Bryn shares this update from Wight Warriors speedway team. Ed
National League: Wight Warriors 43 Eastbourne Eagles 47
There was a real party atmosphere enjoyed by all from start to finish last night at the Andrew Younie Smallbrook stadium with the only thing missing being a Wight Warriors victory.
But it wasn’t through lack of effort that they went down by four points in a last heat decider to third in the league table Eastbourne who utilised the rider replacement regulations to cover for the injured Gary Cottham, and if some debatable decisions had gone their way in the match, the final result could have been so different.
There were a couple of close finishes but the main talking point came in the very last race that saw the Warriors needing a maximum 5-1 advantage to draw and for the majority of the first lap they seemed set to achieve that with skipper James Cockle and Chris Widman leading the Eastbourne pairing of the hitherto unbeaten Ellis Perks and Jake Knight who had won his previous two heats.
Coming out of the fourth bend Perks charged hard inside Widman pushing him so wide that the Warrior hit the safety fence but somehow stayed on the bike and that was enough to dash our hope of getting anything out of the match.
Overall it was the Eagles top end strength that won them the match with the four of them winning ten heats between them as opposed to just five for the Warriors.
“Welcome to the Isle of Wight”
Off track it was Caribbean Party time with Island reggae star Derek Sandy singing two songs live, his acclaimed “Welcome to the Isle of Wight” track before the match kicking proceedings off and the other during the interval, but on track alas, Eastbourne proved to be the party poopers!
Warriors scorers: James Cockle 10, Nathan Stoneman 7+3, Chris Widman 7+1, Mark Baseby 7, Lee Smart 6+2, Kelsey Dugard 5+2, Layne Cupitt 1.
Eastbourne scorers: Ellis Perks 17, Danyon Hume (guest) 10+1, Jake Knight 10+1, Georgie Wood 6+1, Charley Powell 2+2, Luke Harris 2.
Next week’s action
It’s Tuesday night racing at the Andrew Younie Smallbrook stadium in the form of the re-staging of the National League match against King’s Lynn that was rained off on 28th June.
A quick reminder
Our season will draw to a close on Tuesday 13th September when we will face a British Young Lions U23 team.
As you will know, our team Manager Neil Vatcher is doing a terrific job with the British youth system in the guise of the Young Lions, so it is a real honour that the Warriors will line up against an Under 23 team.
It’s sure to have all the fun and frolics of a normal match and more and we close the season in fine style on what has been a tremendous return to the sport.
Image: © Used with the kind permission of Ian Groves
