(SPEEDWAY 1)

SHEFFIELD stormed to their third successive win with a hard-fought 49-43 triumph over Scunthorpe in the Premier League at the Eddie Wright Raceway.The Tigers withstood a late Scorpions fightback to claim their second away win of the season against their local rivals.They led by 12 points with five heats to go but the home side – missing new signing Andreas Lyager due to illness – hit back with an inspired display from guest Stefan Nielsen, and could have snatched a draw with one race to goRyan Douglas scored 15 for the Scorpions with Nielsen adding 12, whilst Kyle Howarth (14) and Simon Stead (13+1) led the Tigers.Sheffield co-boss Marc Bates said: “It was another fantastic result, and although it was a shame we didn’t quite get all four points, a win’s a win.“Steady led by example again as captain, Dimitri (Berge) is riding brilliantly at the moment and Kyle had a great meeting.”Scunthorpe manager Dave Peet said: “It was unfortunate that Stefan and Ryan came together (in Heat 11), because that was going to be a 5-1 over Simon Stead. Tofty’s (Michael Palm Toft) cut-out came out in Heat 14 and I felt that was his race to win. With luck, we could have taken four 5-1s on the bounce.“If you looked at the line-ups before the start of the meeting, no-one would have given us a prayer, as everyone knows how good Sheffield are around here, while we had riders missing. I think we showed what determination that our riders have. We’ve lost, but we certainly haven’t disgraced ourselves, by any means.”Meanwhile Rye House got the better of Edinburgh 47-42 at Hoddesdon although Leigh Lanham was withdrawn after a Heat 14 crash involving all four riders.Lanham suffered concussion and abrasions and lacerations to his hand whilst the Rockets reserves were the heroes with Ben Morley scoring 10+1 and Peter Karger defeating Monarchs No.1 Sam Masters on his way to 5+2. Masters (10+1) and Kevin Wolbert (11) rescued a point for the visitors with a 5-1 in Heat 15.Karger said: “That’s the best heat of my life! I was so happy to finally get that first heat win out of the way. I definitely got a real confidence boost there, and hopefully I can build on that now.“I hope that Leigh will be alright soon. He was really bruised up, and he had a big bruise on his head. But we are all really happy to get the win today. Everybody did well, and it got us the result.”Edinburgh boss John Campbell said: “We were doing OK till the interval. Then they graded and watered the track, which I’m not saying changed the track, but gate 4 was so dominant throughout the meeting. “Everything had been going fine but it was a killer blow when Karger won Heat 11, it lifted everybody’s spirits on their side, they were all jumping for joy, and then Morley went out and won the next one as well.”In the Knockout Cup, Glasgow ran up a 60-29 home win over Redcar to take full control of the tie.Tigers reserves Fernando Garcia and Danny Ayres collided in Heat 2 but they quickly recovered from that setback with all of the home riders scoring at least six points, with Richard Lawson on 13+1 and Aaron Summers on 11+3. David Bellego collected 12 for the Bears.Garcia said: “We are both the reserves and we both have plenty to learn from. I feel sorry for him and for me for the exclusion - it has cost me points - but we will just move on.”It's a good score, and it could've been even better - but we have a really good advantage. We must see what happens in the second leg.”In the League Cup, new Peterborough No.1 Craig Cook and guest Kenneth Hansen pulled off a last-heat 5-1 to steer the Panthers to a 48-45 win over Ipswich.The Witches had led by 12 points early on, but Hansen (16+2) was in inspired form along with reserve Simon Lambert (16+2) as they recovered, with Witches’ No.1 Danny King (11+1) crashing out of Heat 15 in the first staging.Peterborough boss Jason Attwood said: “It was a very entertaining meeting and I’m delighted to come out of it with a win even though we made hard work of it.“I feared it wasn’t going to be our day when we found ourselves so far behind early on. It is very difficult to recover from being 12 points behind at any stage of a meeting, but we managed to do it.”Witches manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “I'm really proud of the boys tonight. I was really happy that they got such a good lead that they (Peterborough) had to switch everything about and use the black and white and they had to do everything just to try and get anywhere against us. “That's the first time this year that a team has had to do that and on their own track too. I'm really proud of the boys and I'm a proud Team Manager and there's not many times this season I've been able to say that.”In the Travel Plus National League, Mildenhall overcame the absence of No.1 Danny Halsey to record their first league win of the season with a 48-42 success over Belle Vue.The Fen Figers’ top five were all paid for nine points or more, enabling them to outscore the Colts even though the visitors had the outstanding rider of the day in Matt Williamson, whose 15-point maximum helped them take a league point.Mildenhall promoter Kevin Jolly said: “That was more like the type of performance we want to see, the spirit and fight was there today and with all of the top five contributing well we always held too many aces for our opponents.“Alfie (Bowtell) and Connor (Coles) looked much sharper today and now they will hopefully kick on and have big seasons. Of course the return of Armo (Jon Armstrong) made a difference, he seems to lift the place, and his skill and determination was as always a pleasure to see.”Belle Vue co-promoter George Carswell said: “In the end, we earned what we set out to accomplish. We’ve picked up another vital point and we’re up there mixing it at the top of the table. It’s a great feeling.“Matt scored the team’s third full maximum of the year which is a great achievement. It was very well deserved because he had to beat Jon Armstrong three times around his own track.”

(SPEEDWAY 2)

POOLE will be without Krzysztof Buczkowski for their Elite League clash with Belle Vue on Monday.The Pole suffered shoulder damage in a crash in his home country on Friday and misses the Wimborne Road encounter which sees last year’s two Grand Finalists meet for the first time in 2016.Joonas Kylmakorpi steps in to guest for the Pirates, for whom Bjarne Pedersen makes his first home appearance since rejoining the club and Kyle Newman returns after missing the club’s last three fixtures.Promoter Matt Ford said: “Their record on the road this season is pretty impressive, and we are going to have to be at our best if we are to maintain our home record. “We have seen the Pirates rise to the occasion a number of times before and it will be a case of doing the same on Monday, I reckon.”Belle Vue CEO Chris Morton said: “We always seem to give the Pirates a good run for their money at Wimborne Road and I think a lot of that is down to most, if not all, the Belle Vue riders enjoying the tack conditions down there.“But they are a competitive side and you always know what you’re up against when you encounter them. Saying that, we are equally competitive and have a team more than capable of winning.”In the League Cup, Newcastle host Redcar at Brough Park, with the Diamonds currently six points behind group leaders Workington with home and away clashes against the Bears to complete their schedule.In the Travel Plus National League, Cradley face neighbours Coventry at Monmore – with revenge top of the agenda.The Heathens suffered a 51-39 defeat at Brandon earlier this month and reserve James Purchase is hoping to play a key role in sending their rivals home empty handed.“As a team we go out to win every single meeting,” Purchase said. “But when it’s a local derby or a team who’ve already beaten us – it makes us even more determined to go out there and add to our tally.“We should have got something at Coventry a few weeks ago and if we’d hadn’t have thrown so many points away as a team then we would have probably even won.”Cradley will be without Jack Kingston who has stepped down from his team spot but have Bradley Andrews back at No.6 after two weeks on the sidelines with a foot injury. Coventry continue to use rider-replacement for the injured Liam Carr, whilst Kyle Roberts steps in at reserve for Jamie Halder, who has school exams.Storm boss Laurence Rogers said: “The key will be to take points off their lower order, the likes of Ben Basford and the reserves, and putting some pressure on Luke Chessell, who is riding well at the moment.“It’s never easy with r/r, and at No.5 it definitely doesn’t work because the rider there goes out with the reserves a lot, so I was looking for where it would be most useful for us. I’ve gone for No.3, and I’m moving Ryan (Terry-Daley) to No.5.”Meanwhile Kent stage the Invicta Pairs at Central Park with six of the Kings regulars in action along with invited riders from Rye House Raiders including Ben Morley, as well as Mark and Aaron Baseby.

(FIXTURES)

MONDAY MAY 23:ELITE LEAGUE: Poole v Belle Vue 7.30LEAGUE CUP: Newcastle v Redcar 7.30TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Cradley v Coventry 7.30CRAYFORD INVICTA PAIRS: Kent 6.30

WEDNESDAY MAY 25:TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Birmingham v Rye House 7.30, King’s Lynn v Buxton 7.30NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Belle Vue v Stoke 7.30

THURSDAY MAY 26:ELITE LEAGUE: King’s Lynn v Swindon 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE: Sheffield v Berwick 7.30PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP 1st round 2nd leg: Redcar v Glasgow 7.30TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Isle of Wight v Belle Vue 7pm

FRIDAY MAY 27:ELITE LEAGUE: Coventry v Belle Vue 7.30, Lakeside v Leicester 8pmPREMIER LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Newcastle 7.30, Plymouth v Workington 7.15CHALLENGE: Exeter v Isle of Wight (at Somerset) 7.30