MATCH REPORT: Lions visit Eaton Park for the first time

On a bright sunny afternoon at Eaton Park, Norwich welcomed the visit of Hellingly for a South East and East division one and two match.

It was a busy weekend for the Hellingly riders, travelling to Norfolk after staging the South East GP on Saturday at their own track.

The vistors took an early lead in heat 1 from the outside grids with a 6-4 win with the next two heats shared 5-5.

Heat 4 saw some drama with a coming together of riders Chris Cullum and Hellingly’s Steve Archer who was deemed to have caused a stoppage and was excluded from the restart. The incident left Chris feeling dazed and he withdrew from the meeting as a precaution.

Norwich drafted in reserve rookie rider, Bruce Rainbow, for the restart and, with veteran rider Paddy Wenn, they secured a brilliant 7-2 off the outs against Hellingly’s Neil Hollebon to bring Norwich three points ahead 21-18.

Heat 6 saw Hellingly regain the lead by 1 point with a 7-3 against Jamie Medler and Gary Colby, who is probably still sitting on the grid!

The Lions scored a 6-4 in heat 8 to go three up before the interval.

Hellingly then applied the pressure with two 6-4s to increase their lead to 7 points.. The Lions secured a comfortable victory with three more wins from the last five heats.

Score:
Norwich 71
Hellingly 88

The division 2 match was a lot closer with the first 4 heats drawn. Heat 5 saw Norwich pairing, Jamie Medler and Ciaran Wenn, score a 6-4 win to go two ahead 26-24.

Hellingly brought out restricted reserve rider, Neil Hollebon, for heat 6 in place of the very much improved but tiring Eddie Ridley to score a 7-3 win.

Hellingly rider, Jamie Morley, was excluded in heat 8 following a crash and unfortunately had to withdraw from the meeting with an injury.

From the restart, Norwich scored a 6-3 win to take a 1 point advantage into the break with the score 45-44 to Norwich.

The Lions began well after the interval, scoring a 7-3 to regain the lead which they retained until the end.

Rookie rider, Bruce Rainbow, was unbeaten in the match. Bruce has only been riding for two months (have we discovered a pot of gold?).

Hellingly’s Neil Hollebon, who by now was riding for fun, was out smarted by young Scott Colby on the final bend of heat twelve which brought rousing applause from a large crowd of spectators.

Hellingly were convincing winners on the track but did not overcome a fifteen point penalty lost the match by two points.

Score:
Norwich 73 +15 penalty points 88
Hellingly 86