Scorpions battle at Workington
WORKINGTON COMETS 51 SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 39 (CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP)
A SLOW START for Ellie Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions proved costly, as they lost their second away meeting within 24 hours, with a 39-51 defeat at Workington yesterday afternoon (Saturday).
It followed a disappointing 34-56 defeat in Scotland at Edinburgh’s Armadale stadium on Friday night.
Workington Comets were flying out of the starts in the opening races and they quickly established a 16-8 lead after four races and were leading 29-19 after Heat 8.
Scorpions’ team manager David Howe placed Kyle Howarth into Heat 9 as a tactical substitute and he joined guest Justin Sedgmen for a 5-1.
Scunthorpe continued to fight for every point, while Howarth scored a notable win over top Workington pair Craig Cook and Troy Batchelor in Heat 13, ruining Batchelor’s maximum in the process. But Workington edged home with a 3-3 in Heat 14, despite a race win for Jake Allen.
Heat 15 was stopped with Scorpions on a 3-3, and the re-run saw both Cook and Batchelor burst through in a close opening lap, with Howarth taken wide when he tried to repeat his outside move from Heat 13 on the fourth bend. The concluding 5-1 extended Workington’s advantage to 12 points.
Scorpions provided just four heat winners in 15 races.
Scorpions’ team manager David Howe said: “Our away form still isn’t quite there. I’m not sure what it is. We’ve got quite a break now from away matches, so hopefully we can get some momentum going away from the home meetings and then take that away.
“It’s the end of a disappointing weekend away from home and we do need to start to improve our away performances. We know we’re strong at home, but we’re giving ourselves some hard work for some of the aggregate bonus points and those are always important.
“Gate four was hard today and we had that three times in the first four races and Workington pulled away. After that we were holding them, but we weren’t getting enough heat winners.
“Looking at positives, the boys did score pretty solidly, while I changed the races around to get the most out of Nathan (Ablitt). He was on the end of a pretty ruthless first bend from Claus Vissing in Heat 14, otherwise his score would have been even more impressive.
“It was a shame that the last race was stopped, because we’d taken an eight-point defeat, but Workington took a 5-1 in the re-run. Justin Sedgmen did a decent job as a guest, but of course, we’d like to have our regular one-to-seven back.
“Every time it looked like we could bring back a heat advantage, one of the Workington riders produced a magnificent last bend. It’s a good race track and the whole new facility here is very impressive and just what British Speedway needs.”
WORKINGTON 51: Troy Batchelor 12+2, Craig Cook 10+1, Tate Zischke 10, Antti Vuolas 10, Jake Mulford 7+1, Claus Vissing 2+1, Sam McGurk 0.
SCUNTHORPE 39: Kyle Howarth 10+1, Jake Allen 7+1, Simon Lambert 6+2, Nathan Ablitt 6+1,Justin Sedgmen 6, Connor Mountain 3+1, Ben Trigger 1.
* THE next home meeting at the Eddie Wright Raceway is a double-header on Friday (June 28) against Edinburgh at the earlier than usual start-time of 7pm. Ellie Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions will race Edinburgh Monarchs in Cab Direct Championship action and that will be followed by the Scunthorpe Stags taking on the Edinburgh Academy in the WSRA National League.
