Monday 7 April 2008

Around the Premier League Tracks 2008
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Monday, 7 April
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Tonight’s match was at Reading where the Racers rode against Newport in a Premier Trophy match.


Premier Trophy: Reading 59, Newport 33.


Reading were back at full strength again with the return to the side of Danny Warwick. Newport, however, were a rider short missing Tony Atkin who broke an ankle in the match against the Isle of Wight yesterday. They used Rider Replacement at number 4 in his absence.

Reading’s home defeat last week at the hands of Somerset all but ended their chances of heading their Premier Trophy section. Newport having lost at home to both Somerset and Reading were already out of the reckoning.

Newport got off to a decent start when Paul Clews won the opening heat from Chris Mills and Mark Lemon. With Craig Watson last, Clews’ win was only good enough to share the points. Danny Warwick celebrated his return to the side by winning the reserves race again for a shared heat then the floodgates opened! Reading hit the Wasps with four consecutive 5-1s to open a 16 points gap after 6 races. Clews was unable to repeat his heat 1 heroics in heat 3 as Ulrich Ostergaard and Tomas Suchanek scored the first of the 5-1s then Danny Warwick won again in heat 4 with Madsen behind him for the second place taking the score to 16-8. Nick Simmons fell while in third place and took no further part in the meeting.

Another Ostergaard/Suchanek 5-1 in heat 5 from Clews and Watson was followed by Mark Lemon and Chris Mills who joined in the Reading points spree with the fourth of the maximum heat wins from Truminski. Tom P Madsen kept the home race winners coming in heat 7 but Jaimie Smith ran another last place behind Jerran Hart and Marek Mroz so Newport stopped the rot with a 3-3. Reading added another 5-1 in heat 8 as Danny Warwick continued his unbeaten run in heat 8 by following Chris Mills home. It was touch and go though for Warwick as Paul Clews almost caught him on the line for second place. The score now stood at 34-14.

Newport tracked only one rider in heat 9 – Sebastian Truminski – and he finished second to Ulrich Ostergaard ending Suchanek’s unbeaten run. The 4-2 put Reading 22 points ahead and another 5-1 from Lemon and Mills took it to 26. Paul Clews rose to the occasion again in heat 11 by passing Tom P Madsen for the heat win. Jaimie Smith finished last again so Craig Watson took third for a 2-4 to the visitors. Heat 12 was shared after Danny Warwick fell and remounted. Ulrich Ostergaard completed his four ride maximum as the score went to 48-24.

Mark Lemon won heat 13 but Craig Watson, lying second at the time, suffered an engine failure on the last lap. Sebastian Truminski finished second for a home 4-2 then Newport decided to play their TR card in heat 14 although it’s not clear why they bothered so late in the match with the result already known. However Truminski took the TR and finished second to Suchanek. Jerran Hart beat Jaimie Smith so the Wasps scored a 3-5 then, in the last race, Truminski made it three races on the trot and three second places on the trot finishing behind Ostergaard. Chris Mills’ third place gave the Racers a closing 4-2 for a 26 point win.

Scorers: For Reading – Ulrich Ostergaard 15 (5) (maximum), Chris Mills 10+2 (5), Mark Lemon 10+1 (4), Tomas Suchanek 8+2 (4), Tom P Madsen 8+1 (4), Danny Warwick 8+1 (4), Jaimie Smith 0 (4).

For Newport – Sebastian Truminski 12 (6) (with 4 point TR), Paul Clews 9 (6), Jerran Hart 6+2 (7), Marek Mroz 4+1 (4), Nick Simmons 1+1 (2), Craig Watson 1 (4).

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