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Reading Racers v Isle of Wight Islanders
KO Cup (QF), 08 August 2005
Smallmead Stadium, Reading

Reading 51
1Danny Bird3332*. ..111
2Zdenek Simota2*130. ..61
3Andrew Appleton3323. ..110
4Richard Wolff2*11*Fx. ..42
5Matej Zagar3333. ..120
6Chris Johnson1001. ..20
7Mathieu Tresarrieu3101. ..50
Isle of Wight 33
1Craig Boyce121*1. ..51
2Glen Phillips0022. ..40
3Krister Marsh121*R. ..41
4Ulrich Ostergaard01*22*. ..52
5Krzysztof Stojanowski2230. ..70
6Jason Doyle2002. ..40
7Steen Jensen001*3. ..41

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

At long last Reading welcomed back Danny Bird to the team in this match with Steve Masters making way for him. The Isle of Wight were at full strength but had a hard task on their hands since they arrived for this match with only a two point lead from the first leg. The last thing they needed was for Danny Bird to make his reappearance in the Reading side and score a paid maximum. The winners have a date with Rye House in the final.

In front of a big crowd Reading stamped their authority on this match in no uncertain terms by taking heat advantages in the first six heats with two 5-1s and four 4-2s to lead 26-10. During that spell Danny Bird and Andrew Appleton each had two race wins and the tie was all but settled especially since there were no TRs or TS available to the Islanders to help them back into the match.

After that devastating opening spell the Isle of Wight put up sterner resistance by sharing each of the next five races to trail by the same 16 point margin – 41-25 after heat 11. At that stage Danny Bird and Matej Zagar had both had three race wins each but the Isle of Wight managed their first race winner in heat 9 when Krzysztof Stojanowski beat Andrew Appleton. In heat 12 Reading added another two points to their lead by winning 4-2 with a win from Andrew Appleton ahead of Jason Doyle after Krister Marsh had suffered an engine failure. This made the score 45-27.

Heat 13 resulted in the expected Zagar/Bird 5-1 but there was an unfortunate ending to the match when Richard Wolff collided with Chris Johnson and a runaway bike injured a member of the track staff. Although Richard Wolff seemed to recover without injury, Chris Johnson and the member of staff were both taken to hospital after a lengthy delay after which the match was abandoned with the race awarded as a 1-5 to the Islanders.

Match Report by Merlin