Scorpions party poopers with brilliant win at Sheffield

SHEFFIELD TIGERS 37 SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 53 (CHAMPIONSHIP)

HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions massively boosted their Championship play-off hopes – with a superb 53-37 victory at reigning champions Sheffield Tigers last night (Thursday).

Local rivals Sheffield were celebrating their 2000th meeting, with a number of their former riders in attendance. But by the end of the meeting, the celebrations were coming from the delighted visiting fans.

Scorpions took complete control of the meeting with three successive 5-1s between Heats 3 and 5, to charge into a 20-10 lead, and there only looked to be one winner from that point onwards.

The meeting was won with three races to spare, and the margin of victory means that Scorpions took the maximum FOUR points from the encounter.

The Jake Allen / Jason Garrity partnership took three fantastic 5-1 maximum heats advantage, and both Allen (15+2) and Garrity (12+2) dropped just a single point to the opposition.

No 1 Steve Worrall had his best meeting for Scorpions since his return from a broken leg, and he could have easily ended with a maximum. He chose to shepherd home Danny Phillips in Heat 11, and although Phillips held on for a brilliant win, Kyle Howarth pinched second from Worrall on the line. Worrall also lost out in a photo-finish to Howarth in Heat 13.

Every member of the Scorpions’ side contributed, with the ever-reliable Josh Auty contributing 8+1, and reserves Gino Manzares and Phillips scored 9 points between them, one more point than their Sheffield counterparts.

Speaking post-meeting, a jubilant Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “All six of our riders did a great job tonight.

“Once we got our noses in front, it was difficult to see where Sheffield were going to produce a heat win, let alone come back at us. It was almost like we were riding like the home team.

“Jake Allen had a tremendous night, but only just made the meeting. He left in plenty of time this morning, but hit some horrific traffic on the way up – there were accidents and all sorts. He eventually got to the stadium at 7.25pm, but the rest of the lads had already set everything up for him.

“Jake formed a superb partnership with Jason Garrity, and both only dropped just a point, with Jake only missing out on his maximum in the very last heat.

“The icing on the cake for us was Danny Phillips going out and winning Heat 11. It was a fabulous ride from both Danny and also Steve Worrall, who could have left Danny and raced off for a win, but chose to hang back and team-ride with him.

“We had a 5-1 for three-and-three-quarter-laps, but Kyle Howarth went through a gap on the line and just about nicked second off Stevie.

“Steve was back to his very best. I thought he took the verdict over Kyle Howarth in a very tight finish in Heat 13, but the decision went the other way.

“As I said, it was a superb team performance and hats off to all six of our riders – Josh Auty, Gino Manzares, all of them.

“I had a target in my mind of taking three points from our three away meetings this week, and we’ve already scored four from the first meeting.”

SHEFFIELD TIGERS 37
1. Chales Wright 1* 2* R 0 (3+2)
2. Todd Kurtz 2 3 3 1 1 (10)
3. Lasse Bjerre 1 1 2 2 (6)
4. Broc Nicol 0 1* 0 (1+1)
5. Kyle Howarth R 0 1 2 3 3 (9)
6. James Shanes 3 0 1 0 2 (6)
7. Joe Lawlor 1 1 0 (2)

HENDERSON INSURANCE SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 53
1. Steve Worrall 3 3 1 2 (9)
2. Stefan Nielsen R/R
3. Jason Garrity 3 2* 2 2* 3 (12+2)
4. Jake Allen 2* 2* 3 3 3 2 (15+2)
5. Josh Auty 3 1 3 1* 0 (8+1)
6. Danny Phillips FX 0 0 0 3 1 (4)
7. Gino Manzares 2 2* 0 1 (5+1)

1: Worrall, Kurtz, Wright, Phillips (fell, excluded), awarded – no time (3-3) (3-3).
2: Shanes, Manzares, Lawlor, Phillips, 62.6 (4-2) (7-5).
3: (Re-run) Garrity, Allen, Bjerre, Nicol, 62.2 (1-5) (8-10).
4: Auty, Manzares, Lawlor, Howarth (ret), 62.7 (1-5) (9-15).
5: Worrall, Allen, Bjerre, HOWARTH (T/S), 61.2 (1-5) (10-20).
6: Kurtz, Wright, Auty, Phillips, 62.3 (5-1) (15-21).
7: Allen, Garrity, Howarth, Shanes, 62.1 (1-5) (16-26).
8: Kurtz, Garrity, Shanes, Manzares, 62.4 (4-2) (20-28).
9: Auty, Bjerre, Nicol, Phillips, 62.6 (3-3) (23-31).
10: Allen, Garrity, Kurtz, Wright (ret), 63.3 (1-5) (24-36).
11: Phillips, Howarth, Worrall, Shanes, 63.5 (2-4) (26-40).
12: Garrity, Bjerre, Manzares, Lawlor, 63.2 (2-4) (28-44).
13: Howarth, Worrall, Auty, Wright, 63.1 (3-3) (31-47).
14: (Re-run) Allen, Shanes, Phillips, Nicol, 62.6 (2-4) (33-51).
15: Howarth, Allen, Kurtz, Auty, 63.3 (4-2) (37-53).

* HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions travel to Edinburgh tonight (Friday). Scorpions will again use rider replacement for the injured Stefan Nielsen.

PHOTO: Ian Rispin captures jubilant Scorpions following the meeting.