Scorpions just miss out after thriller

SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 46 PETERBOROUGH PANTHERS 44 (Premier League Knockout Cup, first round, second leg)
Peterborough win 90-89 on aggregate

FLUIDAIR POWER Scunthorpe Scorpions were desperately close to reaching the next round of the Knockout Cup yesterday afternoon (Bank Holiday Monday). The Scorpions defeated Peterborough Panthers 46-44 in the second leg at the Eddie Wright Raceway, but lost out 89-90 on aggregate.

On an afternoon where the racing just seemed to get better and better and better, it finally came down to Heat 15, with the Scorpions needing a 4-2 or 5-1 to progress. And what an amazing four laps those were.

From the start, Nicolai Klindt and Ryan Douglas had the edge, but in a blink of an eye, Peterborough’s Lasse Bjerre sliced between them on the second bend.

It wasn’t long before Klindt regained the lead, but in the meantime, Douglas found himself squeezed back into fourth place, behind Ulrich Ostergaard.

But Flyin’ Ryan wasn’t beaten quite yet. On the opening turn of the third lap, he charged under Ostergaard. But unfortunately his momentum took him wide, and Ostergaard regained third place.

On the last lap, Klindt – knowing a 3-3 wasn’t enough – tried to slow the Peterborough riders. He did to an extent. And Douglas tried one last blast around the outside. But the Peterborough pair combined to shut out his challenge, and the Panthers were home by the narrowest of margins.

However, that was just one of a number of superb races, on a day where speedway really was the winner.

The afternoon also contained:

• Heat 4: Ryan Douglas tangled with team-mate Thomas Jorgensen on the opening lap, but he recovered the lost ground, as both Scorpions found a way past Oliver Greenwood.

• Heat 8: The mother of battles for third place, with Jorgensen and Greenwood passing and repassing. An assertive inside swoop by Jorgensen on the last bend finally settled the matter.

• Heat 9: A spectacular ride by Bjerre. He stormed from third to first, first rounding Ashley Birks on the fourth bend of lap 1, then repeating the move on David Howe a lap later. Howe wasn’t that easily beaten and nearly repassed Bjerre on the third lap.

• Heat 10: Josh Auty and Nicolai Klindt led early on, but it wasn’t long until Ostergaard became involved in a ding-dong battle for second place with Klindt. It started to get a bit scary on the second lap, as Ostergaard got out of shape, Klindt had to momentarily throttle off, while fourth-placed Dryml laid his bike down. The race continued, with Ostergaard passing Klindt in style on the third lap, then Klindt went for the big handful around the outside off the final bend. They flashed over the line almost together, with the referee’s verdict going to Ostergaard.

• Heat 13: Lewis Blackbird & Lasse Bjerre led from the tapes, but Bjerre was pushed aside by Douglas & Auty on the opening lap, and then Douglas changed lines to swoop inside Blackbird with a lap remaining, as the Scorpions kept their hopes alive with a 4-2.

Maybe the defining moment came in Heat 14, a race halted after a fall for Greenwood on the second bend. The Scorpions pair of Birks & Jorgensen held a 5-1 at the time of stoppage, but Ostergaard moved inside Jorgensen on the second bend of the re-run to keep the Panthers one point ahead on aggregate, before that stellar final race.

Both sides deserve full credit in being involved in such a superb speedway meeting.

After the meeting, Scorpions’ team manager Dave Peet said: “It couldn’t have been any closer over the two legs.

“The boys were giving it their all from beginning to end. But it just seemed the Peterborough riders were quicker out of the start. Every time we have a daytime meeting, we seem to be sluggish out of the starts.

“I think the luck evened itself out over the two legs. I don’t really look at, for example, Heat 14 being stopped today while we were on a 5-1. That was just one race, over the two legs it’s been 30 races.

“Nicolai (Klindt) & Ryan (Douglas) knew what we needed to get from the final race and did everything they could to try to get it. That race was probably worth the admission money on its own.

“Ryan rode with a bandaged up wrist today, but he didn’t seem to let it bother him too much – he just got on with it.”

Scorpions’ top scorer Nicolai Klindt said: “All the boys fought really hard throughout the meeting. It was just one of those days, where collectively we didn’t score enough. That’s life.

“I was a bit disappointed not to get a paid win alongside Josh (Auty) in my fourth ride. I nearly ran into Ulrich (Ostergaard) twice and I ended up third.

“In Heat 15, Dougie (Ryan Douglas) and myself planned to come out of the second bend with a 5-1. We did make good starts, but then Lasse Bjerre charged between us. I got back past him on the third and fourth bend to take the lead. After that, I was trying to see if I could hold them up, but I couldn’t help Dougie get through.

“The track was brilliant today. It had lots of different lines, you could ride the inside or the outside.”

FLUIDAIR POWER SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 46
1. Josh Auty 0 1 3 1 (5)
2. Nicolai Klindt 2 3 3 1 3 (12)
3. David Howe 0 2 2 2 (6)
4. Ashley Birks 3 1* 1* 2 (7+2)
5. Ryan Douglas 1* 2 1 3 0 (7+1)
6. Matt Williamson 0 1* 0 (1+1)
7. Thomas Jorgensen 3 2 1 1* 1* (8+2)

PETERBOROUGH PANTHERS 44
1. Ryan Fisher R/R
2. Lewis Blackbird 1 FX 2 3 2 (8)
3. Ales Dryml 1* R F 2* 3 (6+2)
4. Ulrich Ostergaard 2 3 3 2 3 1* (14+1)
5. Lasse Bjerre 3 3 2 3 R 2 (13)
6. Joe Jacobs 2 0 0 0 (2)
7. Oliver Greenwood 1* 0 0 FX (1+1)

1: Bjerre, Klindt, Blackbird, Auty, 57.97 (2-4) (2-4).
2: Jorgensen, Jacobs, Greenwood, Williamson, 58.44 (3-3) (5-7).
3: Birks, Ostergaard, Dryml, Howe, 58.27 (3-3) (8-10).
4: Bjerre, Jorgensen, Douglas, Greenwood, 58.69 (3-3) (11-13).
5: (Re-run) Ostergaard, Howe, Birks, Blackbird (fell, excluded), 58.63 (3-3) (14-16).
6: Klindt, Bjerre, Auty, Jacobs, 58.34 (4-2) (18-18).
7: Ostergaard, Douglas, Williamson, Dryml (ret), 59.00 (3-3) (21-21).
8: Klindt, Blackbird, Jorgensen, Greenwood, 57.84 (4-2) (25-23).
9: Bjerre, Howe, Birks, Jacobs, 58.84 (3-3) (28-26).
10: Auty, Ostergaard, Klindt, Dryml (fell), 59.28 (4-2) (32-28).
11: Blackbird, Dryml, Douglas, Williamson, 58.56 (1-5) (33-33).
12: Dryml, Howe, Jorgensen, Jacobs, 58.41 (3-3) (36-36).
13: Douglas, Blackbird, Auty, Bjerre (ret), 58.60 (4-2) (40-38).
14: (Re-run) Ostergaard, Birks, Jorgensen, Greenwood (fell, excluded), 59.19 (3-3) (43-41).
15: Klindt, Bjerre, Ostergaard, Douglas, 59.02 (3-3) (46-44).