Tough night at Lakeside

LAKESIDE HAMMERS 61 SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 29 (CHAMPIONSHIP)

HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions have promised to re-group, following a 29-61 defeat in a league fixture at Lakeside last night (Saturday).

The lop-sided score does not quite reflect the meeting, since Lakeside Hammers powered away in the closing stages.

Scorpions took the lead with a 4-2 in Heat 1, after an excellent ride by Jason Garrity to cut through the field on the opening lap, while guest David Howe was pipped on the line for second place by Nick Morris.

It was still close at 17-13 after 5 races and the score moved to 33-21 after Heat 9, before six successive heat advantages as rampant Hammers finished with a flourish.

Josh Auty top-scored for Scorpions with 9 points, while Garrity took Scunthorpe’s two race wins.

Speaking post-meeting, Scorpions’ team manager Dave Peet said: “We needed to be at our best when we came down here to Lakeside, and sadly that just wasn’t the case tonight.

“I know a few of our fans travelled down today, and I’m sorry it wasn’t pretty for them, but this meeting really came at the wrong time for us.

“It’s tough on the riders when we came to a place like this and we’re using rider replacement, because it’s a tight, technical track.

“It’s already demanding enough on our riders to take five or six rides around here, so that’s why we didn’t use a tactical substitute tonight. I didn’t want to put an even greater demand on one of our riders, because that’s when mistakes can happen and riders can get hurt, and we’ve had enough problems already with injuries.

“We would have used a tactical substitute, had we still been in the hunt for a point.

“Congratulations to Lakeside on their two victories over us, while we will be looking to get everything back together for our two meetings against Sheffield in the cup next week. We will re-group for those and go again.”

LAKESIDE 61: Nick Morris 14, Adam Ellis 13+1, Richard Lawson 12+3, Ben Morley 10+1, Alfie Bowtell 7+1, Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen 5+2, Kyle Newman r/r.
SCUNTHORPE 29: Josh Auty 9, Jason Garrity 6, David Howe 5+1, Jake Allen 4+2, Gino Manzares 4, Danny Phillips 1, Steve Worrall r/r.