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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
Eastbourne ‘Lifestyle’ Eagles returned finally made their return to their Sussex home on Monday evening following an absence of some three weeks where they followed up their relentless form of the previous Monday with another confidence boosting Arlington victory, but in order to do so they had to overcome the dogged resistance posed by the Ipswich Witches, the home side eventually running out 50-42 winners to claim another three valuable Elite League points.
Following on from a quite phenomenal 47-43 victory at Peterborough’s East of England Showground on the Bank Holiday, the Eagles received the generous acclaim of the Sussex faithful and then immediately set about dismantling the defences of another side from the section’s Eastern quarter.
Indeed, in the early stages it all seemed pretty clear cut, the Eagles racing into a comfortable 12-point lead by the conclusion of heat six but just as something of a rout looked potentially to be on the cards, the Suffolk outfit started to bite back and aided by a tactical ride 6-pointer from Robert Miskowiak, a brace of wins from Danny King and a penultimate race victory from Ales Dryml, not to mention some mechanical misfortune along the way for the hosts, suddenly the visitors had constructed a last heat decider, trailing by a mere 4-points with just one race left to run.
In the event it was the input of the returning Matej Zagar, immaculate in claiming a five ride 15-point maximum and the dependable Joonas Kylmakorpi who steered the Sussex side to full points and an eight digit, 50-42 victory with a solid 5-1 over former Eagle Scott Nicholls and King, one that again sent the Eastbourne fans home with smiles etched well and truly on their faces.
Indeed, although appearances by the Slovenian have seemingly possessed something of a rarity value in recent weeks and months, there could be few complaints at Zagar’s involvement on Monday evening, he started as he meant to go on with a power house victory ahead of Nicholls and Chris Slabon in heat one, Tomasz Jedrzejak looking set to add to the home cause until his machine spluttered on the third bend, the Pole apparently having forgotten to turn his fuel on.
For the first few races it was certainly all about Eagles, six riders each registering at least one race win while Chris Schramm, deputising for the injured Lukas Dryml, followed his partner, Ricky Kling, newly returned to the reserved berth, home for the paid equivalent in a second race and for a time it appeared that Ipswich would feel the full force of Eastbourne’s more usual home dominance.
A second successive maximum followed in race three, Simon Gustafsson and skipper Cameron Woodward looking fast in dispatching King’s challenge to extend the lead to 13-5 but Robert Miskowiak was soon on hand to interrupt the run with a defeat of Kylmakorpi in the fourth, Kozza Smith also registering a somewhat surprising third place and the 4-2 as he blocked out Kling for the full course to reduce the margin to 6-points, 15-9.
Slabon proved the unfortunate recipient of an injury that saw him ruled out of the meeting in heat five, the Pole coming off worst in an untidy tangle at the first turn that necessitated a rerun with all four, Smith coming in to take his place. As racing resumed, Woodward powered to victory ahead of Nicholls, the former Grand Prix rider in turn threading his way past Woodward to prevent a third Eastbourne 5-1.
Miskowiak was unable to follow suit in the next however, Zagar and Jedrzejak combining for the maximum that stretched the home lead to 12-points, 24-12, a margin that remained in place as King tempered the flow in the seventh as he lead both Kylmakorpi and Schramm to the chequered flag in heat seven.
Jedrzejak was the eventual winner of an eventful eighth race, falls and subsequent exclusions ruling out Kling and Dawid Stachyra in turn to leave the Pole leading home the lone Smith for a 3-2 in the twice rerun contest.
It was at that point that the turnaround appeared to kick in, Miskowiak taking the 6-point win from the previously unbeaten, by an opponent, Woodward in the ninth while Smith took full advantage of Gustafsson’s early race fall to record the 7-2 that reduced the difference to 8-points 32-24.
Zagar reigned supreme once more with a third classy win in heat ten but King and Dryml combined to block out Jedrzejak to keep within sight of their hosts, the scores moving to 35-27.
Kylmakorpi recorded his solitary heat victory with a fine effort in the next but electrical problems frustrated Schramm’s race and gifted Witches Nicholls and Smith a share of the spoils, however anxious moments for the Eagles followed as King proved an all the way winner of heat 12, Stachyra, seemingly from nowhere shadowing his every wheel turn for a vital visitors 5-1, Kling making little impact while Gustafsson was again forced out of the running after spinning around at the tail end of lap one.
This saw the Witches just 4-points, 39-35 in arrears and well placed to seize a match point, if not a last gasp victory, with Nicholls set to appear in two of the final three races, however Zagar was also destined to take part in both 13 and 15 and with the Slovenian having produced a perfect score to that point, hopes remained high that he would continue to do so.
Indeed he did in the first of the two encounters against Nicholls but thoughts that the resultant 4-2, Kylmakorpi seeing off Miskowiak for third, would set the victory in stone were dispelled as Dryml, an impressive lowering of Woodward’s colours, and Smith, taking his seventh outing united for a similar reply in the penultimate race, Kling losing out on a likely looking second place with engine failure.
This left that same 4-point disparity, now 45-41 in place entering the final countdown and things could have yet gone badly wrong for the Sussex side, a last heat 5-1 being sufficient for the Witches to extract their second 45-45 draw from the Sussex venue in season 2010.
Their lead up to the decider was hampered by engine problems for Nicholls however and mounted on Stachyra’s machine, as the tapes flashed up he proved unable to match the pace of either maximum man Zagar, or Kylmakorpi as the pair united to allay the home fans fears, a comfortable 5-1 for the Eagles being enough to wrap up the match and set the seal on an entertaining fifteen heats of racing and an overall 50-42 scoreline.
Scorers :
Eagles : Matej Zagar 15(5), Joonas Kylmakorpi 10+1(5), Cameron Woodward 9+1(4), Tomasz Jedrzejak 5+1(4), Ricky Kling 4(5), Simon Gustafsson 4(4), Chris Schramm 3+2(3). – 50
Witches : Robert Miskowiak 10(4), Scott Nicholls 9(5), Danny King 9(5), Kozza Smith 7+1(7), Ales Dryml 4+1(4), Dawid Stachyra 2+1(4), Chris Slabon 1+1(1). – 42
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