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Next Home Meeting:

Date: Saturday 19th July

Opposition: Redcar

Competition: Premier League

Time: 7pm

Next Away Meeting:

Date: Saturday 26th July

Opposition: Redcar

Competition: Conference League

Time: 3pm

To See all fixtures then click here.

It’s A Wash Out

Kart Racing Cobras vs Arena-Essex – Postponed

(Challenge, Saturday March 22nd) 

Persistent rain, with the forecast of more wet weather to follow, led to the early call-off, at 9am, of Saturday night’s scheduled challenge match between the Kart Racing Cobras and Arena-Essex.   

Rockets Ease Home in Trophy Opener 

Rye House 59 Mildenhall 33

(Premier Trophy, Monday March 24th 2008) 

A pre-match snow flurry aside, the weather finally acquiesced and allowed the Silver Ski Rockets to complete their first match of 2008 at the fourth attempt. It proved to be a more than comfortable win, with Rye opening with six straight 5-1s to end the match as a contest very early on. All seven Rockets won races, with Tai Woffinden, Stefan Ekberg and Tommy Allen each dropping points in just one of their outings. 

If the score-line was fairly one-sided, it hid a number of exciting moments, many based around Danny Betson. The 20 year old’s afternoon began with a third bend surge inside James Cockle and Mark Baseby to join Rober Mear at the front of the pack in Heat 2. It continued through to an even better race in Heat 11, with Betson leading Laukkanen for the duration only to concede second place right on the line. The Rye House reserve saved his best, though, until last. Heat 14 started with Tommy Allen failing to beat the two minute allowance due to mechanical problems, but opting back into the race off a 15 metre handicap. Allen then fell on the first bend, leaving Betson trailing third behind James Cockle and Casper Wortman. It took just under two laps for Betson to reel in the Dane, and a further lap and a half to catch and pass Cockle for the victory. 

The Fen Tigers had little to cheer about, save for two race wins for exciting newcomer Jan Graverson. Already nursing injuries to Robbie Kessler (concussion) and Shane Colvin (knee ligament damage), they could claim their share of racing misfortune, with Graverson excluded for bringing down Tommy Allen on the second lap of Heat 3, guest Lee Smart falling on the last bend of the next race when holding second, and James Cockle lifting down the home straight to allow both Luke Bowen and Robert Mear through for a drawn result in Heat 8. 

The Rockets could counter-argue with their own problems. Stefan Ekberg was excluded after a third bend tangle with Graverson in Heat 7 to blight an otherwise perfect record, while Chris Neath struggled mechanically in his last two outings and Tommy Allen’s otherwise bright afternoon ended with the two mishaps of Heat 14. Those moments aside, however, it was generally all systems go, with Tai Woffinden once again firing on all cylinders, Luke Bowen continuing where he left off against Reading and Robert Mear quietly accumulating points. 

Oh, and we had Danny Betson playing “Mr Excitement”, to become the newest hero in the Rockets ranks. 

Rye House scorers: 

Chris Neath                           6+1 (4 rides)

Luke Bowen                           8+1 (4)

Tai Woffinden                         11+1 (5)

Tommy Allen                          7+2 (4)

Stefan Ekberg                       12 (5)

Danny Betson                        8+1 (4)

Robert Mear                          7+2 (4) 

Mildenhall scorers: 

Kaj Laukkanen                     7+1 (5 rides)

Lee Smart (guest)               4 (5)

Jan Graverson                     12 (5 rides, inc 4 as a TR)

Casper Wortmann                6+2 (5)

Robbie Kessler                     R/R

Mark Baseby                       1 (4)

James Cockle                      2 (4)

Aaron Baseby (No.8)            1 (2)             

The Things They Said

Talking afterwards, three of the Silver Ski Rockets reviewed their performances on Easter Monday against Mildenhall:

Stefan Ekberg

“I was really happy with the way things went today. It is hard to talk about the exclusion in Heat 7; I thought I passed Jan Graverson quite well, because he had a wheel up and seemed to be in a bit of trouble, but you can’t do anything about the decision. 

“There were a lot of encouraging signs from the rest of the team today, with some really good passes. Danny (Betson) had a really good race in winning Heat 14, and the other boys did so well. It all points to a really good season. We haven’t had too much action, with all the cancelled meetings, so we are just glad to start racing again. 

“My (broken) jaw is feeling much better now than it was a week ago. It’s definitely going the right way. I still can’t eat solids, though. I tried to eat a few small things, but the doctor has told me to stay on soup for a little while longer.” 

Chris Neath

“My bike felt a bit strange in my first two rides. It started making some really funny noises in my third race, so I changed machines for my last outing, but it was a bit of a rush and it wasn’t really set up for the track. The bottom line though is that we had a comfortable win, and everyone rode well at times. 

“This week’s matches against King’s Lynn will be two very tough ones for both sides. We just need to make sure that we are on the top of our game, with our bikes ready for both meetings, to go out and do the best job we can.” 

Tommy Allen

“I was glad to put last Saturday (against Reading) behind me today. It wasn’t a very good start to the season for me, and I was glad to get it out of the way. I had three good heats today, with three paid wins with Tai – it was good to get back to what we are used to. We like riding together, and we have fun, so it makes it so much easier. 

“The engine packed up in the last one, so off to the workshop that will go. You can’t do a lot about that, except put it right for the next match. I was keen to be in the re-run - I thought that I could pass them off 15 metres - but it turned out to be a bit of a rush for me, and I got the first bend wrong. But, all in all, it’s been a great day.”

Rockets on the Road 

Following rained-off postponements of their fixtures at Reading and Mildenhall, the Silver Ski Rockets will be hoping it’s third time lucky when they travel to King’s Lynn on Wednesday (March 26th) for their first away match in the Premier Trophy. They will also be hoping to go that little bit further than achieved in last year’s sole visit to the Norfolk Arena. On that occasion, they took their hosts to a last heat decider before having to settle on being the first side to claim an aggregate bonus point against the Stars that season, after a 49-43 thriller. 

Rockets Aim for Sky 

The Silver Ski Rockets were the last Premier League side to be featured live on Sky Sports, the cameras catching their demolition job against the Isle of Wight last autumn. They will now also be the first in 2008, with Sky earmarking Tuesday, May 27th, for coverage of their match at fellow championship rivals Reading. 

New Date for Bears 

The Silver Ski Rockets’ home match against Redcar has been switched from Saturday, July 19th to Sunday, July 27th (2pm). The latter date had originally been put aside as reserved for Knock-Out Cup progress, but the former will now fill this slot.

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