Sittingbourne v Plymouth 3 August 08

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Sittingbourne = 33

1. Dean Felton 2, 2, 4^, 1, 1, 1 = 11
2. Alex Cunningham 1', 1', 1', 0 = 3+3
3. Harland Cook 2, 2, 2, FX!, 0 = 6
4. Marc Andrews Fx, 0, 1' = 1+1
5. Aaron Baseby Fx, 1, 2, 0 = 3
6. Rikki Mullins F, Fx, 0 = 0
7. Daniel Berwick 3, 2, 1', 1, 2 = 9+1

Plymouth = 59

1. Mark Simmonds 3, 3, 3, 2' = 11+1
2. Jamie White Williams 0, 1, 0, 1 = 2
3. Tom Brown 1, 2', 2', 3 = 8+2
4. Nicki Glanz 3, 3, 3, 3, 2' = 14+1
5. Seemond Stephens 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 = 15
6. Jai Pickard 1', R, Fx = 1+1
7. Paul Starke 2, 1, 3, 2', 0 = 8+1

Heat Results


Heat 01: Simmonds, Felton, Cunningham, Williams 3-3 59.2

Heat 02: Berwick, Starke, Pickard, Mullins fell 3-3 6-6 61.9
Mullins fell while leading last bend.

Heat 03: Glanz, Cook, Brown, Andrews Fx 2-4 8-10
Andrews fell lap 3 when last. Brown passed Cook as race was stopped.

Heat 04: Stephens, Berwick, Starke, Baseby Fx 2-4 10-14
Baseby fell very Spectaularly on feet but fenced damaged.

Heat 05: Simmonds, Cook, Williams, Andrews 2-4 12-18 61.3

Heat 06: Stephens, Felton, Cunningham, Pickard ret 3-3 15-21 61.5

Heat 07: Re-run Glanz, Brown, Baseby 1-5 16-26 61.6
Mullins fell lap 1 and excluded from Re-run

Heat 08: Starke, FELTON, Cunningham, Williams 5-3 21-29 63.5
Felton T/S off 15metres replacing Berwick.

Heat 09: Stephens, Cook, Berwick, Pickard Fx 3-3 24-32
Berwick replaced Andrews and Pickard fell and was excluded bend 2 lap 4 race awarded.

Heat 10: Glanz, Brown, Felton, Cunningham 1-5 25-37 61.8

Heat 11: Simmonds, Baseby, Williams, Mullins 2-4 27-41 61.9

Heat 12: Brown, Starke, Berwick, COOK Fx 1-5 28-46 Aw
Cook on TR fell bend 2 lap 4 Starke for Pickard.

Heat 13: Stephens, Simmonds, Felton, Baseby 1-5 29-51 62.8

Heat 14: Glanz, Berwick, Andrews, Starke 3-3 32-54 62.7
Berwick for Mullins

Heat 15: Stephens, Glanz, Felton, Cook 1-5 33-59 61.6

Sittingbourne 1 and 3
Line-up: Felton, Cook, Glanz, Stephens
*************************
Comments:

Teams confirmed.
Sittingbourne win toss take 1 and 3.

[admin]

Watching the Sittingbourne Crusaders in their home matches this Speedway season always leaves their followers with a distinct sense of déjà vu. This one had it all. The promising start dashed by a shocking bit of misfortune. The sequence of awarded races. Opponents with a trio of peerless higher division-experienced heat-leaders amassing enough on their own for comfort. The plucky mid-meeting attempt at a come-back from a not yet hopeless position. The alarming late meeting collapse. And, oh so nearly, yet another 30-something-60-something defeat!

The first stanza of this familiar tale was a heat two with teenager Rikki Mullins leading comfortably and fellow Kent-based rider Dan Berwick tucked in for a morale-boosting 5-1. Come the final bend of lap four and suddenly Mullins, perhaps over excited at the prospect of a first-ever competitive win, lost shape entirely and crashed to the ground. It was a blow from which the Sidcup youngster never recovered nor perhaps, in truth, his team-mates.

Two unfinished races followed: the second courtesy of another fourth bend crash – this time spectacularly taking out the fence panel nearest to the pit gate – by the third Kent-born member of the inexperienced Crusaders’ outfit, Aaron Baseby: and within no time there was a ten point margin to contend with.
That was due almost entirely to the efforts of the championship-chasing Devils’ top three of Stephens, Simmonds and Glanz who all frankly never looked like dropping points all afternoon.

Cue the b&w helmet cover, signalling an attempt for double-points, for the homesters’ skipper Dean Felton – this time off a 15 metres handicap; and, with much help from the ever-trying Kiwi, Alex Cunningham, the gap was suddenly down to eight.

But quite how so narrow a gap after nine heats opened up to 22 going into the penultimate race is the perennial mystery of a Sittingbourne outfit who at home seem to run out of steam. This left the side staring down the barrel of conceding 60 points for a seventh successive match; and so it seemed, until Starke fell in heat 14 and the impressive Berwick happily snatched the two points towards a first ever paid double figures return.

A first-ever double-figures paid return for the Medway-based, Dan Berwick following on from some more steady away scoring up at Scunthorpe marked a fairly satisfying weekend’s work for the 21-year-old.

“I had mixed feelings after the Plymouth match, as scoring paid ten is obviously pleasing but I feel I could’ve done better. And though our spirits are high in the camp the awful luck we are having is clearly playing a part”.

This time it was partner in the Kent side’s reserve –berths, fellow locally-based Rikki Mullins who must have upset that capricious mistress, Lady Luck crashing out when partnering Berwick home for what would have been a maximum in their opening ride.
“I was gutted for Rikki. My lasting memory of our trip down to Plymouth the weekend before last had been seeing Paul Starke blasting away from me into the distance. With form like that, a rider like Paul who hasn’t been in the game much longer than me, seemed nigh on invincible; but at our place it was different and to head him home pepped me up a lot and would have done the same for Rikki”.

In the end, Berwick’s second place in the penultimate race when up against Starke again was enough to prevent another carbon-copy 60-30 type defeat but still the Crusaders seem incapable of scoring past 33.

Skipper Dean Felton puts it into perspective though,
“At the end of the day we’re returning consistently scores of 30 to 33..: and away from home we’ve done better than some of the top sides at various tracks (Boston lost more heavily at Weymouth at the weekend than we had) – if we had Jerran Hart and Mark Baseby as we would have had at Scunthorpe but for recent injuries, that would mean another 15 points and we’d be on level terms at least”.

The Iwade based club are quickly able to make amends with the visit of the Redcar Cubs to the Raspberry Hill Lane track on Sunday (10/8) - a mid-day start time.

Final score: SITTINGBOURNE 33 PLYMOUTH 59

Scorers: Felton 11; Berwick 9; Harland Cook 6; Cunningham 3; A. Baseby 3; Marc Andrews 1; Mullins 0.