Premier League
Newcastle Speedway: Diamonds plumb new depths.
By Admin
Aug 6, 2008, 20:36

The Newcastle Diamonds plunged new depths last night at the home of the Isle of Wight Islanders in a huge Premier League 46 point defeat as their devastating season sank further into the mire.

It was a completely one-sided match with the home side taking 10 5-1 maximums whilst Newcastle could only take one solitary heat win from the 15 races.

15-3 down after three, the only rider to shine on a desperate night for Newcastle was Jason King who made a jet-propelled gate in the fourth to take a good win over the excellent Islanders€™ new reserve Richard Sweetman and Krzysztof Stojanowski in a shared heat.

King went on to score half the final total.

Unfortunately the Islanders were not going to ease up and over the following four heats they increased their lead to a whopping 37-11 as Paul Fry, Jason Bunyan and Chris Holder turned the thumbscrews tighter and tighter, even relegating King to the €śordinary€ť category.

36 points down after Heat 11 the match was long lost, as the Isle of Wight kept stamping on everything the Diamonds could muster with complete dominance but in the 12th Josef Franc almost managed to put one over Glenn Phillips as the Czech had led the heat until the determined Islander sneaked past him on the finish line as the home side took the score to 55-17.

Heat 13 produced another home 5-1 for Stojanowski and Bunyan over the now demoralised King and Stancl untroubled, with 14 a similarly easy home maximum for Fry and Andrew Bargh over Richard Juul and Sean Stoddart.

The final Heat 15 resulted in a share of the points when Franc and King took the second and third places following Bunyan's bike blowing to bits when leading the race which put Fry in front for the three points taking the score to 68-22.

Following this serious defeat the promoters spotlight must now be shining at several lowly scorers with a view to their future on Tyneside, although the management were, on this occasion unavailable for comment.

The Diamonds road show now moves on to the Stoke Potters on Saturday night (7.30pm) when it is desperately hoped that the determined reserve Jerran Hart could well be back in harness, although Stoke also welcome back Lee Complin who has been out injured after a road traffic accident.

Isle of Wight Islanders 68
Jason Bunyan © 2*,3,3,2*,R = 10+2
James Holder 3,1,3,2* = 9+1
Glen Phillips 3,2*,1,3 = 9+1
Paul Fry 2*,3,3,3,3 = 14+1
Krzysztof Stojanowski 1*,2*,2*,3 = 8+3
Andrew Bargh ® 2*,3,3,2* = 10+2
Richard Sweetman ® 3,2,2*,1 = 8+1 

Newcastle Sapphire Engineering Diamonds 22
George Stancl 1,1,1,0 = 3
Christian Henry Rider Replacement
Josef Franc 1,1,1,2,1* = 6+1
Sean Stoddart 0,0,0,0,0 = 0
Jason King 3,2,1^,2,1,2 = 11
Luke Priest (guest) ® 0,0,0,0,0  = 0
Richard Juul © ® 1,0,0,0,1 = 2