The Scunthorpe Saints lost the first leg of their Knockout Cup semi-final to Boston at King’s Lynn last night. 

The result was 56-35 with the second leg set for Friday 10th September at the Eddie Wright Raceway.    Leading the Saints scorers was Gary Irving who registered a career best 13+2 despite the Boston side lining up with two Premier League second-strings, Joe Haines and Simon Lambert, in their side and the precociously talented Australian Darcy Ward.

It wasn’t a complete surprise that the Barracuda’s heat-leader trio went through the card unbeaten but a battling performance from the Saints ensured Boston still have some work to do in the second leg.  The meeting started with Byron Bekker and Gary Irving relegating Darren Rolph to the back of heat one before Irving won the reserves race to give the Saints a 6-5 lead.  Scott Richardson rode well to split Simon Lambert and Darren Mallett in heat 3 before Stuart Parnaby did the same to Darcy Ward and Adam Lowe in heat 4.  A third 4-2 in heat 5 saw Bekker split the Lambert/Mallett partnership but a Haines/Rolph 5-1 in heat 6 opened the gap to nine points.

Saints’ Team Manager Malcolm Vasey introduced Byron Bekker as a tactical substitution from the fifteen-metre mark in heat 8 and it looked to have paid off.  However, Bekker fell on the second lap after making his way to second place bringing down Adam Lowe. It meant Bekker was excluded from the re-run but Gary Irving limited the damage with his second heat win of the night.  Scott Richardson rode another good race in heat 10 to keep Darren Rolph in third but after two drawn heats the Barracudas opened up the gap to 48-29 after heat 13.  Stuart Parnaby rode superbly to keep Darcy Ward behind him until the third lap but in the end he joined Joe Haines for the third Boston 5-1. 

Gary Irving took a tactical ride in heat 14 and although he missed the gate he was past Lowe on turn three and Ben Hopwood allowed him into second on the line.  It meant a 5-3 to the Saints but Haines and Ward collected another 5-1 in heat 15 to leave the Saints facing an uphill task in the second leg.

The next action for a Scunthorpe side is this Friday at the Eddie Wright Raceway (7.30pm) when the Scorpions take on the Workington Comets in the quarter-final of the Young Shield.  

Saints’ Team Manager Malcolm Vasey:
“I thought that was an absolutely brilliant battling performance against a superb team and I thought everyone of our riders gave everything they could.  You have to take your hat off now and then and say we were up against some really top class riders but they didn’t phase us.  Stuart Parnaby led Darcy Ward for nearly two laps, Gary Irving did the same, it was a brilliant performance.  I don’t like picking out favourites but that was a great performance by Gary Irving, absolutely terrific.  He’s a lad who can be very proud of himself but the whole team were magnificent.  I’ve seen Plymouth, Weymouth and Buxton race here and we were unquestionably better than all of those.  We just couldn’t keep up with their heat leader trio.”

Saints’ top scorer Gary Irving:
“Seven rides was hard work. I’m tired now like but I enjoyed it. I think I could have done a bit better but it was a hard match against Boston.  We got beaten by twenty-one points and it’s going to be hard to get that back but you  never know what might happen.  It was a hard track to pass on tonight, it looked like there was a lot of dirt but it was greasy underneath so it was difficult to set the bikes up.   I was slow out of the starts so as usual I had to do it all from the back. I’m riding at Sheffield on Thursday and in the David Nix Memorial and I’m feeling really good. I’ll be able to test myself against some Premier League riders next Sunday”.

Boston Barracudas 56
Joe Haines 15 (5 rides), Darren Rolph 5+1 (4), Simon Lambert 12 (4), Darren Mallett 7+1 (4), Darcy Ward 13+2 (5), Chris Widman 1+1 (4), Adam Lowe 3 (4)

Scunthorpe Saints 35
Byron Bekker 5+1 (4 rides, including a non scoring tactical substitution), Scott Richardson 8 (5), Ben Hopwood 2+2 (4), Stuart Parnaby 7 (6), Adam Wrathall 0 (4), Gary Irving 13+2 (7 rides, including a four point tactical ride)