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Stoke Potters v Redcar Bears
Premier Trophy (Group), 15 April 2006
Loomer Road, Stoke

Stoke 49.5
1Mark Lemon23323 ..130
2Michael Coles0120. ..30
3Paul Clews2*0.502. ..4.51
4Robbie Kessler3223. ..100
5Alan Mogridge32*21*1 ..92
6Barrie Evans2*3Fx0. ..51
7Luke Priest301*1*. ..52
Redcar 43.5
1Gary Havelock33332 ..140
2Richard Juul10.56^1. ..8.50
3Kevin Little11230 ..70
4Tomas Suchanek001*2. ..31
5Chris Kerr1*030. ..41
6Jack Hargreaves1210. ..40
7Daniel Giffard0201*. ..31

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

Stoke and Redcar were both at full strength for this match. After a late start to their programme Redcar are certainly intent on catching up as they were riding their third match in three nights.

Redcar made a good start by taking a 2-4 in the opening heat won by Gary Havelock from Mark Lemon with Richard Juul beating Michael Coles for third but the Bears found themselves two points down after Stoke took a 5-1 in the reserves race. Another 5-1 in heat 3 from Robbie Kessler and Paul Clews ahead of Kevin Little stretched the lead to six points with heat 4 being shared with Daniel Giffard and Chris Kerr following race winner Alan Mogridge home. The heat 4 score was then 15-9.

Heat 5 produced the first dead heat of the season but it was for third place! Gary Havelock produced his second race win by beating Robbie Kessler but the referee declared that Paul Clews and Richard Juul had dead-heated for the third place point so the 2.5-3.5 cut the difference between the sides to 5 points. Mark Lemon won heat 6 with Jack Hargreaves taking second from Michael Coles so Stoke went 7 points in front with the 4-2. The lead went to 11 points when Barrie Evans and Alan Mogridge scored a 5-1 ahead of Kevin Little in heat 7 so Redcar immediately gave Richard Juul a TR in heat 8. He duly came up with the goods with a win from Michael Coles and Daniel Giffard so the 3-6 cut the Bears deficit to 8 points with the heat 8 score reading 29.5-21.5.

Redcar won heat 9 too taking a 2-4 when Chris Kerr beat Robbie Kessler with Jack Hargreaves in third after Paul Clews had fallen so the gap between the sides was now 6 points. It stayed that way when heat 10, won by Mark Lemon, was shared but Stoke got more concerned when after a 2-4 to Redcar their lead was cut to only four points in heat 11. Again Gary Havelock won this time from Alan Mogridge and Richard Juul picked up the odd point when Barrie Evans fell. Kevin Little took the three points by winning heat 12 from Paul Clews and Luke Priest so the score after 12 heats was 39.5-35.5.

Another Havelock win in heat 13 produced another shared heat to keep the gap at 4 points and there was no change after heat 14 won by Kessler but shared by Tomas Suchanek and Daniel Giffard. So we had a last heat decider with Redcar needing a 1-5 for a drawn match. This time though Mark Lemon got the better of Gary Havelock to win the heat. Alan Mogridge took third from Kevin Little so the last heat 4-2 gave the Potters a six point win.

Match Report by Merlin