STOKE A.R. Richards Potters lost their fourth successive meeting losing out to the high flying Eastbourne Eagles 50-40 in the Travel Plus National League at Loomer Road on Saturday night.
The Eagles top three dominated the meeting as they scored forty of the Sussex sides fifty point total winning ten of the heats between them.
The meeting was a tense affair in the early heats with the Potters taking the minor placings in many early heats as the scores were level after the opening five races, but reserve Chris Hay was the only race winner for the Potters.
Stoke took the lead in heat six as Ben Wilson took the first of his two victories on the night ahead of Jake Knight with Shaun Tedham taking third for a Potters 4-2 to give the Loomer Road club a two point lead, but Eastbourne struck back with a maximum 5-1 from Ellis Perks and Georgie Wood over Ben Hopwood to give the Eagles a two point lead at the halfway stage of the meeting 22-20.
The Eagles extended their lead in heat eleven with Great Britain World Cup silver medallist Adam Ellis taking victory from Hopwood with Joe Lawlor taking third, the Potters returned the compliment in the next race as skipper Tony Atkin took victory from Wood with Paul Burnett third to reduce the Eagles lead to two points with the score at 37-35 with three heats remaining.
Eastbourne though had the edge in the final three races as Ellis and Knight combined for two 5-1 heat wins in the final three heats to give Eastbourne all four points.
Potters skipper Tony Atkin commented “I’m a bit disappointed with tonight if I’m honest, We should have won that match tonight. We have got to get on with things and start winning meetings it’s just not good enough. We can’t make excuses when we are getting beaten every week, yes they had a strong top end of the team, but when teams are like that they have riders with no disrespect to them that are weaker at the tail end and at the end of the day we all have to up our game. I’ve said all along that the top teams and a lot better than the bottom teams as there is a bit of a disparity to it all with the points limit. We have not got a bad team and tyou can cover over things, but we should be doing better than we are. Ryan (Blacklock) did the same job that Danny (Phillips) would have done but we all have to up our game and start winning matches. We as a team have to have a think to ourselves because every rider including me can do better. Chris Hay did his job he won heat two and the pressure is on the rest of us now because we have got to start winning matches. Personally I’m riding okay but when your in a losing team in knocks your confidence and I know I can do better and need to, I’m part of this seven man team and have been with these lads and I know we can all ride better than we are. I top scored tonight and I should have had double figures I’m not above criticism everybody needs to get one or two points more and we could be winning matches and not losing them. We are speedway riders and this is not a joke we need to up our game, people pay good money to watch us and we need to starting winning for them.
“I’m not criticising any one rider but I’m willing to bet that if you ask anyone rider if they feel they should have scored a few more points they will probably say they feel they could have. Everyone is riding okay but I do feel we all as a team including me are capable of scoring a couple of points more and there is no reason we could not then go on to win the remainder of our matches at home, the excuses quite simply have to stop and we have got to start winning meetings.”
STOKE 40: Tony Atkin 9+1, Ben Wilson 9, Ryan Blacklock 7+2, Ben Hopwood 5, Shaun Tedham 4+1, Paul Burnett 3+2, Chris Hay 3. EASTBOURNE 50: Adam Ellis 14+1, Jake Knight 13+1, Ellis Perks 13, Georgie Wood 5+2, Joe Lawlor 3, Lee Geary 2+2, Gary Cottham R/R.
