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Stoke V Kent National Trophy Saturday 03/05/14 At 7.00 Pm


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PRESS RELEASE FROM STOKE SPEEDWAY

 

ALL SYSTEMS GO FOR TRACK RETURN AT LOOMER ROAD

 

After a week of prolonged work and intense activity at Loomer Road the track is ready for speedway action tomorrow when the Potters take on Kent Kings in a National Trophy battle. It has taken a gargantuan effort from all of the staff who work on the track at Loomer Road and Promoter Dave Tattum was at great pains to express his appreciation for their efforts and those of Colin Meredith who has been at the track for several days using his knowledge and expertise to get the track ready for racing.

“Everyone has given their absolute all, said Tattum on Friday evening as he completed some of the more routine tasks and preparation. “It’s been a tough week and the small work force have been absolutely focussed and none more so than Colin Meredith who has put a lot into this exercise. My hope now is that the public, who have been starved of speedway, will turn out to watch what should be a great encounter.” he added.

 

Stoke face a Kent team that will provide an excellent early season test for the new look side that wears the red and white of Stoke Potters, Kent include a number of riders well familiar with the Loomer Road circuit including Simon Lambert who rode for Stoke in 2012 and 2013 and Luke Chessell who road for Stoke last season. Former Riders’ Champions Benji Compton and David Mason are in the line up for what should be an epic battle.

 

Stoke have new No.1 Ben Wilson making his home debut for Stoke at this level although Ben rode for the Potters in the Premier League during 2010 and is returning to speedway after an absence of two years. He scored eleven points in the match at Mildenhall and followed that up with ten at Kent riding as a guest in an Easter Challenge match for Kings Lynn. Ben Hopwood and Captain Jon Armstrong should provide plenty of points with the very talented Lee Payne and the experienced Chris Widman completing the top of the Potters’ order. At reserve for Stoke are exciting prospects James McBain and Rob Shuttleworth. Tapes will go up for Heat One at 7.00 pm and the match will be followed with a Midland Development League fixture between Stoke Spitfires and Rye House Raiders. It should all make for great speedway entertainment and the action continues with the Potters at Buxton on Sunday in a National League match which gets underway at

3.00 pm. Stoke expect to be unchanged for Sunday’s encounter.

 

 

Malcolm Vasey

Stoke Speedway

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Is there anyone going to this meeting who would be able to text updates to the Updates site? If so,could you please send me a private message.

 

Thanks

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49 - 40 home win .

 

Ben Morley R/R , Compton pulled out after one race and Freemantle after 2 races made Stokes task a lot easier.

Credit to lambert 17 and Chessell 10 were Kings positives.

Stokes new riders took their time to settle into the track , with Wilson scoring 10 and reserve Mcbain 10 with others chipping in .

 

Highlights was Lee Paynes heat 14 win coming from third to pass Chessell on the last lap .

 

Bronze helmet was won by Wilson , beating Lambert with ease.

 

Some decent racing , onwards to Buxton

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Oh dear. Thought we would find it tough without Morley. Kept the gap to just one point right up to heat 10, by which time we'd lost Benji Compton and Brandon Fremantle too. Stoke pulled away after that, but must be concerned they struggled to win by only 9. Maybe Compton's injury puts his Coventry performance into perspective. Brandon Fremantle ended up on the deck yet again. Plus points were Simon Lambert getting stuck in, and Luke Chessell showing flashes of class. Oh and Luke Harris who grows in stature with every meeting. David Mason though is looking like his heart's not really in it at the moment. Riders of the night Lambert and McBain - he looks a real find. Wilson scorched the Bronze Helmet match race.

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Well done to Stoke, helped in no small way by the injuries to Kent riders, yes i think James McBain is a little better than a NL reserve bearing in mind he has scored points in the PL north of the Border Glasgow i think.

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There will be an addition to the programme tomorrow - Simon Lambert beat James Sarjeant at Coventry tonight to retain the Bronze helmet and he will defend it against the top Stoke rider after between the two matches tomorrow.

 

Malcolm Vasey

Stoke Speedway

Hi Malcolm,

 

Well done on getting a good result last night, and pleased to hear that folk were happy with the standard of racing.

 

You mentioned that there would be two matches, and I've found by research that the second was an MDL match against Rye House.

Can you, or anybody that was in attendance, please post the result/scorers and heat details please? The results never seem to appear on the clubs website, and it's always so difficult to follow the 'Spitfires' progress.

 

Thanks, and looking forward to my visit next Saturday.

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Hope all goes well tonight with a decent crowd and entertaining racing. Good luck.

After all the troubles with the track, the 1st meeting of the season went well for the Potters, although made slightly easier by the withdrawal of Brandon Freemantle and Benji Compton. The track rode well, although a little patchy in places, but there was plenty of shale on it, not something that is common these days. It should produce some good racing once it beds down a bit more. Appeared to be a decent sized crowd after the delayed start to the season and good to see that some Kent fans made the long trip north to support their team.

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Oh dear. Thought we would find it tough without Morley. Kept the gap to just one point right up to heat 10, by which time we'd lost Benji Compton and Brandon Fremantle too. Stoke pulled away after that, but must be concerned they struggled to win by only 9. Maybe Compton's injury puts his Coventry performance into perspective. Brandon Fremantle ended up on the deck yet again. Plus points were Simon Lambert getting stuck in, and Luke Chessell showing flashes of class. Oh and Luke Harris who grows in stature with every meeting. David Mason though is looking like his heart's not really in it at the moment. Riders of the night Lambert and McBain - he looks a real find. Wilson scorched the Bronze Helmet match race.

I was personally a little disappointed with both Wilson and Armstrong , but given that they have had little or no racing this season , especially on the Loomer road track ( looked very good ) , I would give them the benefit of the doubt .

 

Wilson certainly found his feet in the bronze helmet run off , so onwards and upwards.

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Craftman I can confirm the only time I have had on the bike apart from mildenhall 4 weeks ago since breaking my back last season was a week prior to mildenhall I did a dozen steady laps around stoke. So not had a lot of time on a bike but now we have got started things can only get better, hope I don't disappoint you anymore throughout the season armo.

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Kept the gap to just one point right up to heat 10, by which time we'd lost Benji Compton and Brandon Fremantle too. Stoke pulled away after that, but must be concerned they struggled to win by only 9. Maybe Compton's injury puts his Coventry performance into perspective. Brandon Fremantle ended up on the deck yet again.

What was the injury to Brandon - does anyone know?

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What was the injury to Brandon - does anyone know?

 

Think the announcer got it wrong. I'm now hearing that Brandon withdrew with concussion. Also, Benji Compton's out for 5 weeks; what was at first diagnosed as muscle and ligament damage (crashed on April 25) turns out to be broken bone(s). There's a picture on Facebook of his hand in plaster. His points would have made all the difference to the final score. Never mind. Get well soon.

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Think the announcer got it wrong. I'm now hearing that Brandon withdrew with concussion. Also, Benji Compton's out for 5 weeks; what was at first diagnosed as muscle and ligament damage (crashed on April 25) turns out to be broken bone(s). There's a picture on Facebook of his hand in plaster. His points would have made all the difference to the final score. Never mind. Get well soon.

Hi Brandon actually withdrew at first with the hand injury and afterwards the Paramedic came and asked me for the withdrawel sheet as brandon had complained afterwards of banging his head so the slight concussion was added after the initial diagnosis as Brandon had only mentioned it later Hope this clears it up Cheers Griffo C.O.Course

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Well, I ended up going to this, and I'm glad we got the win, but boy we made hard work of it!

 

For Stoke, Wilson got better as the night went on, Armstrong didn't look like his normal self, and Hopwood was flying. McBain looks a steal on a 3, and Lee Payne had a fantastic ride in heat 14. For me though, the rider of the night was Chris Widman. Beating Lambert fair and square around Stoke is a good achievement, and he looked happy with it! All credit to the lad, as he looked a different rider than I saw last season for the IoW.

 

Kent were obviously hampered by the withdrawal of Benji and Freemantle, but Mason disappointed, and after that they were basically a two man team with Lambert looking very good, and Chessell chipping in with a good haul. The meeting should have been put away sooner from a Stoke perspective, but maybe that is down to a lack of track time.

 

The final thing to say, the track looked impeccable. Considering all the work and all the trouble, it looked better than I have seen it in about 3 seasons. If it can stay at that level every week, then there will be some fantastic racing on it. It took a few heats to settle in, but it was smooth and the riders had the confidence to go right out to the fence to look for extra drive (And this was used to great effect by Payne in heat 14!)

 

Will it stay like that? Who knows, but I sure hope it is. Having Cradely or Mildenhall here with a track like that would be fantastic.

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The final thing to say, the track looked impeccable. Considering all the work and all the trouble, it looked better than I have seen it in about 3 seasons. If it can stay at that level every week, then there will be some fantastic racing on it. It took a few heats to settle in, but it was smooth and the riders had the confidence to go right out to the fence to look for extra drive (And this was used to great effect by Payne in heat 14!)

 

 

 

That really is good news :approve:

 

Fingers crossed it stays that way - if it does, I am sure I will see you there.

 

I can imagine one or two are choking on their own venom with that comment....................

Edited by Halifaxtiger
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Craftman I can confirm the only time I have had on the bike apart from mildenhall 4 weeks ago since breaking my back last season was a week prior to mildenhall I did a dozen steady laps around stoke. So not had a lot of time on a bike but now we have got started things can only get better, hope I don't disappoint you anymore throughout the season armo.

Certainly getting there mate , keep it up :-)

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