Comets soar to the top
Last updated 08:12, Monday, 26 May 2008
IT’S good to be a Workington Comets fan at the moment – joint top of the Premier League and with two successive away wins behind them.
Premier League: Stoke Potters 36 Workington Comets 59
After a remarkable 50-40 victory at Sheffield on Thursday, the Comets were 59-36 winners at Stoke 48 hours later.
Those three points carry the Comets to the top of the pile alongside Somerset Rebels who had hammered Stoke at home on Friday.
For the second match in a row every Workington rider either won a race or was paid for a heat win.
Team manager Ian Thomas said: “The team – and I mean every one of them – is riding 105% at the moment. They are a fearsome combination as the last two results show.
“Sheffield are a tougher team than Stoke but we won more comprehensively against the Potters so I think the two performances were on a par.
“To score 109 points and collect six League points in two successive away meetings is pretty good going by anyone’s standards.
“We are joint top with Somerset but the hard part will be staying at the top because we have ridden more matches than anybody else.”
But there were two downsides to the win at Loomer Road – both injuries.
John Branney and Carl Stonehewer both took heavy knocks and could be doubtful for Monday’s second leg of the Knockout Cup at home to the Potters at
Derwent Park (7pm).
“John took a bang in the ribs in his first race but insisted on continuing and he gave a really gutsy performance.
“Stoney is probably the biggest concern for Monday as he’s sore all over after he came off. He also took a knock in the ribs but he scraped the arm which has had plastic surgery and that was giving some concern.
“To make matters worse he was excluded and quite a lot of people felt he shouldn’t have been.”
Thomas said that he never had any doubts that Workington would win the meeting after they went 11-7 ahead as a result of the third heat.
After five heats Workington were 20-10 clear which necessitated Stoke giving Lee Complin a tactical ride in the next.
The race was stopped after Mark Burrows went round Stoney on the last turn of lap one and there was a coming together on the home straight.
They went down, along with Complin but referee Graham Flint decided the Workington rider was responsible and he was excluded.
Joe Haines had been leading at the time and he also gated well in the r-run but Burrows was first past him on the last turn of the second lap and Complin got round at the same place a lap later.
The Stoke number one just got past his team-mate on the line when Burrows slowed for a Stoke 8-1.
But there was no panic from the Comets and they reeled off two successive 5-1’s courtesy of skipper Kauko Nieminen and Charles Wright, and then Haines and Branney.
After that Stoke never did better than a shared heat as Workington simply powered away for another outstanding win.
The last five heats were all won by Workington riders and the 22-10 advantage over those final races carried the Comets to an impressive victory margin.
Thomas added: “What pleased me most was that there was a lot of Workington supporters at the match.
“With the win at Sheffield and now at Stoke I think we’re looking at a very good crowd on Monday when we hope to make progress in the Knockout Cup.”
Workington have an eight-point lead from the win at Stoke in the Knockout Cup but can’t afford any complacency – especially with two riders unlikely to be fully fit.
match facts
Stoke Potters 36: Lee Complin 9; Mark Burrows 4; Ben Barker 12; Barrie Evans 0; Emiliano Sanchez 6; Klaus Jakobsen 1; Jesper Kristensen 4.
Workington Comets 51: Daniel Nermark 14; rider replacement for Barry Burchett; Kauko Nieminen 12; Charles Wright 6; Carl Stonehewer 8; Joe Haines 13; John Branney 6.
Heat by heat
Heat 1: Nermark, Wright, Burrows, Complin (61.2) 1-5
Heat 2: Haines, Kristensen, Jakobsen, Branney (f,exc) 63.3 (4-8)
Heat 3: Barker, Nieminen, Wright, Sanchez 62.0 (7-11)
Heat 4: Stonehewer, Sanchez, Branney, Kristensen 63.9 (9-15)
Heat 5: Nermark, Branney, Barker, Evans 62.5 (10-20)
Heat 6: COMPLIN, Burrows, Haines, Stonehewer (f, exc) 64.7 (18-21)
Heat 7: Nieminen, Wright, Sanchez, Jakobsen 63.8 (19-26)
Heat 8: Haines, Branney, Burrows, Kristensen 65.0 (20-31)
Heat 9: Barker, Stonehewer, Haines, Evans 64.7 (23-34)
Heat 10: Complin, Nieminen, Wright, Burrows (f, exc) 64.5 (26-37)
Heat 11: Nermark, Sanchez, Branney, Jakobsen 64.8 (28-41)
Heat 12: Nieminen, Haines, Kristensen, Barker (ef) 64.6 (29-46)
Heat 13: Stonehewer, Nermark, Sanchez 65.1 (30-51)
Heat 14: Haines, BARKER, Kristensen, Wright 65.7 (35-54)
Heat 15: Nermark, Nieminen, Barker, Sanchez 65.2 (36-59)
