: For Edinburgh – William Lawson 15 (5) (maximum), Derek Sneddon 10+2 (4) (paid maximum), Ryan Fisher 10+1 (5), Andrew Tully 6 (5), Matthew Wethers 5+2 (4), Aaron Summers 4 (4), Thomas Jonasson 1 (4).

For Glasgow – Lee Dicken 8 (4), Shane Parker 8 (5), Robert Ksiezak 7+1 (5), Trent Leverington 6+1 (4), Josh Grajczonek 6+1 (4), Andreas Bergstrom 3+2 (4), Mitchell Davey 0.



Challenge Match (second leg) (second leg): Coventry 61, Sheffield 31 Coventry won on aggregate by 117-68.


Coventry were at full strength while Sheffield bolstered their side with the addition of Rye House’s Tai Woffinden and Scunthorpe’s Richard Hall. Reserves Lee Smethills and Sam Martin stood down to accommodate them.

After losing at home by 37-56, expectations of success were not particularly high for Sheffield and they eventually went down on aggregate by 49 points.

Sheffield’s star performer on the night was guest, Tai Woffinden, who deprived Chris Harris and Billy Janniro of their maximums by winning heat 15. Woffinden also won heat 10 after passing Rory Schlein and Oliver Allen on the second bend. Joel Parsons also scored well for Sheffield winning the reserves race by beating Stanislaw Burza and Andreas Messing. He was also involved in a close race with Chris Harris in heat 9 but otherwise it was one-way traffic for the home side.

Scorers: For Coventry – Chris Harris 13+1 (5), Simon Stead 12 (4) (maximum), Billy Janniro 11+3 (5), Rory Schlein 8+1 (4), Oliver Allen 7+1 (4), Andreas Messing 5+2 (4), Stanislaw Burza 5+1 (4).

For Sheffield – Tai Woffinden 9+1, Joel Parsons 8, Andre Compton 7, Richard Hall 3+1, Ben Wilson 3+1, Ricky Ashworth 1, Paul Cooper 0.


East Anglian Cup (second leg): Ipswich 61, King’s Lynn 31 Ipswich won the cup on aggregate by 119-65.


Ipswich fielded the same team as last night but King’s Lynn recruited Troy Batchelor to guest for them at number 1. Simon Lambert was nominated as King’s Lynn’s number 8.

Having lost at home by 24 points last night there seemed little prospect of King’s Lynn pushing the Witches in the return even with Troy Batchelor in the team.

As expected Ipswich carried just too much firepower for the Stars. The Premier League side shared heats 2 and 7 at the expense of Witches’ reserve Chris Schramm. They also took a 4-4 from heat 10 when Tomas Topinka took a TR and finished second to Piotr Swiderski ahead of Robert Miskowiak. The Stars had one moment of glory with a 1-5 in heat 11 when Troy Batchelor and Shaun Tacey headed home Jarek Hampel, who had had to go from 15 metres back after breaking the tapes, and Chris Schramm. Although Hampel caught up with Tacey he couldn’t pass him as the two King’s Lynn riders team rode home for the maximum.

Otherwise Ipswich ran up six 5-1s and five 4-2s to win on aggregate by 54 points.

Scorers: For Ipswich – Chris Louis 15 (5) (maximum), Piotr Swiderski 13+2 (5) (paid maximum), Jarek Hampel 10 (4), Steve Johnston 8+2 (4), Robert Miskowiak 7+1 (4), Tobias Kroner 7+1 (4), Chris Schramm 1 (4).

For King’s Lynn – Tomas Topinka 10 (5) (including a 4 point TR), Kevin Doolan 7 (5), Shaun Tacey 5+1 (4), Rusty Harrison 3+1 (4), Troy Batchelor 3 (4), John Oliver 2 (3), Kozza Smith 1+1 (3), Simon Lambert (No 8) 0.