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Monarch Edition
- news - results - div one - div two - div three - statistics - averages - honours - - rider search by GSA - rider search by name - transfer list - international standings/averages -
Comment now on the latest news at the Forum TRANSFER RECORD SMASHED Henry attracts inflated price When 18 year old Kevin Henry failed to find a club in pre-season he almost gave up on the sport, in the two months since he has become the World Under 19 Champion and is now £300,000 better off. That’s the price—a world record for an single rider transfer—Irlam Tigers deemed necessary to get their man, a rider who’s had just one season in the league and has twice as many last places to his name than race wins! The obvious potential of the former Friston rider is there for all to see, but he’s a long way off from fulfilling it—if he does, and the inflated price tag can only build pressure onto his young shoulders. Henry joins an Irlam side going all out to regain the title they last won two season’s ago, the Tigers moving ominously into second spot in the division one table this week after recording back-to-back wins, Framlingham the venue for their away success, where heat 13 and 15 5-1’s from Greg Grella (14+1) and Iain Johnson (13+1) completed a 42-48 victory for the visitors. Paul Knowles will though break the rule of not changing a winning team for their next league clash, Henry certain to get a debut at Newquay with Irlam’s bottom three scoring just a combined eight at the Lancers. Framlingham—who were surprising out-gunned at the top end by Irlam given their own heat leader strength—have also made changes to their squad this week, 24 year old Ben Ness—with a higher average than Henry—will slot in at second string for them after joining the club for a more reasonable £50,000 fee. Like Henry, Tony Islam was also a rider reluctantly released by his club in pre-season, Alan Stewart making the decision to keep Niklas Augustsson—amongst others—in his Newquay line up instead, and with the Swede now averaging 8.00 having started SL7 on 5.07, it looks to be a wise move. Islam has been inundated with second half appearance requests since his release and he’s been the length and breadth of the country fulfilling them over the past six weeks. His reward is a £157,000 signing on fee, Sankey the winners of a hotly contested auction for 23 year old, who with an 8.40 GSA becomes the club’s new number one—on paper at least. In the meantime Newquay themselves have strengthened their line up, Andreas Bild’s £95,000 arrival from Lublin doubling the Swedish contingent on the north Cornish coast.
TODAY: Shorts Don Valley Vipers maintained their two point lead at the top of division one after they led from start to finish at Southampton Scorpions to pick up their third away league win of the season, the home side struggling to get into contention in the clash, having picked up just one race win in the first six heats. The loss will be a huge setback for their promoter John Shuttler who would have been dreaming of a serious championship challenge earlier in the week when he watched his side win at Quantock Rangers, the only team to have beaten Don Valley this year! There Steve Smith—who was used at second string in the club’s home meeting—finishing with figures of 11+2 from seven at reserve, his second to Petteri Polkki in a heat 14 5-1 ensuring at least a point for the visitors from the meeting, a second place from Radim Sivok (13) behind Pairs Champion Wade Dunn in the last going on to clinch the 44-46 victory. Quantock bounced back from the loss to record an away win of their own at Friston Foresters where a seventh 5-1 of the night in heat 15—three apiece up until that point—gave the Rangers a 41-49 victory. And you’ve guessed it, Friston’s home defeat was proceeded by an away win from them at Merseyside, this meeting again littered with 5-1’s scores—eight in total—but it was a Marcin Kepczynski (18) winning 4-2 in the last which took the Foresters to a 44-46 victory.
Just a week into the World Championship season and we already have our first major casualty, World Number 13 Rami Tjernstron (7) failing to make the top eight in the opening qualifier at Pori, the Friston star unable to recover from two last places from his first two races. The meeting was won by Anders Elgaard Petersen with a 15 point maximum, the success the first in a WSO event for the former GP rider. Both Brits in action at the Finnish circuit—Padi Basker (8) and Matthew Rutherford (8)—scraped through to the second round by a point, with further home nation success coming in Warsaw as Robert Bradley (7) and Wade Dunn (14) both made the cut. Dunn missed out on victory in Poland after losing a race-off to Pila’s Andreas Bocskor, the five-time World Under 21 finalist another first time WSO event winner.
Manchester Marlins are back into the division two promotion places after riding to their first set of back-to-back wins since the open week of the season. Then the former league champions—racing at this level for the first time—looked set to runaway with the Division Two championship, James Calderbank will more than happy with a top three finish now given their indifferent form of late. Strugglers Langley were no match for them on their travels though in their latest fixture, 5-1’s involving second string Adam Roberts (7+3) in heats eight and 11 giving them the decisive edge in an eventual 42-48 win. In division three there were first ever away wins for new-boys Tiverton Texans and Nottingham Ducks, the former having things wrapped up with a heat to spare at Lye (43-47), while Nottingham required 5-1’s won by Jonathan Smith (17) in heats 14 and 15 to complete their 42-48 win at Milton Keynes, they had trailed their hosts by ten at one stage!
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