Scorpions produce impressive victory

The Henderson Insurance Scunthorpe Scorpions produced a convincing display at the Eddie Wright Raceway this evening as they defeated the Newcastle Diamonds 54-39. Ryan Douglas produced his best performance of the season, dropping just one point to the opposition, but there was strong support from the rest of the team despite captain Michael Palm Toft being ruled out earlier in the day with a bruised coccyx after crashing at Ipswich last night.

Tero Aarnio dropped just two points from his five rides whilst Josh Auty registered double figures and the Scorpions reserves, Carl Wilkinson and Josh Bailey, held the upper hand over the Diamonds lower order. Newcastle were dealt a blow in heat 2 when Ben Hopwood fell and was unable to take any further part on the meeting but in reality none of the full-time Diamonds were able to provide much support for their two guest riders, Richie Worrall and Kyle Howarth, who were outstanding cover Great Britain internationals Robert Lambert and Steve Worrall.

Virtually every heat that involved Howarth and Worrall produced an outstanding race and if there was ever an advert for the guest system then this meeting was it. Those who suggest a club should promote junior riders into the team when top riders are missing would surely have seen a very poor meeting if their wishes had been granted. Instead the quality racing started in heat 1 when Aarnio and Worrall swapped the lead a couple of time and continued through to heat 15 when, with the result already known, the Diamonds guests duelled with Douglas and Auty to produce one of the best races of speedway many present had seen. The start of the last lap saw Howarth produce an incredible pass of Auty for third place but then have to produce a ride akin to Tony Rickardsson’s famous ‘Wall of Death’ ride at Cardiff in 2005 to stay out of the airfence. Behind him Auty had carried so much speed into the first turn he showed amazing control to stay on his bike whilst at the front Richie Worrall produced a stunning pass of Douglas around the last two bends to ensure the Australian didn’t end the evening unbeaten by a Diamonds’ rider.

At the end of the night promoter Rob Godfrey declared “That meeting had everything you could ever want. The most amazing racing and an impressive home win. It was fantastic to see Ryan back at his very best. He was sensational tonight but we were so solid down the line-up. Tero and Josh were battling with Newcastle’s top two all night, Carl would have only dropped one point if he’d not fallen when we were on a 5-1 and Josh Bailey would have had 7+4 but for his fuel problem in heat 12. A great night! It’s just a shame we’ve not got a home meeting next week.”

The Scorpions are next in action at Redcar on Thursday night and the next home meeting at the Eddie Wright Raceway is on Sunday 23rd July when the Glasgow Tigers visit (5.30pm start) with Richie Worrall returning along with former-Scorpion Nike Lunna, Richard Lawson and Dan Bewley joining him in the Tigers line-up.

Henderson Insurance Scunthorpe Scorpions 54 – Ryan Douglas 15+2 (6 rides), Tero Aarnio 13 (5), Josh Auty 10 (5), Carl Wilkinson 8 (4), Josh Bailey 6+4 (5 rides), Lewis Kerr 2+2 (4)

Newcastle Sapphire Engineering Diamonds 39 – Richie Worrall 13 (5 rides), Kyle Howarth 12 (5, including a 6-point tactical ride), Lewis Rose 6 (4), Ludvig Lindgren 4+2 (4), Ashley Morris 2+1 (4), Alfie Bowtell 2+1 (7), Ben Hopwood 0 (1).

1: Aarnio, Worrall, Morris, Kerr, 57.69 (3-3)(3-3)
2: (re-run) Wilkinson, Bailey, Bowtell, Hopwood (fell, excluded), 59.13 (5-1)(8-4)
3: Auty, Douglas, Lindgren, Rose (retired), 57.94 (5-1)(13-5)
4: Howarth, Aarnio, Bailey, Bowtell, 58.75 (3-3)(16-8)
5: Douglas, Worrall, Auty, Morris, 58.13 (4-2)(20-10)
6: Howarth (tactical ride), Aarnio, Kerr, Bowtell, 57.94 (3-6)(23-16)
7: (re-run) Douglas, Rose, Lindgren, Wilkinson (fell, excluded), 58.56 (3-3)(26-19)
8: Aarnio, Bailey, Morris, Bowtell, 58.43 (5-1)(31-20)
9: Douglas, Howarth, Auty, Bowtell, 58.00 (4-2)(35-22)
10: Aarnio, Rose, Lindgre, Kerr (retired), 58.94 (3-3)(38-25)
11: Worrall, Wilkinson, Bailey, Morris (from 15 metres for tapes offence), 58.50 (3-3)(41-28)
12: Auty, Rose, Bowtell, Bailey, 59.63 (3-3)(44-31)
13: (re-run) Worrall, Auty, Kerr (from 15 metres for tapes offence), Howarth (excluded), 58.69 (3-3)(47-34)
14: Wilkinson, Douglas, Lindgren, Bowtell, 59.01 (5-1)(52-35)
15: Worrall, Douglas, Howarth, Auty, 58.61 (2-4)(54-39)

PHOTO: Ryan Douglas leads Heat 5, on his way to a magnificent paid 17 haul.