Premier League By Lawrence Heppell
The Newcastle Sapphire Engineering Diamonds were handed two late body blows prior to last night's local derby at the South Tees Motor Park against the hosts, the Redcar Bears.
Late afternoon came the news Teesside expert Stuart Robson was not going to achieve fitness for the event following a bad smash at Workington on Saturday whilst Claes Nedermark blew up an engine on the grand parade warm-up lap.
Despite the morale-sapping events, and a delay whilst the ambulance had to deal with a situation at the track, the Diamonds got off to a surprisingly good start with guest rider David Howe from Scunthorpe taking the honours, backed admirably by Derek Sneddon who held out the lively Matej Kus in the 1-5.
Redcar's Peter Juul is developing into a force to be reckoned with and took the reserve race with ease although again Kyle Newman had to work hard all race to keep Robert Branford back in third place in the Bears' 4-2.
Following a referee call back to Heat Three Jason Lyons and Gary Havelock took the Bears in front with an easy 5-1, as Sneddon just couldn't reproduce his first race form, whilst the off-the-pace Jason King retired when at the back with the score at 10-8.
Following a shared heat in the fourth, Newcastle's form took a rapid dip over the next two races with the veteran pairing of Lyons and Havelock hammering five past Newcastle's Heat One maximum men, and Kus and former Diamond Lubos Tomicek doing likewise over Nedermark and Newman in the sixth to force the home lead to a decisive 23-13.
Ten points down and Newcastle's stand-in team manager, Andrew Dalby made his first tactical move by placing Howe on a tactical ride for double points in Heat Seven, but his partner King exceeded the two-minute ruling and was placed on a 15 metre handicap as his forfeit but again failed to make the distance, retiring from the heat on the last lap.
Howe's six points at least closed the gap a little to 26-19, but a mechanical gremlin sent Richie Worrall to the back in the eighth, handing a home 4-2 to the Bears who moved into a 9-point lead.
Unfortunately Newcastle's mid-match slump continued beyond the interval with home maximums flooding in from Heats Nine and 10 allowing manager Dalby to use his second and final tactical move.
Sneddon was the man on double points in Heat 11, and with the score at 40-23, six were desperately needed, but his last place for zero did nothing to help in the home 4-2 as Redcar began their romp to an inevitable big win.
Over the final four races Newcastle's resistance was minimal as they collapsed to one of their heaviest defeats on Teesside shale in a very long time.
But the final sting in the tail was with already having Mark Lemon and Robson on the injury list, the paramedic was called to take a look at King's recovering knee injured last August at Glasgow - and on that point the club will have to sweat it out before their home match on Sunday against the tough Edinburgh Monarchs.
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