Mdl --long Eaton 20 Coventry 16 --sun July 28th

[Main Man]

The CITY GEARBOXES Coventry Mercia-Vikings had one of those nights at Leicester on Sunday night as they met the Long Eaton Invaders.

Originally scheduled for the Saturday night but postponed and delayed by 24 hours the Vikings lost 16 year old whiz kid James Shanes to a grass track meeting at Ledbury. It was though a case of being down to just two riders and two bikes by heat 3 leaving Cam Hoskins and Martin Knuckey , having his first meeting for six weeks after taking an enforced break from racing, to contest the final three races.

Ryan Terry-Daley was forced out of the meeting with a bent bike and elbow injury after he and team mate Hoskins collided in the first bend in heat 2 and to make matters worse it was not his own bike anyway as he was borrowing team coach Paul Quarterman’s machine!

Skipper John Markham came in to replace Terry-Daley in heat 3 only to crash and damage his bike when home man Lee Springthorpe drove inside him on the 3^rd and 4^th bend .

This left team manager Laurence Rogers doing a juggling act with his two remaining riders and they kept the Vikings in the hunt right up to the end as they were level at 15 apiece going into the last race. Knuckey made a great return to racing with three fine wins but taking three rides in succession proved too much for the Cornishman and despite leading the final race for almost three laps he was forced to retire unable to hold on to the handlebars. This gifted the Invaders a 5-1 to give them victory 20-16.

 

LONG EATON 20

 

1. Lee Geary 2 3 2’ = 7+1

2. Lee Springthorpe X 2’ 2 = 4+1

3. Adam Portwood 3 2 3 = 8

4. Adam Extance 0 0 1’ = 1+1

 

COVENTRY 16

 

1. Martin Knuckey 3 3 3 R = 9

2. John Markham 1 F = 1

3. Cam Hoskins 1’ 1 1 1 = 4+1

4. Ryan Terry-Daley 2 = 2

 

Ht 1 : Knuckey Geary Markham Springthorpe (f/x) 2-4 2-4

2 : Portwood Terry-Daley Hoskins Extance 3-3 5-7

3 : Geary Springthorpe Hoskins Markham (fell) 5-1 10-8

4 : Knuckey Portwood Hoskins Extance 2-4 12-12

5 : Knuckey Springthorpe Extance 3-3 15-15

6 : Portwood Geary Hoskins Knuckey (ret) 5-1 20-16

Edited July 28, 2013 by Main Man

[Gemini]

I wondered what happened to Martin as his bike was still under power when he gave up in heat 15. Shame as the Vikings had done so well to keep the scores level going into that race after all their misfortunes.