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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
The much anticipated National League battle with Newport Hornets turned into an injury nightmare for the Weymouth Weyline Wildcats and Byron Bekker who suffered a broken right collarbone and broken left knuckle in a first bend crash with Hornets Tony Atkin in heat 10 last night at the Wessex Stadium.
The meeting started off well for Bekker in heat 1 winning from Hornets Todd Kurtz with Dan Halsey picking up third for the Wildcats. Back from injury Tom Young backed up James White Williams for a 5-1 in heat 2 with Richard Andrews picking up third. Two shared heats followed Tom Brown taking heat 3 for the Wildcats over Hornets Mark Jones and Atkin. Former Wildcat Kyle Newman stormed off for heat 4 with James Cockle and Gary Cottham taking the minor places after Cottham initially led the race.
Heat 5 saw an advantage for the Hornets with Kurtz and former Cat Luke Priest split by Brown, while Karl Mason struggled at the back suffering from sickness. Bekker took his second win in heat 6 ahead of Newman and White Williams while Halsey fell on the first bend fourth lap while in third place. Another heat advantage for the Hornets with Cockle splitting Atkin and Jones in heat 7 saw the Hornets move 6 points up, 18-24. Priest took heat 8 from Cottham and Halsey sharing the points then White William and Newman smashed in a 5-1 over Cottham and Brown who retired from the race in heat 9 to go 10 points up 22-32.
Straight away Wildcats team manager Phil Bartlet sent Bekker out in black and white for a tactical ride, the race only lasted until the first bend with elbows and pushing at will resulting in Bekker and Atkin carrering into the first turn fence. Atkin was soon up and walking back to the pits but the medics treated Bekker on circuit before transferring to the ambulance. Following a 40 minute delay until the County ambulance arrived when Bekker was transferred and taken to the local hospital where it was revealed during the early hours the extent of Bekkers injuries are a broken right collarbone and broken left knuckle which has halted the South-African's season, although initial thoughts are that Bekker could possibly return in three weeks.
Cottham replaced Bekker in the re-run heat with Halsey splitting Jones and Atkin. Cockle was out as a tactical ride in heat 11 splitting Hornets pair of Kurtz and Priest in the first of four shared heats. Jones won heat 12, Cottham and Brown slotting in for the minor places. Kurtz took heat 13 from Cottham and Cockle while Atkin headed Andrews and Mason in the re-run heat 14 following Young's fall and disqualification.
The last heat was somewhat controversial, Brown fell third turn first lap, the race continued with Kurtz in the lead, Cockle challenged Newman for second place cutting inside him entering the third turn second lap. Newman careered into the fence right in front of the Hornets supporters who made their voice heard when the meeting referee judged Newman to be the cause of the stoppage and disqualified him from the re-run which was won by Kurtz from Cockle putting the Hornets on top of the National League winning 39-52. After viewing video footage filmed by DL Sport Productions it clearly shows that Cockle had the racing line and Newman's foot caught Cockles dirt deflector throwing him off balance and into the kickboards while trying to re-pass the Wildcat.
Wildcats travel to Buxton tomorrow for a double feast of fixtures, first off at 3.00pm will be the National League fixture followed by the Trophy fixture. Chairman Phil Bartlett has a race against time to find a suitable replacement for the two fixtures, if no replacement is found the rider replacement facility will be used to cover Bekkers rides. The Wildcats also travel to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday and have booked in Adam McKinna as cover. McKinna rode his second meeting back from injury last month at Smallbrook scoring 7+1 and has since been recalled by parent club Newcastle to resume his place in their Premier League side.
Wildcats chairman said after the meeting "It didn't really matter about the result tonight, we're not in contention for the League but the shame of it is that we have lost Byron to injury which sums up our year. He could be back in three weeks but we will have to wait and see how the recovery goes. We will operate rider replacement at Buxton for the double header fixture and on Tuesday we draft in Adam McKinna to help us out."
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