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Rye House Rockets v Kings Lynn Stars
Young Shield (Final), 29 October 2005
Hoddesdon Stadium, Rye House

Rye House 51
2Edward Kennett32*300 ..81
3Brent Werner1*31*13 ..92
4Daniel King22*322 1.121
5Chris Neath13321 3.130
6Steve Boxall2*01*1*. ..43
7Tommy Allen31Fx1. ..50
Kings Lynn 42
1Oliver Allen2133. ..90
2Ashley JonesF020. ..20
3Troy Bachelor01*2*20 ..52
4Kevin Doolan34^332 ..150
5Tomas Topinka22^32*. ..91
6Jan Jaros101*Fx0 ..21
7(g)Benji ComptonF00.. ..00

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

The teams lined up exactly as they had done last Saturday night in the Premier League KO Cup Final. This meant that Rye House were without Stuart Robson and used Rider Replacement at number 1 in his absence. They also again nominated Luke Bowen as their number 8 for this match. King’s Lynn had Benji Compton at number 7 as a guest for Tommy Stange. The Stars arrived with a 25 point lead as opposed to last Saturday night’s 36 point lead but this time Tactical Rides and Substitutions could be used.

King’s Lynn won the toss and took gates 1 and 3 but they didn’t make as good a start as they did last week. Rye House opened with a 4-2. Edward Kennett made the start from Oliver Allen with Chris Neath third and that’s the way they finished. Then came a very important 5-1 from the Rye House reserves, Tommy Allen and Steve Boxall, which kick-started the fight back by giving the Rockets an early six point lead. Kevin Doolan stooped the Rockets momentum by winning heat 3 for a share of the points but Chris Neath beat Tomas Topinka in heat 4 with Tommy Allen third for another 4-2 which increased the home side’s lead to eight points at 16-8 reducing the Stars’ aggregate lead to 50-67, a 17 point difference.

Rye House took another big step towards catching up with a 5-1 in heat 5 from Brent Werner and Danny King ahead of Oliver Allen so King’s Lynn, now 12 points down on the night, gave Tomas Topinka a TR in heat 6 which looked like being crucial to their overall success. It turned out to be a disaster for the Stars as Daniel King and Edward Kennett worked their way to the front relegating Topinka to third place. This resulted in a 5-2 to the Rockets and things were looking bleak for King’s Lynn with only 10 points now separating the sides on aggregate. In heat 7 King’s Lynn played their second TR card giving the ride to Kevin Doolan who had won heat 3. This was a bit more successful because, although Chris Neath won the race under considerable pressure, Doolan finished second with his partner, Troy Batchelor, third for a 3-5 heat advantage to the visitors. Heat 8 looked a bleak prospect for the Stars as Ashley Jones and Jan Jaros had still to beat an opponent. The race was rerun after Jan Jaros had fallen with all four back just as the rain arrived. King’s Lynn were relieved to share the points as the race was awarded after Tommy Allen had fallen while challenging Ashley Jones for second place and been excluded. The race was won by Edward Kennett and the 3-3 took the score after eight heats to 32-19 with King’s Lynn now leading on aggregate by 66-78 and everything to race for.

The track had now become very wet and greasy and the heat times were suddenly 2 to 3 seconds slower than they had been for the first eight heats. This seemed to suit Tomas Topinka who won heat 9 from Daniel King and Brent Werner for a 3-3. It also didn’t seem to bother Kevin Doolan and Troy Batchelor who scored a 1-5 in heat 10 after Edward Kennett had initially led the race. The Rye House express had well and truly hit the buffers as their lead on the night had been cut to 36-27, 70-86 on aggregate. Oliver Allen provided King’s Lynn’s third consecutive race winner in heat 10 when he beat Chris Neath and Steve Boxall for a shared heat and the Stars were all but home. In heat 12 Brent Werner won the race but Troy Batchelor took the second place the Stars needed to guarantee winning the trophy. Tommy Allen finished third after Jan Jaros had fallen in the first running of the heat and been excluded to score a 4-2. The score after 12 heats was 43-32, 77-91 on aggregate. With three heats left King’s Lynn only had to make sure they provided two more finishers mathematically to cater for any improbable disasters.

King’s Lynn celebrated in style with the Rockets now more of a damp squib on the wet track. Oliver Allen and Tomas Topinka took a 1-5 in heat 13 ahead of Chris Neath and Edward Kennett to cut the home side’s lead on the night to 7 points at 44-37. Then Kevin Doolan became King’s Lynn’s fifth race winner from six heats when he won heat 14 from Daniel King with Steve Boxall passing Jan Jaros on the line for a shared heat. To round matters off for the 2005 season Rye House took a consolation 4-2 in the last heat with Chris Neath the winner from Kevin Doolan, Daniel King and Troy Batchelor.

Congratulations again go to King’s Lynn for winning their second trophy of the season. Before the rain started Rye House won heats 1 to 8 by 32-19 but after that King’s Lynn were very much in charge winning heats 9-15 by 19-23.

Match Report by Merlin