STOKE Easy Rider Potters crashed to a 43-47 defeat as the Rye House Raiders took the honours with a last heat maximum heat win at Loomer Road on Saturday afternoon.

The Potters started brightly with a couple of 4-2 heat advantages in the opening three heats from Lee Payne and Chris Widman and then Danny Phillips and Paul Burnett as they opened up a four point lead which the Potters held until heat seven as the Raiders struck back to level the scores with a 5-1 from Alfie Bowtell and Luke Priest over Ryan Terry-Daley and Widman.

The Potters quickly restored their four point lead as Payne and Shaun Tedham returned the compliment in heat eight over George Hunter and Bowtell, the Potters leading 26-22. Stoke piled on the pressure with a further maximum 5-1 from Payne and Phillips over Priest establishing an eight point lead for the Potters with the scores 34-26 in the Potters favour.

The Raiders were not done though as Ben Morley and Bowtell combined for a 4-2 over Terry-Daley and this was followed up by a further 4-2 in heat twelve as Priest and Woods got the better of Tedham to reduce the Potters lead to four points.

Heat thirteen proved costly for the Potters as Lee Payne fell on the third lap while leading the race leaving Kyle Hughes and Morley to take advantage and level the scores at 39-39 with two heats remaining. Former Potter Luke Priest got the better of Phillips and Terry-Daley for a drawn penultimate race before another former Potter Hughes gained victory in the final race to complete a 15 point maximum and he was followed home by Morley for a Raiders maximum 5-1 to give the Raiders a 47-43 victory keeping the Potters rooted to the bottom of the National League with one remaining league meeting at Loomer Road on Sunday night.

Potters boss Malcolm Vasey commented “We are obviously very disappointed to lose especially when we were eight points after ten races but we seemed to run out of steam and Rye House came on very strong at the end of the meeting to snatch victory from us. We now have to dust ourselves down and look to gain a victory over King’s Lynn here at Loomer Road tomorrow night in what is a must win meeting for us if we are to move ourselves off the bottom of the table.”

STOKE 43: Lee Payne 12, Danny Phillips 11+1, Ryan Terry-Daley 9+2, Shaun Tedham 6+1, Paul Burnett 3+2, Chris Widman 2+1, Jon Armstrong r/r
RYE HOUSE 47: Kyle Hughes 15, Ben Morley 12+2, Luke Priest 11+1, Alfie Bowtell 4, George Hunter 3, Sam Woods 2+1, Luke Chessell r/r
National League points: Stoke 0 Rye House 3