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Isle of Wight Islanders v Rye House Rockets
Premier League, 23 August 2005
Smallbrook Stadium, Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight 54
1Craig Boyce33320 ..110
2Glen Phillips12*31. ..71
3Krister Marsh112*Fx. ..41
4Ulrich Ostergaard33331 ..130
5Krzysztof Stojanowski22*1*1*. ..63
6Jason Doyle0320. ..50
7Steen Jensen31*2*2. ..82
Rye House 40
1Stuart Robson226^33 ..160
2Edward Kennett00RR. ..00
3Brent Werner22^232* ..111
5Chris Neath3X1R. ..40
6Steve Boxall1*1101 1*.52
7Tommy Allen20000 2.40

* = BP. ^ = TR . ! = TS (15m Handicap). # = TR (Points Not Doubled). & = TS (Points Not Doubled, 15m Handicap).

With the return of Ulrich Ostergaard to the side the Isle of Wight were at full strength but Rye House were once again without Daniel King who had aggravated a knee injury in Rye’s double header on Sunday. The Rockets used R/R at number 4 for him. Rye House’s 59-37 win on Sunday meant that they were defending a 22 point lead in the fight for the bonus point. However, since they beat the Isle of Wight 44-46 in the Premier Trophy match on the Island last May they would have set their sights rather higher than just the bonus point.

The Islanders took the opening heat 4-2 when Craig Boyce beat Stuart Robson with Glen Phillips third then the reserves race was shared 3-3. Another 4-2 went to the home side in heat 3 as Ulrich Ostergaard beat Brent Werner with Krister Marsh third but heat 4 provided the Rockets with their first race winner in Chris Neath as the heat was shared. The score after the opening four heats was 14-10.

The next stanza of four heats was disastrous for Rye House as they completely fell apart. In heat 5 Stuart Robson was beaten by Ulrich Ostergaard and Krister Marsh picked up the third place point for a 4-2 as Edward Kennett retired at the back. Then Rye House conceded maximum points in the next three races. Firstly Craig Boyce and Glen Phillips took a 5-1 from the Rockets’ only race winner, Chris Neath. Neath was subsequently excluded since his exhaust had fallen off and Steve Boxall was awarded the point instead but it made no difference to the score. In heat 7 things got even worse for the Rockets as they blew a TR. Brent Werner took the TR ride but touched the tapes and had to go from 15 metres back. Werner passed Tommy Allen but the heat resulted in a 5-2 to the Islanders as Jason Doyle and Krzysztof Stojanowski took maximum points. In heat 8 the Isle of Wight scored another 5-1 from Glen Phillips and Steen Jensen as Edward Kennett retired on the last lap having had four rides without scoring a point. The score after heat 8 was 33-16 and, with the Islanders having pulled 17 points back, Rye House’s lead for the bonus point was reduced to only 5 points!

There was no let up from the Islanders as they hammered home another 5-1, their fourth consecutive maximum, in heat 9 as Ostergaard and Marsh beat Neath to cut the bonus point lead to one point. Then in heat 10 a 4-2 from Craig Boyce and Glen Phillips split by Brent Werner put the Isle of Wight ahead on aggregate by one point. In heat 11 Stuart Robson took a TR. The race was rerun with all four riders after Jason Doyle had fallen at the first bend. In the rerun Doyle led briefly but Robson passed him round the outside to win the race for a badly needed 3-6 to the Rockets which restored a two point aggregate lead for them. They won the next heat too. Krister Marsh fell on the second bend and was excluded. In the rerun Brent Werner beat Steen Jensen and Steve Boxall picked up the gift third place point for a 2-4. This took the score after 12 heats to 47-29 with Rye House clinging on to a four point aggregate lead at the interval with just three crucial heats remaining.

After the interval Stuart Robson produced another vital win in heat 13 when he rounded Craig Boyce and Krzysztof Stojanowski for a shared heat as Chris Neath suffered an engine failure to maintain the Rockets’ four point aggregate lead. However they had run out of R/R options and had to use Steve Boxall in heat 14 which meant that the two Rye House reserves faced Ulrich Ostergaard and Jason Doyle. All credit to the Rye reserves though as they filled the minor places behind Ostergaard for another shared heat leaving the Isle of Wight needing a 5-1 in the final heat to tie on aggregate and force a race off for the bonus point.

In heat 15 it was Stuart Robson and Brent Werner who took the maximum, not the Islanders. Ulrich Ostergaard was third with Craig Boyce finishing last so the bonus point headed back to Hoddesdon.

Match Report by Merlin