24 hours after their excellent Cup performance at Somerset, the Silver Ski Rockets were rapidly brought down to earth by a fired up Anglo-Danish Potters combo led by the unbeaten Klaus Jakobsen.

Even worse, inspirational No.1 Tai Woffinden came heavily down to earth – quite literally – in Heat 12, and onto the sidelines with an aggravation to his previous shoulder injury.

The Rockets actually threatened the home side early on, leading briefly 15-14 after a 5-1 from Robert Mear and Stefan Ekberg in Heat 5, but generally struggled on a track made difficult by pre-meeting rain. A string of four Potters 4-2s in the space of the next five races left them trailing 33-26, and a 5-1 from maximum man Jakobsen and Ben Barker in the Heat 12 that saw Woffinden exit the meeting effectively ended the match as a contest, at 41-30. Further home maximums in the final two races merely served to rub salt into Rye’s wounds, whose fate could have been worse but for two blown motors for Barker and mechanical problems for Stoke guest Nicolai Klindt in two of his four rides.

Rye House scorers:
Stefan Ekberg   7+1 (5 rides)
Robert Mear   7+1 (4)
Tai Woffinden   6+1 (4)
Tommy Allen   3 (4 rides, inc 1 as a TR)
Chris Neath   8+1 (5)
Danny Halsey   0 (3)
Luke Bowen   4 (5)

Stoke scorers:
Nicolai Klindt (guest)  6 (4 rides)
Krister Jakobsen  5 (4)
Ben Barker   5+1 (4)
Jesper Kristiansen  6 (4)
Andrew Moore   12+1 (5)
Mark Burrows   5+1 (4)
Klaus Jakobsen  15 (5 rides, maximum)