Exciting Australian teenager Richard Sweetman put on what was ostensibly a one man show as the Wightlink Islanders were soundly beaten by 68 points to 23 at King's Lynn last night in a Premier League match.

He scored more than half the team's total as he amassed 12 points from his maximum quota of seven rides from the No.7 position in the side as his team mates struggled to come to terms with the Norfolk Arena circuit.

Although it might have been reasonable to expect a closer final result, the margin of defeat was not totally unexpected for out of the 14 home matches King's Lynn have ridden since the beginning of May, they have scored more than 60 points on no less than TWELVE occasions! And against Mildenhall at the end of July, they totalled 73 points which is just two points shy of the maximum total possible over 15 heats!

The writing was well and truly on the wall after the first three heats last night, three heats in which the home side raced to maximum 5-1 heat advantages to lead by a dozen points even that early stage of the match.

Young Sweetman stopped the Stars run of 5-1's by coming through from the back to claim second place behind fellow Aussie Kozza Smith in heat 4 but it was back to business as it were for the homesters in the next five races and, somewhat incredibly, the Wightlink Islanders found themselves trailing 44-10 after nine of the fifteen heats had been completed!

Kryzsztof Stojanowski was the man to stop the rot in heat 10 by claiming second place behind heat winner Kevin Doolan and in the next race the Island side claimed what was to be their one and only heat advantage of the match!

With James Holder clearly struggling as a result of his troublesome wrist injury, stand-in team manager Ronnie Russell brought in Sweetman to replace him and nominated skipper Jason Bunyan to take a tactical ride that would see him double his points scored provided he defeated one, or both of the home riders in the race.

Sweetman shot into the lead, a lead he was never to surrender and he took the chequered flag but Jason had made a terrible start from the inside starting position and found himself trailing at the back but he worked hard and eventually found a way through to take third place.

That meant the Wightlink Islanders won the heat by 5 points to 2, scant consolation admittedly for what had happened up to that point

and their night didn't get any better in heat 12 when, after doing all the hard work initially, Kryzsztof Stojanowski inexplicably fell whilst comfortably in the lead and seemingly heading for victory!

That man Sweetman at least provided the crowd with a glorious effort in heat 13 when taking his third consecutive ride, from third place on the opening two laps he firstly stormed past home top rider Kevin Doolan and swiftly did the same to race leader John Oliver and he really deserved to win the race but, with him visibly tiring with the physical effort of taking three rides on the trot, the experienced Doolan snatched the verdict on the line!

Although he must have been feeling physically shattered by the stage, he duly came out again for his final ride in the very next race and it was no real surprise as he finished back in third place.

All-in-all then, Sweetman apart, it was really a night to forget for the Wightlink Islanders but a not totally unexpected defeat at the home of a team that are very much on course to reach the end of season play offs.

MATCH DETAILS:

Final Score: King's Lynn Stars 68 Wightlink Islanders 23
(Premier League)

King's Lynn scorers (in riding order - No. of rides in brackets): Kevin Doolan 14+1 (5), Shaun Tacey (rider replacement), Tomas Topinka 13+2 (5), Stephen Lambert 13+2 (5), Rusty Harrison 3+1 (3), John Oliver 15+3 (7), Kozza Smith 10+1 (5),

IOW scorers (in riding order - No. of rides in brackets): Jason Bunyan 5 (5), James Holder 0 (3), Krzysztof Stojanowski 3 (4) Paul Fry 1 (4), Glen Phillips 2 (5), Andrew Bargh 0 (3), Richard Sweetman 12 (7) .