MATCH REPORT: Comfortable Lions race to victory
Hellingly Lions Cycle Speedway raced to a comfortable victory on Sunday, when they beat Kesgrave Panthers 90 – 68 in front of a good crowd.
Hellingly took an early lead and capitalised on Kesgrave rider’s first appearance at the track. Neil Hollebon and Jim Cox started the ball rolling with a 6-4 advantage in heat 1.
In heat 2, Kesgrave’s Richie Foote and Gary Brown took second and third place and with Hellingly’s Jamie Morley who had suffered a nasty looking fall failing to finish they secured a 5-4 heat advantage. This proved to be their only advantage of the match as Hellingly riders filled all the race wins throughout the afternoon, with the exception of heat 9 when the impressive Leon Mower took the win.
Tapes up for Hellingly v Kesgrave. Photo by Michelle Rideout. (More photos at the bottom)
Hellingly’s three heat leaders were ably assisted by the second strings during the meeting. Eddie Ridley rode superbly for his 13 points, after suffering in the week with a bad back and competing in the Eurovets at Poole on Saturday. His performance on the day was nothing less than outstanding.
HELLINGLY 90
Neil Hollebon 23+1, Jesse Moore 20, Martyn Hollebon 17+1, Eddie Ridley 13, Jamie Cox 11, Jamie Morley 6+1
KESGRAVE 68
Leon Mower 15+1, Gary Brown 12+2, Ray Pyke 12+1, Tyler Brinkhoff 8, Richie Foote 7 Lewis Brinkhoff 5, Keanu Bowers 5, Charlie Long 4+1
The second team meeting of the day saw Hellingly, who were short of numbers, only able to make one change, 12 year old Ethan Page taking the number 1 jersey from Neil Hollebon.
Restricted riders Jesse Moore and Martyn Hollebon took to the track again, meaning 30 penalty points would be given to Kesgrave.
Kesgrave who had made the long journey down with 11 riders had 3 new riders along with their two reserves in their eight.
The impressive youngsters and veterans from Suffolk had soon got the hang of the different Hellingly surface and started the meeting strongly.
Two 7-3 maximum race wins from the Brinkhoff brothers in the first 4 heats saw the visitors take an early 8 point lead and it was time for the home riders to dig in.
The veteran duo of Martyn and Eddie duly obliged and secured a 7-3 in heat 5, closing the gap to just 4. Kesgrave returned a 6-4 in heat 6 and the Brinkhoff brothers doing their stuff in heat 7, the gap had widened again to a 10 point advantage to the visitors.
The home riders then got down to the job in hand and after six heat advantages in the next eight heats, including a couple of very exciting 7-3s where home riders had come from the back to secure paid wins, the home side found themselves 6 points up at 78-72.
Jesse Moore and young Ethan Page took the nomination for Hellingly, whilst the Brinkhoff’s were the pairing for Kesgrave, after Jesse was excluded for falling and causing the stoppage, the brothers completed the match in the way they had started, with a maximum 7-2 over the new talent of Ethan.
Final Score Hellingly 80 Kesgrave 79. Kesgrave won the match due to the 30 bonus points 80-109.
HELLINGLY 80
Jesse Moore 18, Jamie Cox 16, Martyn Hollebon 15+4, Eddie Ridley 15, Ethan Page 9, Jamie Morley 7
KESGRAVE 109
Lewis Brinkhoff 19+1, Tyler Brinkhoff 17+2, Keanu Bowers 12, Charlie Long 11+1. Ollie Wright 9+1, Richie Foote 8, Graham Wright 2, Gary Bowers 1.
All photos by Michelle Rideout.