Scorpions wallop league leaders
SCORPIONS WALLOP LEAGUE LEADERS TO TAKE HUGE STEP TOWARDS PLAY-OFFS
SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 50 POOLE PIRATES 34 (CHAMPIONSHIP)
ATTIS INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions are all but mathematically in the Championship play-offs after a terrific 50-34 victory over league leaders Poole Pirates at a damp Eddie Wright Raceway last night (Friday), with Dane Thomas Jorgensen taking a brilliant 12-point full maximum, while skipper Simon Lambert top scored with 14+2.
It was the first-ever clash between the two clubs in Scunthorpe, with Scorpions taking on one of the true giants of British Speedway – Pirates have won ten top-flight titles.
Poole’s Rory Schlein was ruled out on the morning of the meeting, after a positive Covid test, which means he will be isolating for a compulsory 10 day-period. Schlein was initially due to covered by rider replacement, but the early postponement of the Redcar vs Leicester meeting at lunchtime saw Pirates move in for ex-Scorpion Ryan Douglas as a guest rider.
With Scorpions without both Tero Aarnio (visa issues) and Jordan Palin (collarbone injury), that should have swung things in the favour of the visitors. But they reckoned without the fighting spirit of Scorpions.
Conditions were less than ideal after a heavy rain shower just after 6pm. Whereas most meetings at the Eddie Wright Raceway contain somewhere between 20 and 30 passes, there was only a fraction of those last night, due to the heavy conditions.
With passing at a premium, attacking the opening two bends was a necessity and Scunthorpe showed far more fight than Pirates.
Lambert trapped in Heat 1, while Adam Ellis fought off Douglas in the opening half of the race. The Australian was then blinded by shale and ended up pulling out of the race, as Scorpions started with a 5-1.
By the end of Heat 4, Scorpions were ten points ahead, while the next three heats were shared.
A comical moment followed in Heat 8, when Poole team manager Gary Havelock sent Douglas around to the tapes as a tactical substitute, with Havvy one of the few people in the stadium not to realise that tactical subs are not permitted in this race. Fortunately, things were halted before the race began.
The race saw Scorpions take a 5-1 after both Lambert and Theo Pijper overhauled Danyon Hume on the opening lap, as Scorpions opened a 31-17 lead.
Douglas eventually did take a tactical sub ride – in Heat 10. It looked set to be a 3-3, after a superb last to first swoop by Ellis early on, but he lost control and crashed on the third lap, which gifted Pirates a 5-1 – their only heat advantage of the evening.
Around this time, drizzle was again falling. Douglas trapped in Heat 11, but the race was stopped after Benjamin Basso caused Josh MacDonald to fall. In the re-run, Douglas was left with a few blushes, after he unusually fell off his bike at the tapes before the race had even started, while the 4-2 from Jorgensen and MacDonald extended the lead back to 39-27.
After a shared Heat 12, a determined Jorgensen sealed victory for Scorpions with a charge around Douglas on the second turn on Heat 13.
Just one race remained, with useful guest Kasper Andersen and Lambert taking a 5-1 in Heat 14, as the rain grew harder. It was no surprise that the meeting was called off prior to the nominated Heat 15, with the result standing as 50-34 in Scunthorpe’s favour.
Scunthorpe and Plymouth became the first teams in the Championship to complete their 20 regular fixtures last night.
Scorpions have moved up to fourth place in the table on 33 points.
There’s little doubt that fifth-placed Leicester will overhaul Scorpions in their remaining five matches, while seventh-placed Kent can no longer finish ahead of Scunthorpe.
It would require both Edinburgh and Birmingham to overhaul Scorpions to deny them a place in the play-offs.
To do that, Monarchs need four points from their remaining three away meetings, while Brummies face a real mountain – needing 11 points from two home and two away meetings.
There is a Birmingham vs Edinburgh clash at Perry Barr next Wednesday, where one of those two clubs will drop points.
Speaking post-meeting, maximum man Thomas Jorgensen said: “We have needed a result like this for a while – it was crucial that we got it today. We’re now looking very good to get into the play-offs.
“Poole are already a very strong team and then they brought in Dougie (Ryan Douglas) as a guest, who was absolutely flying here last week for Leicester, so we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
“Despite the rain and the wet conditions, the track was still good. There was nice amount of dirt out there.
“You had to attack the track and be on the right place on the bends. Rob (Godfrey, promoter and track curator) did a good job in levelling it out and making sure it didn’t build up too much on the outside, so that we could continue attacking it.
“It was nice to get a maximum, although I would have liked to have done it from one more race in Heat 15. But with the rain coming down, it was the right decision to call it off.”
Scorpions’ team manager Dave Peet said: “I said to the lads before the meeting started that if we want to win the league title, we’re going to have to beat Poole eventually, so we might as well start out tonight.
“To a man, they all performed, with a big shout out to guest Kasper Andersen, who came in and rode with the same spirit as the rest of the side. It was a good all-around team performance.
“Conditions weren’t ideal following the rain before the meeting, but we asked our riders to go out there and attack it as hard as they can and that’s what they did. I’m proud of them tonight – that was a brilliant performance.”
SCUNTHORPE 50: Simon Lambert 14+2, Thomas Jorgensen 12, Kasper Andersen 10, Theo Pijper 7+3, Adam Ellis 5+1, Josh MacDonald 2, Jordan Palin r/r.
POOLE 34: Ryan Douglas 10, Steve Worrall 9+1, Danny King 8+1, Dan Gilkes 3+1, Danyon Hume 2, Ben Cook 1+1, Benjamin Basso 1.
Abandoned after 14 heats due to rain- result to stand.
* THE EDDIE WRIGHT RACEWAY stages the prestigious British Under-19 Championship next Friday (September 17th) at 7.30pm.
