BELLE VUE ACES 46
SWINDON ROBINS 44
Belle
Vue engineered one of the most unlikeliest of comebacks, as they beat the
reigning league champions the Swindon Robins 46-44 in a last heat decider at
Kirky lane Monday night.
Champions
Swindon were without their number 1 rider Hans Andersen as the Danish rider had
been injured riding for his Polish league club on the Sunday, so they swiftly
brought in guest rider Rory Schlein to replace Andersen.
It
was good move as the Australian rider Schlein was Belle Vue Aces number 1 rider
last year and had suffered from mixed fortunes in the 2 year spell at the
Manchester club.
Swindon
drew first blood in the contest, after winning the opening race when Rory
Schlein and Nick Morris scored a shock maximum 5-1 heat advantage with Matej
Zagar struggling to find any drive against the Robins pair at all.
Swindon
extended their lead on a very slick track early on in the meeting it has to be
said, Edward Kennett and Peter Kildemand made a fantastic gate to get away from
Craig Cook and Kevin Wolbert as the visitors scored another maximum heat win to
lead 13-5 after 3 heats.
Heat
4 saw the Aces finally put up a brief reply, as Magnus Zetterstrom and Ales
Dryml got out ahead of the two Swindon riders, however Troy Batchelor came
under Dryml and then went around Zetterstrom like they were in slow motion as
the Aussie took the race win.
Belle
Vue were poor as they struggled to make any gates and when they did they
couldn`t make advantage count, as Swindon were too fast and aggressive for
them.
In
the following heat, heat 5 it saw an almost identical race as in the previous
race, as the Aces once again got out on a 5-1 with Cook and Wolbert, But Morris
and Schlein got in front of the German rider on the back straight of the first
lap and as much as Morris tried to chase the Cumbrian rider down, it was neon
impossible due to lack of material on the track.
Matej
Zagar then made up for his opening race taking victory in his next one, as Troy Batchelor and Ashley Birks made the start
on the Slovenian but Zagar moved Batchelor out towards the fence and then cut
up the inside of Birks and then pulled away for the win, while his partner
Artur Mroczka struggled once again as twice he passed both Swindon riders due
to them making mistakes. Mroczka it seemed ,just kept giving up his place easily
on both occasions which will set alarm bells ringing for the Team manager Jason
Attwood.
Belle
Vue started to mount a comeback in heat 8 as Attwood made a change to the
line-up taking Mroczka out and putting Kauko Nieminen in his place instead. It
was a move that paid off , as the Belle Vue got their first heat advantage of
the evening with Nieminen and Dryml teaming up for a 5-1 to cover the damaged
of a 4-2 they had suffered in the previous heat.
It
was the turn then of Wolbert and Cook to continue the road to recovery as they
got a 4-2 with Troy Batchelor passing Cook into second spot on the first lap ,but
the German held on to first place and so reduced the gap to 4 points on the
Robins lead now.
Matej
Zagar shown once again that he has come on leaps and bounds on his return to
British speedway this season, as he was out gated by the Robins best pairing of
Kildemand and Kennett. The Slovenian
however then cut through them both and never looked back now, Mroczka trailed off
by a distance at the back of the field once again with the Pole looking
disinterested , as it summed up his performances this season as he has been the
biggest weak link for the Aces this year.
Swindon
hit back in the next race,with Nick Morris and Rory Schlein getting an easy 5-1
maximum heat win to open up a 8 point lead for the Robins, as they were still
in no danger at all of losing this meeting , as they looked to have full
control of it.
Heat
12 then saw Great Britain`s rising star Craig Cook split the Robins pair before
he passed Peter Kildemand on the fourth bend of the first lap, then Ales Dryml
battled his way past Ashley Birks and saw him move into third position as the
Aces held onto a 4-2 position and cut the lead back down to 6 points.
Belle
Vue then had the advantage in the heat 13 when Zagar and Zetterstrom got out
ahead of Schlein and Batchelor from the gate, it looked like at one point the
Aces would be just two points behind with two races to go in the meeting.
Then
Zorro hit a hole on the third bend and narrowly missed colliding with Schlein
on the fourth bend and so the Pairing of the visitors passed him by and while
the following lap saw Rory Schlein do the exact thing as Zetterstrom had done,
in hitting the same hole he managed to control the bike and carry on.
It
looked like the meeting was all but over now, as Swindon now just needing three
points to win the meeting from the final two remaining heats and it seemed a
nailed on certainty from the way the match had gone on that it would be a foregone
conclusion.
However
Belle Vue wasn`t going to lie down to the champions and they produced a
comeback of Lazarus proportions to get back. The Home side needed two 5-1`s to
win the meeting and it was an extremely tall order to do that in all honesty,
but they completed part of it, as Nieminen or "NEMO" dubbed by speedway fans, led from the gate with Kevin Wolbert joining him at the front after he
passed Eddie Kennett on the third lap to grab second and held onto it, to give
the Aces maximum points in the penultimate race and set up a deciding heat.
Heading
into the final race the score was 41-43 in favour of the Swindon Robins, Robins
team manager Alun Rossiter , decided to put Troy Batchelor in ahead of Peter
Kildemand. Kildemand seemed the most nailed on choice for Swindon along with
Schlein as they were the best two riders for the away side.
Aces
Team manager Jason Attwood put his faith in Craig Cook and Matej Zagar in the
final heat to try and get the maximum heat win needed to give Belle Vue the
most unlikeliest of victories.
As
the riders approached the tapes, the atmosphere had grown as the home fans
greeted the home riders to massive cheer and support. This meant a lot to the
home fans generated a surge of noise as the Aces fans hadn`t been this vocal
for a long time,due mainly to not much to get a excited in recent season.
As
the tapes flew up the home side riders flew away from the gate and was greeted
with an amazing roar by the Aces supporters as they encouraged their heroes
round on every lap and as they both came off the last bend they were cheered home
by the fans as they crossed the line in first and second place to give the Belle
Vue Aces as 46-44 win and was a played the biggest Get out of jail card
possible with this match in particular, the victory will be a welcome boost
ahead of the meeting next week against the Poole Pirates. As the Dorset side
are struggling this season too, due mainly to the injury of Darcy Ward.
However
a great victory by the Aces and moves them to 6th in the table and 6
points outside the playoff places with still over half a season left to run.
Belle Vue 'Rentruck' Aces:
Matej Zagar 13;
Craig Cook 10+1;
Kauko Nieminen 10;
Ales Dryml 5+3;
Kevin Wölbert 5+1;
Magnus Zetterström 3
Artur Mroczka 0
Swindon 'Excalibur Communication'
Robins:
Peter Kildemand 9+1;
Troy Batchelor 8+2;
Rory Schlein (G) 8+2;
Nick
Morris 8+1;
Edward Kennett 6+1;
Ashley Birks 5;
Kacper Gomolski 0
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