STOKE A.R. Richards Potters have a mountain to climb if they are to progress to the next round of the National League KO Cup after suffering a first leg 52-38 defeat against the Belle Vue Colts at Loomer Road on Saturday night.
The final score didn’t represent what was an entertaining meeting in front of a decent size crowd, but it was the Colts that had four riders who were on extremely good form as they registered double figure scores and gained thirteen heat winners out of the fifteen heats.
Potters skipper Tony Atkin commented “I’m not too disappointed with the team tonight, we had two new riders in the team and although you never want to get beat I do feel there is a bright future for us as we look ahead. I feel that we have as good a 1 to 5 as most teams, we just have a few riders who aren’t firing as well as we know they can, they are great riders and have a lot of ability and we all seem to have had a meeting where we’ve not all fired, I had a bad one at King’s Lynn Ben (Wilson) had a bad one tonight. We just all need to fire altogether and once we’ve won a meeting we will be on our way.”
The Potters went in front with a 5-1 from skipper Tony Atkin and Danny Phillips over former Potter Rob Shuttleworth, but the lead was short lived as the Colts returned the compliment in heat four as another former Potter Lee Payne took victory ahead of team mate and talented 16-year old Daniel Bewley to level the scores at 12 points all after four heats.
A series of drawn heats saw the sides neck and neck before the Colts took a 4-2 in heat seven from Shuttleworth and Tom Woolley over Ben Wilson to take the lead at the midway point of the meeting, but the Potters gained a little bit of fortune as Payne suffered an engine failure in heat nine while leading allowing Atkin and Phillips to take the chequered flag ahead of Kyle Roberts for a Potters 5-1 to lead the meeting 28-26.
The Colts top guns took control in the final five heats as they struck with three 5-1 heat advantages and two 4-2 advantages in those heats despite the attempts of the Potters riders to stem the tide as the Colts powered home to victory.
Potters team manager Malcolm Vasey said “I’m obviously disappointed to lose tonight, but I recognise a really top class team that Belle Vue have with the Daniel Bewley factor coming in to play when the Colts needed it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t cope with the situation, but there was a big improvement in our team tonight the way they battled and for much of the match we were either just in front or just behind until those final few heats so I think there is reason for optimism. A lot of team will lose to Belle Vue while they have Daniel Bewley at reserve the way that they are able to. “
STOKE 38: Danny Phillips 9+2, Tony Atkin 9+1, Ben Hopwood 6, Shaun Tedham 5+3, Ben Wilson 5, Paul Burnett 3+1, Joe Lawlor 1+1. BELLE VUE 52: Dan Bewley 15+1, Rob Shuttleworth 12+1, Lee Payne 12, Luke Bowen 10+2, Tom Woolley 2, Kyle Roberts 1, David Holt 0.