Rye House Rockets v Newcastle Diamond
Sat 14 May 2011, Hoddesdon Raceway, PL KnockOut Cup
Newcastle’s Sapphire Engineering Diamonds started their Knockout Cup defence in excellent style last night, pulling off an unexpected draw in a match abandoned after Heat 13 thanks to heavy rain, but – the result stands.
The level-pegging match is now set perfectly for the climactic second leg due to take place this evening at the Newcastle Stadium (6.30pm) with the final 15 races determining who progressed through to the Cup quarter finals.
With black clouds brewing over the Hoddesdon track it was the Rockets who took off to a soaring start with an untroubled home 5-1 from Jordan Frampton and freshly back from injury, Luke Bowen who left Newcastle’s guest Leigh Lanham and skipper Derek Sneddon in their dust.
An eventful Heat Two saw Kyle Newman penalised under the two minute rule as his cut out line snapped before the tapes went up requiring a new one to be fitted.
Once the race got underway with Newman off a 15 metre handicap, Richie Worrall was well out in front when Tyson Nelson made a crazy move and fell, stopping the race and was excluded from the restart, in which Worrall just couldn’t make the same start, ending up in second behind Ben Morley in a shared race.
Stuart Robson shot out to win a fine battle with Chris Neath in the third, and with Sneddon in third the gap was reduces to two, 10-8, but with a Jason Doyle win in the fourth as part of Rocket’s 4-2 the four point deficit was restored.
With another 4-2 going the home side’s way in Heat Five and the sixth being shared once more, going into the seventh Newcastle were on catch-up duty, 21-15 down, until Robson again shot out from the gate in Heat Eight to take a very straightforward win and with Nelson biting the dust again the 2-4 narrowed that gap to only two once more.
Neath and Ritchie Hawkins outclassed Claes Nedermark and Newman to record another home max, but with guest rider, Lanham now on his second machine, having ditched his poor-performing first, scorched to a huge win in Heat 11 over Doyle who had no answer for the former Rocket in a visitors’ 2-4, taking the score to 35-31.
Lanham’s revival was vital to Newcastle keeping the final score on level terms with Rye, as he again launched himself to win Heat 13 with ease ahead of Newcastle’s Dane, Nedermark over Frampton and Doyle in the 1-5 that took the score to 39-39.
As the riders were at the tapes for the start of Heat 14 the heavens opened with the thunderstorm style rain instantly brining the match to a premature end, but with the result standing, there were no complaints from the Newcastle camp.
Diamonds’ team manager, George English was a satisfied man, saying: “That was another excellent performance at Rye House from our Diamonds and they all deserve credit for a very fine showing. I have to say I honestly believe that had the rain not intervened, then with Newcastle having grasped the momentum big style, there was only going to be one team winning this match and that was us…. The rain robbed us of our victory but at least it’s tight for the second leg at Brough Park.”
For this evening’s second leg, Jason Lyons, former Newcastle skipper now with the Redcar Bears, taking the guest booking over from Lanham in place of the injured Mark Lemon.
Rye House also make a chance for tonight, with their temporary signing, Jason Doyle now leaving the club again as Steve Boxall, recently sidelined with an arm injury, returns to join his old team mates for the first time in 2011, and as Boxall is also a former Diamond it could make tonight’s clash a fascinating affair indeed.
Newcastle Diamonds v Rye House Rockets
Sun 15 May 2011, Newcastle Stadium, PL KnockOut Cup
Newcastle’s Sapphire Engineering Diamonds completed their entrance exam and passed into the Knockout Cup quarter finals last night as they completed a good win over the Rye House Rockets at the Newcastle Stadium in the first stage of their defence of the trophy they won last season.
A mid-meeting bout of indigestion nearly scuppered the home side, and caused a few fans to lie down in a darkened room, but the Diamonds shone brightly to the end and alleviated all fears.
A Heat One 4-2 was gifted to Newcastle when the chasing Jordan Frampton crashed out on the last lap with the result awarded, whilst Heat Two was fortunate to end up a shared 3-3 with both Rocket Ben Morley and Diamond Richie Worrall fell, but the Newcastle man remounted and finished to score his point.
The Diamonds wound on the power from Heat Four with Matej Ferjan taking his first win in the black and white, with Worrall just taking third after a fine battle with both Rockets, Steve Boxall and Tyson Nelson to warm up the crowd on a chilly night with the score at 14-10, and on aggregate 53-49.
Stuart Robson and Claes Nedermark took a notable 5-1 over Frampton and Luke Bowen in the fifth, whilst guest man from Redcar, Jason Lyons scorched a fast win in Heat Six with skipper Sneddon succumbing to Boxall’s rearguard attention in the eventual 4-2, Newcastle now well ahead 23-13.
Heat Seven came to a grinding halt when Newman went down hard on bend three on the opening lap, but the fall was awkward and fast as he was launched into the fence, requiring extensive medical attention but amazingly walked back to the track and continued with his meeting, whilst the re-run was a disappointing 1-5 to the Rockets.
Heat Eight opened a can of worms with Nelson of Rye House lifting and falling on bend one, causing Worrall to fall as well, but the referee decreed that instead of an all four restart, or a one-man exclusion, he was excluding both fallers as he believed both fell in separate incidents, leading to a host of vociferous phone calls between managers and the official in charge.
The eventual re-run, a match race between Sneddon and Bowen ended up a win for the Rockets’ man in a 2-3 tightening the score to 25-21, and overall 65-60 with the Diamonds clinging on.
Ritchie Hawkins took a surprise win in the 10th, but it was Chris Neath who won a Titanic battle with Sneddon with passing and re-passing throughout to give Rye a dangerous 1-5 with the match and the tie now teetering on a knife edge, 30-29 on the night and 69-68 overall.
The Rockets amazingly took the lead in Heat 11 when Newman, having held out Bowen magnificently all race, made a monumental error which sent him to the rear as Rye took a 2-4, who led 32-33.
A miraculous ride from Ferjan took a big win in the 13th race and with Lyons expertly fending off both Boxall and Frampton, the vital home 5-1 put Newcastle back in front in the tie 79-76 (40-37 on the night) leading to a riveting climax to a great meeting.
Newman took the lead early in Heat 14, with Robson rounding Nelson on lap two to form a fine Newcastle 5-1 that brought the house down, and put the Diamonds into an unassailable lead, taking the tie and place in the place in the quarter finals against Somerset with one race left on the card.
Heat 15 took nearly 25 minutes to complete with the initial attempt being stopped by a starting gate failure, followed by a heavy fall for Nedermark on bend two which again stopped the race with the Diamond (suffering a left hand injury) excluded from the second re-start.
The fated Heat 15 came to a halt for a third time when Ritchie Hawkins fell on the third bend and again excluded from the fourth re-run, in which Boxall’s engine lost all power, leaving him on a bike doing half it’s normal speed resulting in his exclusion from the race for being lapped by Ferjan and Robson off the last bend of the race.
Team Manager George English said: “The lads gave us an unnecessary bout of nerves mid-match with too many points going to Rye House, but thankfully their class shone through again and we got the undoubted result we deserved by progressing to meet Somerset in the next round. Maybe next time they will eliminate the tense heart-in-your-mouth moments.”
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