The Scunthorpe Saints travelled to Derbyshire on Sunday afternoon and with skipper and number one rider Byron Bekker missing went down 53-38 to the Buxton Hitmen.  

The Saints kept things close until heat 11 but two 5-1 heat wins in heats 12 and 13 sealed victory for the home side.  With Bekker missing the Buxton heat-leader trio won ten races between them and only occasionally looked troubled by the Saints who had Stuart Parnaby top score with nine points (and two bonus points). 

The meeting started well enough with the Hitmen just 10-8 up after three races.  However, three home heat advantages took the scores out to 24-12 with the Scorpions yet to produce a race winner.  Heat 7 saw a change of fortune as Parnaby and Scott Richardson led from the tapes.  Sadly Parnaby made a mistake on the second lap to drop from first to third but Jack Roberts then knocked Richardson off as he tried to pass him on the last lap.  With Roberts’ partner Scott Whittington having fallen the Saints were awarded a 5-0 and then the next heat produced a 5-1 to the Saints as Gareth Isherwood brought down Gary Irving coming out of turn two.  In the re-run Adam Wrathall joined his reserve partner, Irving, to claim maximum points over Lewis Dallaway and suddenly the gap was just three points.

The Hitmen did edge the gap back out to seven by heat 11 and there was still some hope for the Saints but the Hitmen’s top four riders, Ben Taylor, Gareth Isherwood, John Branney and Jack Roberts were lined-up in heats 12 and 13 and duly claimed two 5-1s to secure the league points.  Scott Richardson, who had looked lively all day, did head Taylor in heat 12 until he fell on the second lap but what the Saints really lacked was their number one rider, Byron Bekker, who despite being on hand to give his team-mates every encouragement could go out and win races for them.

There was some consolation in heat 14 as Parnaby claimed four points on a tactical ride but it could have been six as he led until going too wide on the second lap.  The tricky Buxton track, which he hadn’t even seen before, caught him out and he had to settle for second place and a 5-3 heat advantage with Adam Wrathall.  Then, in heat 15, Scott Richardson showed his improvement by breaking a second Buxton rider’s maximum.  This time it was John Branney but he, nor any of his team-mates, could do anything about Ben Taylor who won the race and claimed a paid maximum.

After the Buxton meeting the Saints Team Manager Malcolm Vasey felt his side sorely missed it’s captain “I really think that if we had been at full strength today we would have nicked a victory but we have to hold our hands up and say we weren’t as strong as Buxton today.  Buxton were very much at full strength today, much better than the team I saw ride here a couple of weeks ago and their top riders all rode very well.  Jonathan Bethell is suffering with a kidney infection which is giving him back pain.  That is why he had just three rides and in the main our side rode very well and we made a match of it as long as we could.  We’ll now focus on the Weymouth match on Friday week”.

The result leaves the Saints with just two league matches left knowing they need to win at least one of them to progress to the end of season playoffs.  First of all they travel to Weymouth on Saturday 23rd August before taking on the Plymouth Devils at the Eddie Wright Raceway on the Bank Holiday Monday, 25th August.  That meeting follows the Scorpions Premier League match against Glasgow whilst before then the Scorpions take on their arch-rivals, the Sheffield Tigers, this Friday, 15th August, at 7.30pm.

Buxton 53
John Branney 12+1 (5 rides), Paul Burnett 5+1 (4), Ben Taylor 14+1 (5), Lewis Dallaway 5 (4), Jack Roberts 9 (4), Scott Whittington 0 (4), Gareth Isherwood 8+1 (4)

Scunthorpe 38
Jonathan Bethell 6 (3 rides), Mike Pickering 1+1 (3), Scott Richardson 7 (5), Stuart Parnaby 9+2 (4 rides, including a four point tactical ride), Ben Hopwood 5 (5), Gary Irving 5 (5), Adam Wrathall 5+3 (5)