On a somewhat chilly Tuesday evening at Smallbrook the Wightlink Islanders, having previously defeated both Buxton and Mildenhall, made it three wins out of three matches so far in this year’s National Trophy competition by beating Stoke 47-43 in a closely fought contest last night.
The loyal home fans who came along to cheer their team on were treated to some excellent high speed racing by both sides with there never being more than six points separating the two of them as they battled for supremacy over the course of the fifteen heats.
Stoneman scored vital points
And Islanders’ No.6 Danny Stoneman typified his team’s determination to send those fans home in celebratory mood by shrugging off the horror of blowing his engine to pieces whilst leading heat 2 and scoring vital points in his four further outings during the match astride bikes borrowed from either Ben Hopwood or skipper Danny Warwick.
Skipper Warwick set the tone of what was to follow by storming to victory in the opening heat of the match, before Stoneman suffered his misfortune in the next race which resulted in Stoke recording a maximum 5-1 advantage to take a two point lead at 5-7.
They maintained that advantage until consecutive 4-2 victories in heats 6 and 7 for the home side, with Warwick and Paul Starke recording victories, saw them ease back into the lead at 22-20.
Heat advantage
After three consecutive shared heats, the pivotal moment in the match came in heat 11 when Stoke’s top man Ashley Birks fell whilst chasing race leader Starke hard, handing us our first and only 5-1 heat advantage of the match to put us six points clear at 36-30 with just four races remaining.
And Danny Warwick and his team mates were in no mood to lose the lead they had worked so hard to achieve.
Final score
Wightlink Islanders 47 Stoke Potters 43 (National Trophy – September 11)
Islanders scorers: Danny Warwick 13, Paul Starke 11+1, Ben Hopwood 9+2, Danny Stoneman 7+2, Steve Jones 6+2, Ross Walter 1
