Boss looking forward to cup final

HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions’ owner and promoter Rob Godfrey admits he was a bag of nerves after six races at Peterborough on Saturday evening, before Scorpions rallied to take their place in the Championship Knockout Cup Final by a comfortable 16-point margin on aggregate.

Scorpions held a 59-31 advantage from the first leg of their semi-final at Scunthorpe, but saw that deficit halved as Peterborough flew into a 25-11 lead on the night.

However, Scorpions then outscored Panthers by 28-26 in the remaining nine races, to take an overall 98-82 victory, to clinch their first-ever place in a Knockout Cup Final at second tier level.

The first leg of the final against Workington Comets will take place at Scunthorpe’s Eddie Wright Raceway in Normanby Road next Sunday (October 21) at 5pm, with the British 125cc Final then being held in the second half.

“During that first half of the meeting at Peterborough, I haven’t been as nervous as that since the night we won the league at Scunthorpe in 2012”, Godfrey revealed.

“I started to get a nasty feeling that we weren’t going to do it.

“We then started to go better, but I didn’t quite realise the score, until Neil Watson (the Peterborough co-promoter) come and shook my hand and congratulated me on us getting through to the final.”

Scorpions took a key 5-1 from Jake Allen and Jason Garrity in Heat 7, and chipped away with vital points, until a 4-2 from Steve Worrall and guest Kyle Howarth in Heat 13 made mathematically certain of their final place.

Godfrey said: “I was conscious that Peterborough had booked two very good guests in Ricky Wells and Thomas Jorgensen, and that it wasn’t over yet. To be fair to the Panthers, they have suffered through injuries in recent weeks, and we know from earlier in the season what that feels like.

“Jake Allen and Jason Garrity were pretty much on it and were dialled in from the beginning, but the other lads were struggling a bit. It was a bit frustrating, because we knew we can ride Peterborough, but we weren’t quite producing.

“Steve Worrall started the meeting on this really powerful engine, and just couldn’t get it to work. He swapped back to his other bike and he was then flying.

“Kyle Howarth was having a nightmare at the beginning. In his first ride, the bike wouldn’t go and his ended up on his spare, and then he hit the tapes in his second. But he didn’t want to let us down, and he went out and beat a couple of their riders, which helped us into the final.

“That’s what the team were all doing in the end. Chipping in the points that got us through.

“It’s weird to think that we won by sixteen points on aggregate in the end, and that shows how well the lads did in the second half of the meeting, and also what a brilliant job our riders had done in the first leg to build up such a sizeable lead.”

The countdown to the final now starts, and Godfrey is aware that speedway’s profile in the area has shot up in the last few weeks.

He explained: “A lot of that interest is down to Tai Woffinden, who of course was born in Scunthorpe, winning his third world title.

“That achievement was all down to Tai and his support team, but it generates some very nice publicity for speedway in general.

“We’re fortunate that it has coincided with us battling through to the cup final. We’ve already had BBC Look North visit Scunthorpe and Peterborough, and now they’re interested in covering the final as well.

“That’s absolutely brilliant, but they’ve realised what a special double it would be if we could win the Championship Knockout Cup – for the first time – in the same season that Tai won his third World title.

“I’m hoping for a bumper turn-out for the first leg at the Eddie Wright Raceway next Sunday, because the more fans that we have cheering on the lads, the better.”

* WE’LL keep you informed, regarding any news regarding the date of the second leg of the Knockout Cup Final at Workington’s Derwent Park. It’s a busy end to the season for Comets, who are now also in the league play-off final, after pipping Glasgow Tigers by 90-89 in the semi-final.

* OUR COUNTDOWN to the cup final continues tomorrow with reaction from Jake Allen following the meeting at Peterborough on Saturday evening,