BRITISH SPEEDWAY MAJOR EVENTS 2016BRITISH UNDER-21 FINAL: JOSH BATESBRITISH FINAL: DANNY KINGPREMIER LEAGUE PAIRS: SOMERSETPREMIER LEAGUE FOURS WEEKEND: PLYMOUTHPREMIER LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: SIMON STEADELITE LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: FREDRIK LINDGREN
NATIONAL LEAGUE MAJOR EVENTS 2016NATIONAL LEAGUE FOURS: RYE HOUSENATIONAL LEAGUE PAIRS: King’s Lynn, October 16NATIONAL LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: MAX CLEGG
BRITISH SPEEDWAY FIM EVENTS 2016:WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP QUALIFIER: FREDRIK LINDGRENWORLD UNDER-21 QUALIFIER: DIMITRI BERGEWORLD UNDER-21 FINAL Round 1: KRYSTIAN PIESZCZEK
ELITE LEAGUE LATEST…
BELLE Vue CEO David Gordon says the Elite League runners-up should be proud of their achievements this year – even though they missed out on the top prize in the play-offs.Gordon said: “We must give credit to the riders and Mark Lemon for everything they’ve done and for their patience after the disrupted start to our season. They’re Aces heroes who’ve ridden under immense pressure.“The necessity to perform in away matches while the track was repaired by the contractors was crucial but they rose to the task, and when our home campaign launched they tackled this six-month old circuit with equal tenacity.“With the background of our campaign we cannot fail to be anything but proud of them, and again what they have achieved is tremendous and demonstrates perfectly what this club is all about.”LEICESTER have put back their final home match of the season against King’s Lynn to Saturday October 22, after it was initially scheduled for October 7.Co-promoter Dave Darcy said: “It was disappointing to say the least but due to some of our team being unavailable it meant that we would have had to rely on guests to complete the side. “We explored several options but in the end we were unable to assemble a competitive team and therefore took the decision to defer the meeting.”POOLE promoter Matt Ford will take a look at some new faces in Friday’s Blue Riband which is the final meeting of the season at Wimborne Road. Ford said: “There are some names in the list that I am particularly interested in seeing and hopefully our fans will be keen to see too. It promises to be an evenly balanced field, full of riders who are all very keen to go out and win the Blue Riband title. “It will be good to see the new faces of Adam Cyfer and Frederik Jacobsen along with some familiar faces.”WOLVERHAMPTON are celebrating their first Elite League title since 2009 thanks to their ten-point aggregate win over Belle Vue in the Grand Final.Boss Peter Adams said: “This is thoroughly merited and the team deserve this success. Belle Vue and Poole may have been the slightly better teams over the course of the season, but it's who's better over four meetings at the end which counts most.“I've said for many years now, building confidence and getting results is just part of it from March to September - it's what you do in October that really matters and we've come up trumps once again.“Every single rider has played their part along the way and we mustn't forget the points that Joonas Kylmakorpi and Mikkel Bech scored to get us to this point.”PREMIER LEAGUE LATEST…
GLASGOW racer Rene Bach insists their League Cup dream isn’t over despite suffering a 48-42 defeat in their home leg of the Final to Somerset on Sunday.The Tigers found themselves six points up with five races gone but conceding a trio of consecutive 5-1s mid-meeting proved costly in the end for the Ashfield outfit.“We’re only half-way there,” Bach said.“We were leading last time we were at Somerset when the meeting got abandoned – I know they were unlucky that time – but as we’ve seen, anything can happen, and we’ll see what happens in the second leg on Friday.” IPSWICH team boss Ritchie Hawkins believes his side have got what it takes to overturn a 16-point deficit and reach the Premier League play-off final.The Witches fell to a 53-37 defeat at Somerset last Friday but says team spirit could play a crucial role in the second leg at Foxhall this Thursday.Said Hawkins: “We are led by the British Champion (Danny King) and he has been exceptional on and off the track and I'm confident we will all be out there fighting for every point on Thursday. “We don't need to worry about who we are racing against because we've been very good at Ipswich; we are the underdogs but we have been for the last six months!” NEWCASTLE team manager George English is confident his side can be a serious match for Glasgow in their Knockout Cup Final clash.The Diamonds will host the Tigers on Sunday, October 23 with the return leg in Scotland the following evening.Speaking after Newcastle’s 56-34 semi-final second leg home win over Rye House, English said: “It was a great performance from the lads after the first leg was such a trial to say the least.“The way they bounced back and fought for their Final place was excellent and to be honest with this attitude I think we will give Glasgow a serious run for their money in a couple of weeks time." PETERBOROUGH are set to hold a fans forum - and promoter Ged Rathbone insists ‘no questions are off limits’.The Panthers looked comfortable in the play-off positions for the majority of the campaign, but two wins in ten at the back end of the season saw them narrowly miss out on the end of season competition.Said Rathbone: “We're all still disappointed about how the 2016 season turned out and I'm expecting plenty of questions about what went wrong.“We pride ourselves on being as open and honest with our supporters as possible.”PLYMOUTH captain Kyle Newman accepts he will be moving to a different Premier League club in 2017.Newman has admitted his frustration over the announcement that the Devils’ trading company has been placed into liquidation, which leaves the future uncertain at the St Boniface Arena.Newman said: “It’s an extremely frustrating situation and I feel sorry for (manager) Lee Trigger in all this. He has acted as a middle man between the riders and promotion all season even though he has nothing to do with payments.“It’s been an extremely difficult time, my hardest in speedway, but I think it’s time for me to move on.”RYE HOUSE boss Peter Schroeck has praised his side despite missing out on a place in the Premier League Knockout Cup Final.The Rockets held a slender four point advantage from the first leg but a 56-34 defeat at Newcastle so them go down 99-81 on aggregate to the Diamonds.“We hung in there for a long time,” said Schroeck. “Everybody gave it their all, and we always kept believing in ourselves.“I’m really proud of the boys; they gave it their best shot against very tough opponents, and you can’t ask for more than that.”SHEFFIELD have turned to two familiar faces to help them in their Premier League play-off semi-final this week.The Owlerton side stunned Newcastle in the previous round and now take on Glasgow on Thursday with former club men Ricky Wells and Josh Auty standing in for Jason Garrity and Dimitri Berge – whilst rider replacement will cover for their third sidelined rider, Simon Stead.Tigers co-promoter Damien Bates said: We’d like to welcome Ricky and Josh into the team, they’re good lads who go well around Owlerton so we feel we have a good chance of getting a lead from the first leg.“Thursday is a massive night for us all and we’re going for it!”SOMERSET face crucial back-to-back meetings later this week in what could be a season defining couple of days for the Rebels.They travel to Ipswich on Thursday with a 16-point advantage in their play-off semi-final tie before hosting Glasgow at the Oaktree Arena on Friday where they are looking to hold on to their six point lead to be crowned Premier League Cup Champions.Team boss Garry May said: “We will go to Ipswich looking to win the match rather than trying to defend our lead. “16 points is what we have to work with if we want to make it through to what would be a fourth Grand Final in five years.“Some people might like to think that we have got one hand on the League Cup, but nothing is won yet.“We will be taking nothing for granted come Friday’s second leg as Glasgow are a quality side and will come at us with all guns blazing.”WORKINGTON ended their season with a 47-43 home win over Glasgow – but missed out on a place in the League Cup Final after suffering a heavy 107-72 defeat on aggregate.Team manager Tony Jackson said: “Obviously we knew an aggregate victory was never a realistic possibility so we asked the lads for one last effort to restore some pride by winning our final home meeting of the season against the only side we had not beaten so far this year.“They responded magnificently to come out on top in what was a very entertaining season finale.”TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE LATEST…
BUXTON experienced a mixed afternoon with a win and a defeat in their double header on Sunday.The Hitmen were well-beaten by the Isle of Wight before earning a hard-fought 51-39 win over King’s Lynn.Team boss Jason Pipe said: ‘It just shows what can be achieved with three true heat leaders. In the first meeting, Isle of Wight had three dominant heat-leaders but in the second we had Tom (Woolley), Rob (Shuttleworth) and Lee (Dicken) who led from the front. “I’d like to thank Tom Woolley for two solid performances as a guest and how well did Joe Lawlor do scoring paid 22 from the two meetings?“I have to be happy with the second result and hope now we can take that form to Stoke next week and our final League match against Rye House in a fortnight.” CRADLEY star Ashley Morris struck a faultless maximum but could not prevent his side being dumped out of the National League Play-Offs by local rivals Birmingham on Monday.Morris said: “Of course I'm happy with another unbeaten night but it doesn't mean as much when the team have lost.“We knew it was going to be tough on aggregate but thought we could at least get a win on the night but it wasn't to be.“Birmingham were just way too strong for us in the end and fair play to them. We go to Eastbourne in the Knockout Cup on Saturday and we know we need to pull off something very special to get the win.”EASTBOURNE booked their place in the National League Play-Off Final with a 52-38 win over Kent at Arlington on Friday.Team boss Connor Dugard commented: “Delighted, just the great result we wanted. In truth, we did the hard work in the first leg but we knew we couldn't afford to sit back here tonight.“From the off, the boys didn't give Kent a glimmer of hope and in the end we won comfortably.” ISLE OF WIGHT wrapped up their season in style with a convincing 57-33 away win at Buxton on Sunday afternoon.James Cockle, who scored 14 points, said: “It was good to have one last meeting away from home and to get a big win was a great way for us to end the season.“We could have done with some performances like that earlier in the season to get our confidence up, then who knows where we could have ended up?“It was still a great win and I had a good meeting as well, so it was a nice way to go out in our last meeting.” KENT will bring the curtain down on a memorable campaign when they host the King of Kent individual event next Monday, October 17.Co-promoter Len Silver said: “Clearly, at our final event, and with riders' awards in the bar after the meeting, it did not make sense to operate with any of our 2016 squad missing. “This will be the perfect opportunity to see the riders who’ve served us so well in track action (up against some former favourites) and then celebrate our achievements with presentations in the bar afterwards.” KING’S Lynn Young Stars suffered a 51-39 defeat against Buxton on Sunday afternoon.Skipper Scott Campos said: “On the whole we’re a bit disappointed with the result as we thought we could get a win there. “Buxton made some late changes to their team which made them stronger and a couple of our guys had off days, which is highlighted more when you're missing a couple of key riders. “Tony Atkin came in and did a great job for us. Nathan started a bit slow but got his set up right later on and young Taylor rode extremely well and got his race win in heat 14. “We’re a bit disappointed but we've got to look forward to Wednesday and try and get a result in our last home meeting against Eastbourne.” STOKE stormed to an impressive 54-33 victory over the Isle of Wight at Loomer Road on Saturday night.Team boss Malcolm Vasey said: “It was an all-round team performance with everyone chipping in with at least a paid win. “Ben (Hopwood) suffered some mechanical gremlins but still scored some important points and it was pleasing to see both Tony (Atkin) and Ben (Wilson) record maximums on the night. “Paul Burnett had a very good evening as did Chris Hay and it shows what we could do should we all fire on the same night. “I now hope we can continue tonight’s form into our remaining matches and give our supporters something to smile about.”
FIXTURE PICTURE…
TUESDAY OCTOBER 11:RECYCLED AGGREGATE SERVICES OLYMPIQUE: Wolverhampton 7.30
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 12:TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: King’s Lynn v Eastbourne 7.30
THURSDAY OCTOBER 13:PREMIER LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 2nd leg: Ipswich v Somerset 7.30; 1st leg: Sheffield v Glasgow 7.30
FRIDAY OCTOBER 14:LEAGUE CUP FINAL 2nd leg: Somerset v Glasgow 7.30TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Belle Vue v King’s Lynn 7.30BLUE RIBAND: Poole 7.30
SATURDAY OCTOBER 15:NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP S/F 2nd leg: Eastbourne v Cradley 7.30NATIONAL TROPHY: Stoke v Buxton 7pm
SUNDAY OCTOBER 16:PREMIER LEAGUE PLAY-OFF S/F 2nd leg: Glasgow v Sheffield 3pmNATIONAL LEAGUE PAIRS, King’s Lynn 3.30
MONDAY OCTOBER 17:KING OF KENT: Kent 6.30
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 19:NATIONAL LEAGUE KO CUP FINAL 1st leg: Birmingham v Eastbourne/Cradley 7.30
FRIDAY OCTOBER 21:TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Belle Vue v Birmingham 7pm, Belle Vue v Coventry (follows previous fixture)
SATURDAY OCTOBER 22:ELITE LEAGUE: Leicester v King’s Lynn 7.30TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Stoke v King’s Lynn 7pm
SUNDAY OCTOBER 23:PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP FINAL 1st leg: Newcastle v Glasgow 6.30TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Buxton v Rye House 3pm
MONDAY OCTOBER 24:PREMIER LEAGUE KO CUP FINAL 2nd leg: Glasgow v Newcastle 7.30
