STOKE A.R. Richards Potters went down to a 48-41 defeat against Rye House in the Travel Plus National League at Hoddesdon Raceway on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon.
In what was a very much improved performance the Potters missed out on a consolation league point losing out to a last heat maximum 5-1 from Raiders pairing Rob Branford and Ben Morley over Ben Wilson and guest Luke Chessell.
Stoke started slowly losing vital points in the opening couple of heats after Shaun Tedham crashed while in third place and then youngster Joe Lawlor touching the tapes and having to go off the fifteen metre mark in het two leaving the Potters trailing 8-4, before Luke Chessell touched the tapes in heat four leaving him to go off fifteen metres resulting in the Raiders pairing of Morley and Macauley Leek gaining a 5-1 to give the Raiders a 16-8 lead.
The Potters then gained some luck themselves with Connor Locke taking a spill in heat five resulting in Locke being disqualified from the rerun in which Luke Priest led the way until he suffered a mechanical failure on the third lap causing him the be lapped and giving Potters pairing Wilson and Tedham a 5-0 heat advantage reducing the deficit to 3 points.
The Potters took the lead in heat eight as Tedham and Ryan MacDonald combined for a 5-1 over Harvie Banks and Leek giving the Potters a 24-23 lead at the midway point of the meeting.
A series of drawn heats saw the Potters continue to hold the lead until heat thirteen as Morley and Brandford got the better of Chessell and Wilson.
There was drama in heat fourteen which again saw MacDonald touch the tapes and Potters boss decided to introduce Lawlor to replace him off the starting gate with the tapes then becoming faulty the teams decided to go off the green light with Priest taking victory from Widman and Lawlor after Locke had fallen and with Branford and Morley taking the flag in fifteen the Potters just missed out on a point.
Team manager Malcolm Vasey said “We threw away at least four points in the early stages of the meeting and it has cost us dearly in the end. I’m not to disheartened as there were positives to take from the meeting with all the lads performing today and getting amongst the points and in the end we have fallen short. We now have to regroup and now look forward to our meeting on the Ilse of Wight on Thursday and look to get a win there.”
RYE HOUSE 48: Ben Morley 15, Rob Branford 13+2, Luke Priest 11, Macauley Leek 5+2, Connor Locke 3, Harvie Banks 1, George Hunter R/R. STOKE 41: Ben Wilson 9, Chris Widman 8, Shaun Tedham 6+2, Luke Chessell 6, Tony Atkin 5+3, Ryan MacDonald 4+2, Joe Lawlor 3+3.
