STOKE Easy Rider Potters slumped to a 57-33 defeat against the Rye House Raiders in the City Gearboxes National League at Hoddesdon Raceway on Sunday afternoon.
The Potters were up against it right from the start with the news that Danny Phillips had been taken ill over the weekend and was unable to take his place in the Potters line-up forcing the Potters to use rider replacement to cover for his absence.
The Potters got off to the worst possible start with a 5-1 against them in the opening heat as Rob Branford and Alfie Bowtell took the chequered flag ahead of Shaun Tedham after Lee Payne had fallen and been disqualified, Payne hurting himself in the process of the fall.
The Potters struck back in heat five with a 4-2 heat advantage from Payne and Tedham over Luke Priest to reduce the deficit to just two points, but the Raiders returned the compliment in heat seven as former Potter Kyle Hughes got the better of Chris Widman who held off George Wood for a Raiders 4-2 leaving the Potters trailing 23-19 at the midway point of the meeting.
The Potters then capitulated as they suffered four successive 5-1 reverses as the Raiders forced their home advantage home gaining 43-23 lead as the Potters simply had no answer to the home side. Paul Burnett and Widman stemmed the tied momentarily as they filled the minor placing in heat twelve behind Hughes after Hunter had fallen while in second place.
Hughes and Branford piled on the pain for the Potters taking maximum points in heat thirteen before the Potters managed to gain drawn heats in the final two races.
Team manager Malcolm Vasey commented “Things didn’t seem to be going bad after the first seven heats and we were very much in contention only being four points down, but we then suffered a total collapse, we seem to have some riders that don’t seem to be pulling their weight points wise and that is disappointing. On the bright side there were good performances from Chris Widman and Jon (Armstrong). Lee (Payne) fell in his first ride and hurt himself but battled on and got a win but it was a disappointing performance that may well have ended our hopes of making the Gold Cup which is disappointing for us.”
RYE HOUSE 57: Kyle Hughes 14+1, Robert Branford 13+1, Alfie Bowtell 10+3, Luke Priest 9+1, Sam Woods 7+2, George Hunter 4+1, Luke Chessell r/r: STOKE 33: Chris Widman 9+2, Jon Armstrong 9+1, Lee Payne 6, Shaun Tedham 4, Paul Burnett 3, Ryan Terry-Daley 2+1, Danny Phillips r/r.
