After suffering their first home defeat of the season last time out, the Buxton Hitmen had that winning feeling again on Sunday as they defeated the Scunthorpe Saints 53-38 in the Conference league.
The Hitmen lost out by two points on aggregate to the Saints earlier in the year and were at full strength to face them in this league fixture while from the visitors side a bit of spice to the meeting was added by the first return of former Buxton skipper Jonathon Bethell. Bethell was out in the opening race but it was his replacement John Branney that shot from the tapes to lead going into the first turn. Bethell settled into second and, despite pressure towards the end of the race from Branney’s team-mate Paul Burnett, he held on fro the two points. In Heat 2 Gareth Isherwood continued his excellent home form by winning by some distance ahead of the Scunthorpe pair of Gary Irving and Adam Wrathall as the shared heat points kept Buxton two in front.
The following race ended as a 3-3 as well with Ben Taylor winning but the Saints duo packing the other points-scoring places. Behind them Lewis Dallaway pressed hard until he lost ground after locking up on the second turn. The Hitmen stretched their advantage in Heat 4 as Jack Roberts and Isherwood hit the front from the start. Their only danger was each other and they came close to touching on the opening lap before settling down to take maximum points and open up a six-point lead. That advantage went to eight in the next as Taylor made two wins out of two rides as he defeated Bethell with Dallaway pushing his former team-mate hard right to the end of the race.
Branney had little trouble taking Heat 6 but behind him Burnett seemed to have second wrapped up until Ben Hopwood started to put him under all kinds of pressure. Burnett drifted off line a couple of times but Hopwood could find a big enough hole to get through and the Hitmen took their second 5-1 of the afternoon. Heat 7 had to be re-run after Scott Richardson was lucky to escape exclusion when he brought off his partner Stuart Parnaby on the first turn with Referee Dave Watters putting all four back in. When the race eventually ran Richardson made the most of his second chance and led Roberts but the young Buxton rider wouldn’t settle for second place and when he went inside Richardson as they entered the first turn of the final lap, the Saints rider fell with the referee deeming that Roberts had caused fall and the Buxton rider was excluded even though it appeared that there was no contact between the pair.
Things got worse for Buxton in the following race as Isherwood found too much drive as the riders exited the second turn and he veered across the track and caused Irving to fall. The Scunthorpe rider was OK to continue but Isherwood was excluded and Irving and Wrathall took maximum points in the re-run as Burnett had trouble at the back. Suddenly the lead had shrunk to just three points 25-22 in the home teams favour. Taylor again made the better start in Heat 9 but as in many races before, all the action was at the back. Hopwood and Irving held second and third for the Saints before Dallaway grabbed a handful of throttle to go around Irving on the final turn of lap three before blocking any attempt of an inside pass into the first turn of the final lap and the 4-2 added another couple of points to the Buxton lead.
An excellent first turn in Heat 10 saw Branney go around the Scunthorpe pairing of Richardson and Parnaby to lead. Richardson ran too wide on turn two of the second lap and both Parnaby and Burnett passed him but he battled back and was right on the Buxton man’s tail as the race finished. The Hitmen had now opened up a seven point advantage and this was maintained after Roberts return to winning way in Heat 11 as Bethell was defeated once again but Scott Whittington fell at the back to keep the race score at 3-3. Isherwood made the start in the following race while Richardson edged out Taylor as the riders went down the back straight for the first time. Taylor was close behind as they entered the first turn of lap two when the Saints rider fell all on his own and this gave the home side an 11-point cushion with three races to go.
The result was put beyond doubt as Roberts and Branney teamed up for maximum points in Heat 13 before Scunthorpe put Parnaby out on a double-points tactical ride in the penultimate race. He led from the start with Dallaway splitting the Saints pair but Parnaby lost his line at the start of the second lap and in running wide, he left a huge gap that Dallaway exploited. The Buxton rider then withstood pressure from Parnaby to take the race win, his first of the afternoon, after a nervy final lap as he felt something wrong with his bike. The final race saw Taylor complete his unbeaten day but Branney lost out to Richardson on the first turn and had to settle for third as the Hitmen won by 15 points.
SCORERS
Buxton – J Branney 12+1, P Burnett 5+1, B Taylor 14+1, L Dallaway 5, J Roberts 9, S Whittington 0, G Isherwood 8+1.
Scunthorpe – J Bethell 6, M Pickering 1+1, S Richardson 7, S Parnaby 9+2, B Hopwood 5, G Irving 5, A Wrathall 5+3.
This Sunday the Hitmen are at home again as the re-arranged fixture against the Redcar Cubs goes ahead with the usual 3pm start. This meeting sees the return of former rider Scott James who moved to pastures new for this season after a couple of years with the Hitmen. This promises to be another close encounter with both teams looking for the league points as they push for a play-off place.
