SUPER SCORPIONS’ SEPTET SUCCEED IN SENSATIONAL STYLE
SUPER SCORPIONS’ SEPTET SUCCEED IN SENSATIONAL STYLE
SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 63 BERWICK BANDITS 27 (Cab Direct Knockout Cup, quarter-final, second leg)
Scunthorpe win 99-81 on aggregate
DEFENDING holders Ellie Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions cruised through to the semi-finals of the Cab Direct Knockout Cup by 99-81 on aggregate, after destroying Berwick Bandits by 63-27 in the second leg of the quarter-final at the Eddie Wright Raceway last night (Friday) with an awesome all-around team performance that will make the rest of the teams in the Cab Direct Championship sit up and take notice.
With Berwick 54-36 ahead after the first leg in Northumberland last month, Scorpions were presented with an 18-point deficit to overhaul. But did their job so effectively that they beat Berwick by exactly double that amount on the night and ended up with a 18-point aggregate victory.
Scorpions took just seven races to level the scores on aggregate, after racing into a 30-12 lead and then took the overall lead with a 4-2 from Connor Mountain and Luke Harrison in Heat 8, after 16-year-old Harrison – enjoying another profitable night – forced Dane Bastian Borke into a mistake on the final lap.
Scunthorpe continued to relentlessly apply the pressure and had booked their spot in the semi-finals of the Cab Direct Knockout Cup against Poole – a rematch of last year’s final – with two heats remaining.
Scorpions finished by taking three 5-1s in the final four races, and took a total of seven 5-1s on the night and also five 4-2s, as all but three heats finished as a heat advantage to the rampant home side. The cornerstone to the massive Scunthorpe victory was avoiding last places, with just one in 15 races of action.
Despite the lopsided scoreline, there was some terrific action on display, no more so than Scunthorpe No 1 Kyle Howarth winning a pulsating battle with Berwick skipper Rory Schlein in Heat 6. Incidentally, Schlein’s comments during a BSN broadcast on Wednesday, when he implied that Bandits were all but through to the semi-finals, came back to bite him and were used as extra motivation for an already hungry Scunthorpe side.
Howarth finished his best performance for Scorpions, since rejoining the club at the start of the season, with an outside surge around Schlein to win Heat 15. His move on the second lap took Schlein off the line as he tried to block the move, and Mountain moved up the inside as this pairing took their third 5-1 of the night.
Howarth scored 12+1 and Mountain 11+2, while Jake Allen dropped just a single point on 10+1, but it was a solid team performance with every Scorpion collecting at least paid seven.
Kyle Howarth said: “I needed that. I’ve not had a lot of luck recently – I’ve not even been able to buy any luck. It was quite a performance from the team, while personally it was so important and has done my confidence the world of good.
“Speedway can be a funny old game at times, but tonight we showed what we can do when all perform across the whole team. We can be very dangerous and it was a great night for us.
“I feel I found something tonight, and that’s good to have around my own track. It was good to finish by passing Rory Schlein in the final race. That’s the old school Kyle Howarth and I hope he’s back.”
SCUNTHORPE 63: Kyle Howarth 12+1, Connor Mountain 11+2, Jake Allen 10+1, Nathan Ablitt 9+1, Simon Lambert 8+1, Michael Palm Toft 8+1, Luke Harrison 5+2.
BERWICK 27: Rory Schlein 10, Bastian Borke 6, Drew Kemp 5, Lewis Kerr 4, Danyon Hume 2, Jye Etheridge 0, Freddy Hodder 0.
* ELLIE ROSE TRAVEL Scunthorpe Scorpions are next in action at Edinburgh next Friday in a Cab Direct Championship league match, before returning to the Eddie Wright Raceway in a fortnight on Friday, May 31 at 7.30pm, when they look to complete the double over the Redcar Bears.
REPORT by Rob Peasley
PHOTO: Connor Mountain and Kyle Howarth on their way to a 5-1 in Heat 1 (pic: Ian Rispin)
