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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
Newcastle “Sapphire Engineering” Diamonds got off to an unexpectedly good start in last night’s first leg of the prestigious Premier Trophy Final at the Newcastle Stadium against the Birmingham Brummies, their biggest match in nine long seasons.
Jason Lyons and Lee Smart made a superb scissor pass on Derek Sneddon, but the veteran Aussie Lyons ground to a rare halt on the second lap, and with Kenni Larsen well out in front Newcastle took the lead 4-2.
Birmingham’s reserves of Smart and Kyle Newman took advantage of Newcastle’s guest Jade Mudgway (of Berwick) making a poor start and hit four past the home side to level the match, but Rene Bach and skipper Jason King easily overcame Richard Sweetman and Justin Sedgmen for a maximum 5-1 to go 11-7 up.
Referee Craig Ackroyd bewildered the crowd in Heat Four when, at speed, and on his own, Newman fell and hit the deck on the back straight, but the official inexplicably excluded Mudgway who was well clear of the incident at the time reducing Newcastle’s manpower to one in the re-run.
That re-run ended up a 3-3 with the score at 14-10 going into a second re-run race when Lyons fell on bend three of lap three as he was passed by Bach with the fallen rider excluded from the second running, a stonewall 5-1 for the home side who went 19-11 up.
Sneddon pulled off a superbly brave outside pass on bend two of Heat Six rounding both Brummies to join Larsen up from for a 5-1 that brought the house down as Newcastle pulled ahead by 12 fine points.
Birmingham pulled two back in the seventh race, won by a country mule by Sweetman with Lemon in second whilst the visiting manager Graham Drury nominated Steve Johnston as a tactical ride for double points, but following a superb effort for the leader Sneddon and reserve Anders Andersen who was battling superbly with the tactical man, Johnston hit the shale on the second bend of lap three with the referee excluding the Diamond from another re-run.
In the second attempt to finish Heat Eight Sneddon made another excellent gate to lead, but had to fend off some seriously hard challenges from Aussie Johnston, but his doubled points were restricted to four in a 3-5 as Birmingham sneaked two closer at 29-21.
Johnston smashed the tapes at the first attempt to get Heat Nine of the high-tension match running and went off 15 metres in the re-run which itself was stopped when Newman went wide on bend one with the result King clattered into the fence with the referee ruling an all-four-back re-run, but before the remaining three had slowed Bach shot under Johnston who also fell on bend three with more wreckage to clear.
Take three of Heat Nine finally completed but not before Newman rode an frighteningly wild and out of control opening lap that nearly had King on his backside again, but the welcome 5-1 put the Diamonds back in control by 34-22.
Larsen and Sneddon blew Sedgmen and Sweetman out of sight in the Heat 10 5-1 home maximum putting Newcastle 16 ahead as Drury pulled out his last tactical move putting Lyons out for the double tally in Heat 11 but with an engine failure for Smart the second place four was equally matched by Lemon and a spirited Andersen as the score motored on to 43-27.
Smart went down heavily on bend one of the twelfth race and subsequently disqualified from the eventual 4-2, rescued from an initial 5-1 following Newman’s hard inside run under Andersen on the third lap.
Lemon shot round Lyons on bend two and Larsen took the hard inside under the same Brummie to ruin the visitors share to another 5-1 progressing the first leg score to 52-30 whilst the shared fourteenth followed by Heat 15’s vibrant running which also needed a re-run without Larsen who the referee harshly excluded for what appeared to be a perfect case of first bend bunching with Lyons going down.
The first leg finally came to a rip-roaring conclusion with Bach running the most incredible inside line under both Brummies on the opening bend to open up a lead he held to the end in a 3-3 finishing the first leg at 58-36.
Newcastle Team Manager George English was keeping his jubilant mood controlled, saying: “22 points is an excellent margin to carry down to the second leg at Birmingham on Wednesday night, but I’m still disappointed that we did not win by more as we lost a good few points with very poor refereeing decisions.
“Craig is usually a referee I have no worries with but tonight, unfortunately I could only agree with one of his decisions as he really did not have a good night on the button.
“But 22 points is it and we’re not going to get over-confident as that would be a fatal mistake. We are going into that match the same as any other – we need to win and we’ll be going for that.”
Newcastle “Sapphire Engineering” Diamonds 58
1. Kenni Larsen 3,3,3,2*,X = 11+1
2. Derek Sneddon 1,2*,3,2* = 8+2
3. Jason King © 2*,2*,2*,3 = 9+3
4. Rene Bach 3,3,3,3,3 = 15
5. Mark Lemon 3,2,3,3 = 11
6. Jade Mudgway (guest) ® 0,X,F,N,N = 0
7. Anders Andersen ® 2,N,X.1.1.0 = 4
Birmingham “BRC Industrial Roofing” Brummies 36
1. Jason Lyons © R,Fx,4^,1,2 = 7
2. Aaron Summers – Rider replacement
3. Justin Sedgmen 0,1,1,N = 2
4. Richard Sweetman 1.3.0.2.1* = 7+1
5. Steve Johnston 2,F,4^,0,0 = 6
6. Kyle Newman ® 1,1*,1,1,2 = 6+1
7. Lee Smart (guest) ® 3,2,N,1,1*,R,Fx,1* = 8+2
8. Scott Richardson – Did not ride.
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