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Isle of Wight Islanders v Kings Lynn Stars
Premier Trophy (Group), 09 May 2006
Smallbrook Stadium, Isle of Wight
| 1 | Chris Holder | 2* | 2* | 2* | 2* | 2* | . | . | 10 | 5 |
| 2 | Jason Doyle | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | . | . | 15 | 0 |
| 3 | Krister Marsh | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | . | . | . | 9 | 0 |
| 4 | Krzysztof Stojanowski | 2* | 3 | 1 | 3 | . | . | . | 9 | 1 |
| 5 | Jason Bunyan | 3 | 3 | 1* | 3 | . | . | . | 10 | 1 |
| 6 | Chris Johnson | 3 | 2* | 2 | 0 | . | . | . | 7 | 1 |
| 7 | Nick Simmons | 2* | 1 | 1 | 0 | . | . | . | 4 | 1 |
| 1(g) | Shane Waldron | 0 | 0 | 0 | . | . | . | . | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Troy Bachelor | 1 | 2 | 4^ | 3 | 0 | . | . | 10 | 0 |
| 3 | Kevin Doolan | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4! | . | . | 9 | 0 |
| 4 | Trevor Harding | 1 | 0 | R | 1* | . | . | . | 2 | 1 |
| 5 | Tomas Topinka | 2 | 1 | 4^ | 1 | 1 | . | . | 9 | 0 |
| 6 | Chris Mills | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | . | . | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | John Oliver | 1 | F | 0 | . | . | . | . | 1 | 0 |
* = BP. ^ = TR . ! = TS (15m Handicap). # = TR (Points Not Doubled). & = TS (Points Not Doubled, 15m Handicap).
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The Isle of Wight were at full strength for this match but King’s Lynn were without Daniel Nermark who was riding for his Swedish club. Consequently the Stars only option was to line up with a Conference League rider as replacement for Nermark so they had Shane Waldron at number 1. This was a bit of a rags to riches story! The Islanders lost the corresponding fixture at King’s Lynn by 67-26 but, incredibly, they were on for the bonus point after the opening 7 heats of this match at which point they had dropped only two points. Tactical rides provided consecutive 4-4 shared races in heats 8 and 9 which all but doubled what the Stars had scored in these opening seven heats and helped them to take the bonus point. The home side opened with three consecutive 5-1s the best of which was that in heat 2 in which it took until the last bend for Nick Simmons to pass John Oliver for second place behind Chris Johnson. Otherwise it was plain sailing but Tomas Topinka partially stopped the rot by taking second place in heat 4 behind Jason Bunyan to restrict the Isle of Wight to a 4-2. The score after these opening four races was 19-5. Troy Batchelor split the Stojanowski/Marsh pairing in heat 5 for a 4-2 but the Islanders were back on the rampage with another two 5-1s in heats 6 and 7. In heat 6 Chris Holder did well to pass Tomas Topinka to join Jason Doyle for the maximum before Jason Bunyan and Chris Johnson added another in heat 7 after Kevin Doolan had lifted at the tapes and Johnson had passed Trevor Harding. In heat 8 King’s Lynn gave a TR to Troy Batchelor and he finished second to Jason Doyle for a 4-4 and shared race. The heat 8 score read 37-13. In heat 9 the Stars used their other TR giving it to Tomas Topinka but he had to be content with second place behind Krister Marsh after an excellent race which also involved Krzysztof Stojanowski, who finished third, and Chris Mills. This meant a second consecutive 4-4 shared race. Back came the home side with another 5-1 in heat 10 from Jason Doyle and Chris Holder who eventually passed Kevin Doolan at the end of the third lap after pressurising him all the way. Things looked brighter for the Stars in heat 11 as Troy Batchelor and Chris Mills made the gate. However Mills was passed by both Chris Johnson and Jason Bunyan so the heat was shared 3-3 which meant that the Stars had at last passed the 20 point mark. They did even better in heat 12 when Kevin Doolan won the race from Krister Marsh with Chris Mills in third place for a 2-4 which took the heat 12 score to 51-25 and guaranteed that King’s Lynn would take the bonus point. The Isle of Wight registered their seventh 5-1 of the match in heat 13 when Jason Bunyan and Chris Holder finished ahead of Tomas Topinka then King’s Lynn gave Kevin Doolan a Tactical Substitute ride from 15 metres back in heat 14. This turned out to be a good idea because Doolan got past Chris Johnson then his partner, Trevor Harding, to finish second behind Krzysztof Stojanowski for a 3-5, the Stars second heat win and one which took them over the 30 point mark. Finally, in the last heat, the Isle of Wight finished as they started – with a 5-1, their eighth of the match – with Jason Doyle completing a full 15 point maximum, followed home by Chris Holder completing the perfect five ride paid maximum ahead of Tomas Topinka completing an uncharacteristic low score. Match Report by Merlin |