SPEEDWAY: Fricke 'Three-Peat' his way to another Aussie 21-title

  

Max Fricke made it three successive Australian under-21 titles in a row at Kurri Kurri Speedway in NSW this past Saturday evening, as the Victoria rider was made to work hard for his victory yet again, in what was an exciting meeting overall.  It saw Fricke beating the NSW (New South Wales) duo of Brady Kurtz and Jack Holder the NSW under-21 champion in the final, to see the former Edinburgh Monarch notch up his third crown in a row.   

In the qualifying races it saw the current holder Max Fricke taking the meetings opening race ahead of Jye Etheridge. Jack Holder took a race win in his first outing after a rerun, while Brady Kurtz had to fend off from an impressive display by Josh Pickering to see him win in heat 4. Pickering had only just completed his first speedway season in his career and did well on his debut in the Australian Under-21 final scoring 11 points.  The following race saw Jye Etheridge and Pickering have a great battle, to which was close to a being a dead heat but Etheridge was adjudged to have just won on the line.

Heat 7 saw Jake Allen take the spoils ahead of Cooper Riordan and Jack Holder, as  Allen made up for a third place in his opening ride.  Max Fricke won his second ride comfortably, while Tyler King, Jordan Stewart and Dale Borlase all had a good battle for the minor places. Heat 9 saw a nasty incident involving Jye Etheridge, to which he took a tumble on the third bend and saw him withdrawn from the meeting suffering with a heavy concussion from the fall.

Heat 12 saw another brilliant race, this time involving Fricke and Holder to which saw Holder leading the champion round for over 3 laps of the race, before Fricke got by Holder to take the race win. Holder then took the next heat in the fourth round of races, as he beat fellow New South Wales racer in Brady Kurtz for the win.

Josh Pickering then saw him score his first race win of the night in heat 14, with a couple races later seeing Jake Allen beat Max Fricke for the first time in the meeting, to see the Brisbane native score his third race in a row.  Heat 17 saw Allen make it 4 wins out of 5 in the next round of races as he secured a bye through to the A Final, while Pickering won his race to take his place along with Jack Holder in the B Final.  Brady Kurtz got the better of Fricke in the final race of the 20 qualifying heats, as he joined Fricke and Allen as the top 3 riders who automatically go through to the A Final.

The B final saw Jack Holder, Josh Pickering, Cooper Riordan and Tyler King contesting a place in the grand final and saw Holder take the race win and see him in the line up against the other big guns in the climax to the championship.  The final as you would expect was one of nervousness and a tense atmosphere, with neither rider giving an inch to the other three in the race and so saw them having to re run the A Final three times before crowning the 2015 champion.

At the first time of asking it saw Jack Holder hitting the deck on the first bend and saw all four back for a re run with first bend bunching called, in the second attempt it saw Jake Allen taking Max Fricke to the fence on the 2^nd bend and had both riders falling off and led to the referee deeming Allen as the cause of the stoppage, which had him running to the starting line and discuss with the referee the exclusion.  On the third attempt of trying to run the A Final, it saw a three way battle to see would be the Australian under-21 champion for 2015.

As the tapes flew up, it saw all three racers battling it out with the proverbial blanket being able to be cover the combatants and saw Max Fricke just edge out Jack Holder in a thrilling finale to meeting and had the youngster from Victoria once again retain his under-21 crown, for a third successive year in a row. The victory sees the recently signed Belle Vue Aces man claim his third title and moves him to within one of the former four-time Australian under-21 champion and also an ex World champion in Poole Pirates rider Chris Holder.

Chris Holder who is the older brother of Jack who rode in the meeting, saw the Grand Prix star presenting the trophy to Fricke and said afterwards “I`m a little nervous that my record might be equalled or beaten” as the Victoria rider still has two years to be able to compete in the competition before he is ineligible and would be a good bet to make it four next year, but the standard of young Australian riders is getting better

Fricke was quoted afterwards saying “It hasn't got any easier to win (the title) everyone is getting better each year”. “After the fall I jumped on my spare bike and thankfully it worked out well.”

Meanwhile Josh Pickering, who was one of the standout riders in the meeting, said of his debut "People tell me I should be pleased with my first season, but I'm competitive. Every time I get on a bike in a race I want to win and I was disappointed I didn't make the A-final," 

1. Jye Etheridge...........2,3,F Withdrawn = 5

2. Jack Fallon.............1,1,1,2,2 = 7

3. Arthur Sissis...........0,0,X,1,0 = 1

4. Max Fricke.............3,3,3,2,2 = 13 

5. Zaine Kennedy...........1,1,0,3,1 = 6

6. Robert Medson..........2,2,2,1,1 = 8

7. Jack Holder............3,1,2,3,3 = 12 Second 

8. Dale Borlase...........0,0,2,1,2 = 5

9. Tyson Snow.............2,0,1,0,1 = 4

10 Jake Mitchell..........0,0,0,0,1 = 1

11 Cooper Riordan.........3,2,3,0,0 = 8

12 Tyler King.............1,2,2,1,2 = 8

13 Josh Pickering.........2,2,1,3,3 = 11

14 Brady Kurtz............3,3,3,2,3 = 14 Third 

15 Jake Allen.............1,3,3,3,3 = 13 Fourth

16 Jordan Stewart.........0,1,1,2,0 = 4

=========================

Res Karl Lawler.......... 0,0

Res Matthew Flay..........0

Ice Hockey: Tigers & Cats add to Phoenix woes

Manchester Phoenix 3                  Tigers Hockey 5

A nightmare weekend for the Manchester Phoenix saw the EPL champions’ weekend consisting of losing two players to see their bench getting even shorter. There was also some inept officiating which led to a controversial goal being awarded but the Phoenix battled on and went down fighting showing their true championship spirit against the Swindon Wildcats and champions-elect in the (Telford) Tigers. 

After a 4-2 loss down in Wiltshire to their bogey side Swindon on Saturday night, we saw the Phoenix up against the Tigers the following evening. Phoenix came into the match missing defensive duo Captain Luke Boothroyd with a long term injury and Joe Graham, who had suffered a shoulder injury in the Wildcats game the previous night. There was some good news for the Phoenix as Jacob Corson-Heron dressed for the game following his fractured jaw at Telford a couple weeks back.

The Tigers, who have dominated the league with an iron fist this season, rolled into Altrincham for which they probably expected a routine win due to the crippling injury crisis that has plagued the Phoenix in recent weeks. What the Tigers hadn't counted on was that the Phoenix hadn’t read the script and shocked their opponents with their battling qualities and never say die attitude, which frustrated the Tigers throughout the game.

Phoenix played a smart game against the league leaders and saw their plan in the first half of the period at least working out for them.  With Jonathon Weaver sitting in the penalty box for the Tigers, the home side scored the opening goal of the game on a power play, with a Robin Kovar wrist shot beating Tom Murdy in the visitor’s goal and gave the Phoenix a 1-0 lead at 3.31 with Frankie Bakrlik assisting on the opener.

Tigers were knocking continually on the Phoenix door and saw Steve Fone on top form to stop the wave of attacks on his goal and the hosts stood firm against a strong Tigers forward line. Unfortunately for the home side they just couldn't keep those pesky Tigers out for long. After Johan Burlin picked up a needless interference call this gave the Tigers an extra man advantage. They drew level through a Nathan Salem strike at 12.17 with Rick Plant and Sam Zajac getting credited with the assists on the goal. At 14.18 the visitors then took the lead in the match with a Biashoslav Novak effort while unmarked to tap home at the back post to see Tigers go 2-1 up.

After one period of hockey the Phoenix did well to subdue their opponents and stopped their rivals taking over the game as was expected. The start of the second period saw a blow to Phoenix as they lost the services of Czech forward Michal Psurny through illness and another player was added to the injury list.

 

Phoenix came out a bit brighter at the start of the second period and saw them have a half chance with Tigers netminder Tom Murdy making a stop to deny an equaliser for the home side. Phoenix did tie the game up at 2-2 and the goal came from an unlikely source in defenceman James Neil. A pass from the side of the net by player-coach Tony Hand saw the Nottingham-born player put in at the far side to net his first of the season and make the game level at 25.27. With the game getting tighter and some calls on both sides getting missed by the officials,   Frankie Bakrlik then got penalised for a Hooking call at 30-35 and gave the Tigers another power play opportunity. Tigers then made it two from two on the power plays, though their third goal had more than a degree of good fortune about it. 

Linesman Carrington could have had the Phoenix supporters asking ‘if he`d been to Specsavers’ as he made an absolute howler of epic proportions for the Tigers third. A Tiger’s player was struggling to get back onside and tried “stretching” a skate to the blue line, but was unable to reach and ended up a good two feet from the line.  Phoenix fans were right to be furious with the missed call as with play continuing and a scramble around the nets, Sam Zajac threw the puck back across goal and saw Steve Fone helplessly divert it into his own nets for a 3-2 lead at 31.48 and drew massive boos from the Manchester crowd who were up in arms.

The home fans felt the decisions were going more against the Phoenix and more in favour of their opponents. With the Phoenix fans urging their team with fantastic support throughout the whole game, there were two incidents both involving Rupert Quiney and Ben Wood. Firstly, Quiney put in a heavy hit on Wood by the boards which looked to be a check to the head, but Wood got on with it and proceeded to answer back emphatically with one of the biggest centre ice hits seen for many a years at the Altrincham Ice dome and had the building rocking. That hit got the fans going in the stands and even drew approval from some of the Tigers players themselves on the bench, as the check at centre ice was a good clean, heavy hit and had Quiney returning to the bench

With the final period left to play and the score separated by only one goal, the Phoenix seemed to draw some kind of momentum from keeping it close. Despite Tigers missing one man from their line-up that has scored more hat tricks against Manchester than anyone else this season in Jason Silverthorn, Tigers didn't have the same threat as in previous games against Phoenix.

Tigers then opened up a two goal cushion on their hosts, when former Phoenix man Scott McKenzie was set up by another ex Manchester player in Joe Miller and his pass found McKenzie open and he found the twine to make it 4-2 to the visitors at 41-18, which looked like the goal that would kill off any hint of a comeback in the match at all for Phoenix. The hosts though battled valiantly with their short bench to keep pace with a fresher and powerful Tigers side but it was evident that tiredness had got to a couple of players by the third period.

Rick Plant then decided he wanted to get to know James Archer that little bit better. After a hit on Archer by the boards, this then led to the Phoenix man shoving him back and Plant then tried to pull the Phoenix player’s shirt off his back. This saw him sitting out a penalty for Roughing. Not long after the Rick Plant penalty had ended, Phoenix then pulled a goal back through Jack Watkins after the young forward managed to flick the puck past Murdy into the back of the net to bring them within one goal of tying the game at 50.55 with James Archer and Shaun Thompson assisting.

Manchester then had the momentum in their favour and the Tigers looked rattled following the goal and it seemed like Phoenix had gotten a second wind. However the wind was soon taken out of their proverbial sails, as a tired clearance by James Neil saw the puck fall to Joe Miller and the forward finished it off to see the Tigers move 5-3 ahead at 53.30 and left Neil devastated with the error and mixed in with tiredness, saw him fall to the ice.  Phoenix tried to force one more goal scoring attempt, but the well ran dry and the victorious Tigers side took the two points on offer but knew they had fought a tougher battle than the previous two meetings with the Phoenix.  

After the game Tony Hand gave his thoughts about the game and said:

"I could not be more proud of the lads tonight. They gave their all and worked so hard all evening. Credit to Tigers, they are a good side and used their bench to good effect all game. We will take positives from this game and put some good practice in during the week in preparation for the Bison and Steeldogs games.

================================================================

Manchester : James Neil 1+0, Tony Hand 0+1, James Archer 0+1, Adam Walker 0+1, Robin Kovar 1+0, Shaun Thompson 0+1, Frankie Bakrlik 0+1, Jack Watkins 1+0.

Telford: Sam Zajac 1+1, Rick Plant 0+1, Jonathon Weaver 0+1, Max Birbraer 0+1, Rupert Quiney 0+1, Dan Davies 0+1, Joe Miller 1+1, Scott McKenzie 1+1, Nathan Salem 1+1

Goaltenders:

Man: Steve Fone - 52 (5)    Tel: Tom Murdy 33 (3)

 ===============================================================

Links:

Official Phoenix match report 

Official Phoenix Podcast- clearing-up-after-mutts-and-moggies

RUGBY: 'CIPS' Magic Helps Sale lower the Saints Halo

 

 

SALE SHARKS                          20   

NORTHAMPTON SAINTS   7

 

Sale snapped a 2 game losing streak on Saturday afternoon as the Sharks dismantled the league leaders and reigning Aviva Premiership champions the Northampton Saints 20-7 in what was a game that saw the home side bully their opponents throughout at the AJ Bell Stadium and earn a famous win.  It saw also a battle of the England fly-half on offer to in the match up, with Saints Stephen Myler up against the Sharks Danny Cipriani with England head coach Stuart Lancaster sitting in the stands, as he cast an eye over the two men ahead of his selection for the England squad in the 6 Nations next month. 

The start of the match saw the Saints putting the home side under some early pressure and needed Sale to be on their metal to hold firm in defence, with attacks by the champions coming early on.   Sale who in their last home game was edged out in a heartbreaking loss to fellow playoff chasers the Leicester Tigers saw this game as another way to test themselves against the best in the league.

Cipriani was running the game for the home side, to which saw the fly half producing some good kicks into dangerous areas, including one which saw him gain at least 40 metres with a free kick that just managed to go over the Northampton player head and bounce 5 metres away from the Saints try line.

Play then saw the hosts going to close to the line with Mike Haley going close to give them the lead and then Magnus Lund looked like he was going to go over for the Sharks but he was hauled down agonisingly close and saw referee Matthew Carley, bring play back for a penalty to which Danny Cipriani despatched of between the uprights for a 3-0 lead after 9 minutes of play. 

Another piece of ill-discipline by the Saints saw Cipriani convert on another penalty for the hosts and he doubled the lead for the Sharks at 6-0 and had the visitors still trying to find some way back into this contest, as the Champions were looking more like chumps in the game.  From the restart both sides traded kicks and led to a ball being held up due to the gusty conditions in Salford and the Northampton backs misjudged the ball and knocked on when coming under pressure from a stern Shark defence.

Will Addison nearly scored a lovely inventive try for the Sharks, when a dabbed kick in behind the Saints back line led to Addison chasing the tantalising ball heading for the corner but saw it just bounce off the corner padding and out of play.  The visitors were lacking anything in the way of creativity and they found the Sharks defence extremely difficult to break down and were seemingly low on ideas too.

Danny Cipriani on the other hand was creating all sorts of things for his side, whether it was little blindside passes that found gaps in the Northampton defence or it was kicks in behind the back line it must have given England coach Stuart Lancaster some food for thought in his decision making to possibly include the maverick fly half in his squad at the very least. 

This season the Sale Sharks driving maul at set pieces has been their biggest weapon in their arsenal and that was used to effect once again in this contest, with the forwards causing many problems for their opposite numbers and drove them back to the point of coming close to almost scoring a try as the Saints pack was unable to deal with the power the Sale side had and when Josh Beaumont went over the referee adjudge it to be held up, much to Beaumont`s frustration.

Sam Dickinson then got shown the yellow card for an illegal charge on Magnus Lund which saw the Sharks player receiving treatment from it and had the Saints down to 14 men for the duration of the first half.  Sale forced a penalty against the Saints pack and from their lineout which was perfection throughout the match and saw them record a perfect 24 lineout wins out of 24 and from one of those lineout wins it produced a driving maul by Sale, which ended with Eifion Lewis-Roberts going over for a try in the 29^th minute to see the home side lead with Danny Cipriani adding the two extras for a 13-0 score line. 

Cipriani once again was pulling the strings for the hosts and saw him play a lovely delayed pass to Sami Leota and the Samoan International dashed into the gap and needed a well timed tackle by the Saints to stop him galloping forwards and saw Stephen Myler clear away the danger.  Northampton had the final chance of the half as they looked to try grab a score before the break, but they couldn`t get anything going in the contest and a knock on while in a good position summed up their  match.

In the second half it saw Northampton trying to launch an early fightback to get back in the game, but just like the first forty the Sharks defence repelled all advances by the Saints and solid work by the home side kept them out. Their tough back line was evident and included a crunching tackle by Will Addison on George Pisi which sent the Saints man flying and drew a penalty from the play for not releasing the ball. 

Calum Clark then got shown the 2^nd Yellow card for the visitors in the game in the 57^th minute, to which the Sharks forwards now sensed blood at the lineout and drove onwards in their devastating driving maul and had Sale Captain Dan Braid put the ball down to extend the lead to 18-0 for the home team with Cipriani adding the extras.

Former Shark Luther Burrell tried to get his side going with a run, but unluckily for him he knocked on and saw another disappointing Northampton attack come to nothing.  In the 65^th minute the Saints did eventually get some points on the board, as Teimana Harrison wriggled his way over the try line to score and give the travelling East Midlands fans something to cheer. Northampton then had a mini purple patch in the game, as they created a couple of chances and were clearly buoyed by that try.

Sale managed to  grab control right back and saw them just take full advantage of a poor Northampton side and saw Danny Cipriani do his cause to be selected for England no harm as the England coach must have been impressed with his performance, as he was replaced with just over 10 minute left to play and got a standing ovation by the Sharks faithful.  It also saw the introduction of new signing TJ Ioane come on for the final 11 minutes and he put himself around a bit on debut and looks a good signing for the Sharks too.

Sale did come under some late pressure at the back end of the game and needed their defence to hold out, with a late Saints rally and included a phrases in double digits after the 80 minutes were up to where the home side quelled their last attacks before a knock on brought the game to a close and the Sharks recorded a famous win over their former coach Jim Mallinder and his league champions.

Northampton it was a case of a bad day at the office and one to quickly draw a line under and forget about as their lineouts were abysmal, their attacks looked toothless and lacked any purpose and they will be glad they still hold top place after the is defeat.
Sale despite the win dropped a place in the table to 8th position and will look to use their new found confidence in their final European Cup group match at home next weekend  against Clermont, as the Sharks can still have a say as to who qualifys in the group despite being out of the tournament.