Cubs v Devils

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By Steve Harland ~ Saturday 3rd May 2008
CONFERENCE LEAGUE title favourites Plymouth Devils are the visitors to South Tees Motorsport Park on Saturday evening (7.30pm). The ‘TLS/Simpson Racing UK’ Cubs will be without the services of kiwi Jade Mudgway, who sustained a fractured wrist following an incident involving Scunthorpe’s Jonathan Bethell last weekend. The good news is that Aaron Summers returns to the team whilst squad member Steve Jones goes straight in at No.2 to make his seasonal debut whilst Martin Emerson, who displayed great tenacity in three of his rides at Scunthorpe to defeat both of their top two riders, moves to the No.4 position. Jason Pipe, the Cubs team manager, is confident that the match will be won at reserve with David Wallinger averaging 9pts in meetings so far and although Guy Kendrew did not score at Scunthorpe he can be very quick out of the starts.

The action takes place immediately following the rearranged Redcar Bears v Scunthorpe Scorpions Premier Trophy fixture at 6pm. That’s 30 heats of speedway for £14 adult admission.

TEAM LINE-UPS:

REDCAR ‘TLS/SIMPSON RACING UK’ CUBS
1 Scott James; 2 Steve Jones; 3 Gary Beaton; 4 Martin Emerson; 5 Aaron Summers; 6 David Wallinger; 7 Guy Kendrew.

PLYMOUTH ‘GT MOTORCYLES/SILVERLINE TAXIS’ DEVILS
1 Seemond Stephens; 2 Kyle Hughes; 3 Tom Brown; 4 Ben Hopwood; 5 Nicki Glanz; 6 Paul Starke; 7 Jamie Pickard.

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Redcar Cubs 47

Scott James 2 2* 1 2 1 =8 +1
Steven Jones 1* 3 2 0 =6 +1
Gary Beaton 3 F 2 2* =7 +1
Martin Emerson 1 1 0 2* =4 +1
Aaron Summers 3 3 3 6! 1* 3 =19 +1
David Wallinger X =0 +0
Guy Kendrew X 0 0 0 0 3 =3 +0

Plymouth Devils 43

Seemond Stephens 3 3 1* 3 2 =12 +1
Kyle Hughes 0 2* 3 2 0 =7 +1
Tom Brown 2 2 3 0 =7 +0
Ben Hopwood 0 1* 2* 1 =4 +2
Nicki Glanz 2 1 3 0 =6 +0
Paul Starke X 0 1 1 =2 +0
Jaimie Pickard 3 1* 1 0 =5 +1

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For those who didn't stay behind, you missed one hell of a good meeting between the Cubs and the Devils. Plymouth are many peoples choice as Conference league winners and when you look at their line up you can see why. They have a very solid experienced top 5 with 2 rookies at reserve.

The track had been severely watered after the Bears match and a great deal of grading went on before the start of the match. Some of the early heats looked a little dodgy to say the least.

Heat 2 being a prime example. In the first running, Kendrew and Starke came together on the 1st - 2nd bend after Kendrew got very out of shape. Starke was very lucky to escape severe injury as Kendrew's bike shot in the air and came down on either Starke's head or chest. In the re-run, kendrew was excluded and 3 riders left the tapes. A good race was developing when Wallinger and Pickard came together on the 3rd - 4th bend, after several somersaults it resulted in Wallinger taking a short ride back to the pits in the ambulance. With Wallinger now excluded the 2 remaining Plymouth riders rode around in the 2nd re-run. I say rode around because they certainly didnt race and as a result Starke was excluded at the end because he wasn't trying to race. The winning time of 70.1 brought back memories of Cleveland Park.

As the meeting progressed the racing got better and a fascinating match began to unwind. The return of Aaron Summers to the team was a great help and he performed a great pass on Glanz to win heat 4.

Heat 5 was very hard on Gary Beaton, both Plymouth riders had made the gate and led from Emerson and Beaton. On the 2nd lap entering the 3rd - 4th bend, Emerson got totally out of shape and Gary Beaton quite clearly laid his bike down to miss a certain collision. With Emerson managing to hold on to his bike the referee allowed the race to continue when I felt the race should of been stopped and re-run with Emerson being excluded as the cause of the stoppage. This heat advantage put the devils into a 5 pt lead.

Heat 6 saw Nicki Glanz gate ahead of both James and Jones but some superb passing by both Cubs turned this heat into a 5 - 1 and the cubs were now only 1pt adrift.

Heat 7 had the strange effect of the 2 minute warning sounding all the way through the race, the novice referee had obviously forgotten to switch it off. It was very nearly timed to perfection as the old countdown du-du, du-du, duddley-du came just before Aaron Summers crossed the line in front.

Heats 8, 9 and 10 produced 2-4, 2-4 and a 1-5 to plymouth as they opened up a 9pt lead, with Tom Brown giving Ty Proctor a lesson in how to do a doughnut after heat 10, he seemed very happy with his win.

Aaron Summers stopped the rot in heat 11 with another superb victory.

Heat 12 and Jason Pipe makes a master stroke by bringing in Aaron Summers as a tactical substitute off 15 mtrs to replace the out of sorts Guy Kendrew. Gary Beaton made a superb start and led out of the 2nd bend by which time Aaron was all over the back wheel of Tom Brown but still in last place. On the 2nd lap, Aaron passed brown and now set off after Starke. On entering the last lap it still didn't look as though Aaron was going to find a way passed but with a final burst down the back straight Aaron went around the outside line and made a great pass and with Gary Beaton watching every move he slowed down just enough for Aaron to take the flag a return a fantastic 8 - 1.

The Cubs now only 2pts behind and with heat 13 shared heat 14 looked like a nightmare. Emerson had looked a different rider from the one on show at Scunthorpe and with Kendrew who had scored nothing from 5 rides having to come in for the injured Wallinger a 2 - 4 would of been more than we could of expected. Form book goes out of the window as Kendrew gates closely followed by Emerson and the resulting 5 - 1 gives the cubs the lead for the first time on the night with only one heat remaining.

The final heat 4 - 2 gives the Cubs a great if unexpected 4 pt victory.

Overall:

A superb victory for Jason Pipe and the cubs despite losing David Wallinger in heat 2. Aaron Summers gave a great display just missing out on a maximum, lets just hope he has an off night when Edinburgh visit the Bears in the cup.

Plymouth must be congratulated for their part in an excellent advert for Conference League racing.

Rider Performances:

Scott James: Slight case of after the Lord Mayor's show, following his maximum in the first Cubs match at home didn't return a heat win but was solid support to the team effort.

Steve Jones: Drafted in following Jade's injury did well enough and his passing of Glanz in heat 6 showed he can do it at this level.

Gary Beaton: Great captains display, not having the best of luck with referee's but his ride in heat 12 was a classic.

Martin Emerson: Appears to ride better away from home, still doesn't look convincing around the STeMP but his ride with Kendrew in heat 14 probably was the match winning ride.

Aaron Summers: A different class at this level, just missed out on a 21pt maximum in heat 13, superb.

David Wallinger: Took a heavy tumble in heat 2 and took no further part in the meeting. Wanted to ride on but was told not to by the medical team, will probably have an ankle like a football tomorrow.

Guy Kendrew: Guy is the Dan Giffard of the cubs, does nothing in 5 rides then comes out and wins the vital heat 14. Keep at it Guy.

Rider of the night: Aaron Summers