BRITISH SPEEDWAY APRIL 21, 2002

(SPEEDWAY 1)

POOLE’S HARD FOUGHT VICTORY

POOLE completed the league double over Oxford with a hard-fought 48-42 win at Cowley on Wednesday.
The Pirates were pegged back at the halfway stage when they conceded the first 5-1 of the meeting and then went behind for the first time.

But a swift recovery came immediately after the Heat 10 break as Steve Worrall and Zach Cook fired in Poole’s first maximum heat score.
Richard Lawson led the way for the Pirates with 11 points, whilst Troy Batchelor notched 12 for the hosts.
Poole promoter Danny Ford said: “Our mission was to come here tonight and get the win, and as a team we did that.

“It would have been nice to have taken all four points, and we will see at the conclusion of the league programme whether or not that is a costly point dropped but for now we will take the positives from this meeting.

“There were contributions right throughout the side and that was encouraging, but I still feel there is more to come from all of our riders.
“That bodes well as we can certainly up our game further, and that is a good thing to be able to say when you are already winning points.”
 
(SPEEDWAY 2)

BIRMINGHAM’S home Championship opener against Berwick was abandoned on Wednesday due to a lack of medical cover in the local area.
It came after Brummies rider Josh Auty crashed out of Heat 3 and suffered a nasty ankle injury, with medical attention given from the staff present prior to a trip to hospital – but a six-hour wait was quoted for outside service.

Co-promoter Laurence Rogers said: “It goes without saying this is another huge blow and it’s so frustrating because it was literally taken out of our hands.
“With no medical cover, we’re obviously not allowed to continue racing and if we didn’t have bad luck lately, we wouldn’t have any luck at all.

“I feel so sorry for all the supporters who came tonight because we had a decent crowd in and the racing we saw in the two heats we did get through was great.
“We saw a couple of passes and the Brummies had got an early lead before Josh crashed awkwardly out of bend four.

“We apologise to everyone but I’m sure they’ll understand how we’re just as frustrated as they are when there was simply no way around it.”

(SPEEDWAY 3)

KING’S Lynn have the chance for a double over A47 rivals Peterborough when they meet in the League Cup at the Adrian Flux Arena tonight (Thursday).
The Stars took a terrific win in Monday’s reverse fixture and can put themselves in a strong position in the group with another victory.

They are racing at home for the first time this season, and face a Panthers side using rider-replacement for Michael Palm Toft who is out with concussion – but Benjamin Basso does return from U21 duty for the visitors. Manager Rob Lyon is also back in charge after missing the match on Monday.
Stars boss Alex Brady said: “I’d urge everyone to come out and really get behind the boys, because Monday’s result has given us all a real feel-good factor.

“If we win on Thursday then we just need to win one of our last two, home and away against Ipswich, to get through to the Cup Final, and who would have thought that seven or eight months ago?
“We had our fair share of bad luck at Peterborough but we were so pleased with how it finished, and now we need everyone’s support at home.”

Panthers co-promoter Carl Johnson said: “Rob’s back for Thursday, I know he was looking in on Monday and keeping in touch, and hopefully there will be some more fireworks at King’s Lynn!
“We had a look at the options for Michael, we felt this one was best, and the boys go well there so hopefully we’ll be able to turn things around.”
 
FRIDAY APRIL 22:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Glasgow v Berwick 7.30, Redcar v Leicester 7.30, Scunthorpe v Birmingham 7.30
CHAMPIONSHIP KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Edinburgh v Newcastle 7.30

SATURDAY APRIL 23:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Berwick v Oxford 7pm, Leicester v Glasgow 7pm

SUNDAY APRIL 24:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Newcastle v Oxford 4pm
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE KO CUP 1st round 1st leg: Mildenhall v Kent 3pm