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Kings Lynn Stars v Berwick Bandits
KO Cup (SF), 07 September 2005
Norfolk Arena, Kings Lynn

Kings Lynn 56
1Oliver Allen32*332* 2*.153
2Ashley Jones2*110R ..41
4Kevin Doolan33323 ..140
5Tomas Topinka33333 ..150
6Tommy Stange0101. ..20
7Jan Jaros30111* ..61
Berwick 34
1Adrian Rymel1221. ..60
2Carl Wilkinson0031*. ..41
3Tom P MadsenTFx231 ..60
4Adam Pietraszko021*20 ..51
5Michal Makovsky1*220. ..51
6Chris Schramm200.. ..20
7(g)Richard Hall1*122*0 F.62

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

In the first leg of this semi final match King’s Lynn went down by only one point at Berwick so were strongly fancied to win through to the final although the Bandits had only lost by one point at Saddlebow Road in the league match earlier in the season. The Stars were without Troy Batchelor and used R/R for him at number 3. They also nominated Simon Lambert as their number 8. The Bandits were without Scott Smith and had Richard Hall as a guest at reserve at number 7.

It was important for Berwick to get off to a good start but they lost an opening heat 5-1 to Oliver Allen and Ashley Jones which already had them trailing by three points on aggregate. Heat 2, won by Jan Jaros, was shared but another 5-1 went King’s Lynn’s way in heat 3. Tom P Madsen was excluded for tape touching and was replaced by Richard Hall but Kevin Doolan and Oliver Allen doubled the Stars lead with the maximum. In heat 4 Tomas Topinka won the race for a shared heat. Richard Hall also in the race finished second so had appeared in heats 2, 3 and 4 and scored half the Bandits total in the process! The score after the first four races was 16-8.

In heat 5 Adrian Rymel led but was passed by Kevin Doolan as King’s Lynn added another two points to their lead with a 4-2. They repeated the dose in heat 6 when Oliver Allen beat Michal Makovsky with Ashley Jones third after a good race with Chris Schramm to increase their lead to 12 points. Things just went from bad to worse for the Bandits when Tom P Madsen fell in heat 7 and was excluded from the rerun. When Tomas Topinka won the rerun from Adam Pietraszko who led briefly for another 4-2, Berwick found themselves 13 points adrift on aggregate with, of course, no tactical options available. However they had a massive boost in heat 8 when Carl Wilkinson, after two pointless rides, won the race with Richard Hall beating Jan Jaros for a 1-5 to the Bandits to give them some hope. This brought the score after eight heats to 29-19 with King’s Lynn still nine points ahead on aggregate.

In heat 9, just before the interval, Kevin Doolan won for the third time this time beating Michal Makovsky and Jan Jaros finished ahead of Chris Schramm for a 4-2 to open up a 12 point gap again. Berwick just couldn’t manage a race win against King’s Lynn’s big three of Allen, Doolan and Topinka and Oliver Allen kept up the run by winning heat 10. Ashley Jones suffered an engine failure so the race was shared but Berwick were fast running out of heats to pull themselves back into the match. In heat 11 another win for Tomas Topinka who had to come from behind produced another shared race as Adrian Rymel and Carl Wilkinson filled the minor places. In heat 12 Tom P Madsen finally broke the sequence by passing Kevin Doolan round the outside in fine style for a race win but again the race was shared as Jan Jaros headed Richard Hall home. This brought the score to 42-30 and left Berwick with the well nigh impossible task of scoring three 1-5s in the remaining three heats to win the match.

King’s Lynn finally won through to the final with the expected 5-1 from the unbeaten Tomas Topinka and Oliver Allen with Adrian Rymel third. Heat 14 went to the Stars by 4-2 when Kevin Doolan beat Adam Pietraszko and in the last heat Tomas Topinka and Oliver Allen completed their maximums with a 5-1 ahead of Tom P Madsen and Adam Pietraszko.

Match Report by Merlin