ROB GODFREY REFLECTS ON OPENING LEAGUE VICTORY
ROB GODFREY, the promoter of the Ellie Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions, felt his side showed plenty of spirit to take a 50-40 victory in the Cab Direct Championship over Berwick Bandits at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday evening – despite losing No 1 Steve Worrall in a frightening crash with Berwick’s Peter Kildemand in Heat 1.
The result was Scunthorpe’s first victory in four Cab Direct Championship fixtures – but such is the closeness of the early table that Scorpions were propelled into third place by the victory.
Skipper Simon Lambert top-scored for Scorpions with 13 points, while every Scorpion – with the exception of the withdrawn Worrall – was paid for at least paid seven.
Godfrey said: “The good news is that Stevie Worrall has avoided any broken bones. He was battered and bruised, but it’s another fortnight until we’re back in action, so he’s got a couple of weeks to recuperate.
“We’ve got a team where all seven riders can score points, and when something happens to one of the riders, the others can step forwards – that’s the way our team was built.
“It was one of those nights where so much was happening. Luke Harrison has been a star for us, but he had major clutch problems, and (team manager) David Howe took Luke’s whole of his clutch apart after the meeting to get it right. Jake Allen suffered an exclusion, while of course we had to use injury rider replacement for Steve for the whole night. That scored just six points, whereas Steve would have scored more than that.
“The Kennedy boys – Zaine and Declan – both showed that they could score points up in the team proper. We knew they could, but it’s a great confidence booster for them, while Connor Mountain was again so solid for us.
“Simon Lambert was back to being the real Simon Lambert – the rider we all know he is. At the start of the season, he changed all his gear and he was lost. But I saw something, which made me realise it was the bikes, not him, that was the problem.
“It’s probably the first time this season he’s looked completely like himself. He was calm and collected and looked good on the bike. It wasn’t just the races he won, he was also battling for every point and took third on the line in one race.
“Considering everything that happened on the night, I was happy with the 10-point-margin, although at one point it looked like it could have been even more.
“After getting the win under our belts, we were keen to keep it going at Berwick the following night (Saturday), but that was an early casualty to the weather.
“But we’ve now got some momentum we can build on going forwards. We’ve still got Simon and Luke at reserve this month at home to Oxford and away to Glasgow and we’ll approach both of those meetings in a positive manner.”
SCUNTHORPE 50: Simon Lambert 13, Connor Mountain 10, Zaine Kennedy 8+3, Jake Allen 7, Declan Kennedy 7, Luke Harrison 5+2, Steve Worrall 0.
BERWICK 40: Craig Cook 12+1, Drew Kemp 11, Peter Kildemand 10, Danyon Hume 4+1, Sam Hagon 1, Tom Spencer 1, Jack Smith 1.
* ELLIE ROSE TRAVEL Scunthorpe Scorpions are next in action, when they host the Oxford Cheetahs in the Cab Direct Championship at Scunthorpe’s Eddie Wright Raceway in a fortnight on Friday, June 20. The action gets underway at the earlier start-time of 7pm, since the National League Steelers are also in action against the Oxford Chargers, in a 30-heat feast of speedway.
PHOTOS by Ian Rispin
