This in from Bryn, in his own words, Ed
The sun shone brightly on Smallbrook Stadium yesterday evening as the Wightlink Islanders turned up the heat on the visiting Stoke Potters in their opening home match of the 2013 speedway season.
In the first leg of the home and away clash between the two sides, and much to the delight of the fans, a brilliant all-round team performance saw us storm to a 61-31 Wightlink Shield victory win and thus a 30pts lead to take to the Potteries to defend in Saturday’s second leg.
And given the strength of our team performance last night leading to the gaining of that very substantial lead, allied to the team’s 20pts away win at Buxton on Sunday, it’ll be a major surprise if they don’t return from Saturday’s second leg at Stoke’s Loomer Road circuit with the Shield well and truly in their possession and the first of what all at the club feel may well be several trophies coming our way this year.
Tipped to win second leg
It has to be said too that after the meeting as the riders mixed with the fans in the stadium’s Premier Lounge, many of those fans were tipping the team to go to Stoke and win the second leg too!
They may well do that if they ride as well as they did last night in a match that saw the Wightlink Islanders provide no less that twelve of the fifteen race winners including three for Premier League Plymouth’s Jake Anderson, who deputised for the injured Byron Bekker.
Still supporting the club
Although shattered that the injury has robbed him of the the chance of riding for our club this year, Byron made sure he was there in person last night supporting the team to the hilt which was great to see.
Only minor blip in an otherwise near flawless match for us was the fact that both Jake Anderson and Adam Ellis had their hopes of ending the evening unbeaten by a Stoke rider ended when the Potters’ No.5 Kyle Hughes did very well indeed to head the pair of them home in heat 15, the last race of a thoroughly entertaining match.
Result and scorers
Wightlink Islanders 61: Tom Perry 9+1, Danny Stoneman 8+1, Ben Hopwood 8+2, Darryl Ritchings 7, Jake Anderson 11+3, Adam Ellis 13+1, Brandon Freemantle 5+1
Stoke 31: Lee Smart 4, Ben Reade, 3, Luke Chessell*** (rider replacement), Luke Priest 8, Kyle Hughes 12, Shaun Tedham 2+1, Chris Widman 2+1
*** Luke Chessell currently out injured. Stoke operated the rider replacement regulations to cover for him and that meant the Potters were able to give one of Chessell’s scheduled rides to Luke Priest and share the other three rides between reserves Tedham and Widman.
GB Youth bosses call up Tom and Adam
Wightlink Islanders duo Tom Perry and Adam Ellis have been named by Great Britain Youth bosses ex-rider Phil Morris and Neil Vatcher (who came over to watch our team in action last night) in their initial seven-man squad for the World Under-21Team Cup semi-final at Gdansk in Poland on May 25.
Morris said: “We will look at current form in the Elite, Premier and National Leagues as well as the recent British Under-21 Final and overall commitment to pick our final four.
“It promises to be a very tough meeting against home nation Poland, Sweden and Russia but our boys will be determined to perform to the best of their ability.
The seven riders named in the initial squad are: Robert Branford (Leicester); ADAM ELLIS (IOW); Kyle Howarth (Workington); Joe Jacobs (Coventry); Ashley Morris (Workington); Stefan Nielsen (Mildenhall); TOM PERRY (IOW).
Fixtures
Saturday May 4 – away at Stoke (Wightlink Shield – 2nd leg)
Tuesday May 7 – HOME v BUXTON (National Trophy) – 7pm
Monday May 13 – Away at Kent (National Trophy)
Tuesday May 14 – HOME v MILDENHALL (National Trophy) – 7pm
And finally …
Expect further developments shortly in respect of us completing the arrival of a new team member to plug the gap created by Byron Bekker’s knee injury ruling him out of action this year.
Image: © Ian Groves
