DESPITE building-up an 8-point lead after five heats, Swindon were pegged back and eventually lost by 4 points in the battle of the birds at Arlington Stadium.
NOTE: Under the league scoring system, Eastbourne gained 2 points and Swindon received 1.
Having run Coventry so close at Brandon earlier in the week and won the ‘A’ fixture at Arlington on 27 March, Ronnie Russell’s Robins returned to Eastbourne with a degree of confidence but, regrettably, it wasn’t to be.
The mighty Leigh Adams once more topped the scoring, dropping just 1-point in his haul of 14. He enjoyed great support from Thomas H. Jonasson’s 11-point score, whilst the under-fire Morten Risager totalled an impressive paid 10.
After a scorching day of sunshine, the dust clouds billowed in heat one as Adams posted a rapid tapes-to-flag success over former Swindon colleague Matej Zager. Meanwhile, Risager held off Simon Gustafsson to give the Robins an early advantage.
Somewhat surprisingly the reserves’ race was re-started with all four riders after Jordan Frampton had looped at the beginning of the initial running. At the second attempt, Frampton fell and remounted on the first bend, as ‘THJ’ thwarted a strong, race-long challenge from the hard-charging Dawid Lampart in the evening’s first points-share.
The third race saw Lukáš Dryml replicate Frampton’s first turn fall of the previous heat and the Czech ace only just removed himself from the track before the remaining riders came back around, prior to heading for the referee’s box to vent his anger at what he clearly felt was as an unfair challenge.
Mads Korneliussen just got on with winning the race whilst Dryml was doing that and Eagles’ skipper Cameron Woodward went under the clearly uncomfortable Grzegorz Zengota on the final lap to prevent the Robins from carding maximum points.
Jonasson made a fast getaway in heat four, pushing the Eastbourne pairing wide on the first corner and allowing Simon Stead to nip into third place. However, the leg-trailing Joonas Kylmakorpi swept around the in-form Swede on the fourth bend of the opening lap, before cantering home in the second drawn race of the match.
A 5-1 followed for Swindon, as Adams and Risager joined forces in the early stages to comfortably out-pace Woodward, thereby increasing their side’s advantage to 8 points.
The Eagles’ response was immediate, though, as Zagar and Gustafsson returned the favour over the omni-present and ever-battling ‘Steady’ in heat six.
The home side continued to make in-roads into the Robins’ lead in an action-packed heat seven. Both Kling and Kylmakorpi jetted from the gate, however, a fully-committed Korneliussen blasted around the boards to pass the Eagles’ No. 5, before getting mighty close to also overhauling the Swede. And, with ‘Zengi’ taking a fall at the back, the resultant 4-2 brought the East Sussex side back to within 2 points on the cumulative score-chart.
And Eastbourne completed a superb comeback in the next race, as Lampart and Gustafsson linked-up for an untroubled 5-1 against Risager and Jonasson, giving the home side the lead for the first time in the meeting.
The Eagles increased their advantage to 4 points in heat nine, with Woodard and Dryml finishing either side of Stead.
‘Big Ron’ replaced Zengota with Jonasson in the tenth race and the Swede made a sharp start, before the home duo of Zagar and Gustafsson went either side of him. THJ managed to re-pass his fellow Swede on the third bend of the initial lap and a home 4-2 eventually resulted, despite Korneliussen’s constant buzzing around the outside in an effort to pinch third place.
Thanks to ‘Captain Fantastic’, Swindon hit right back in heat eleven. The Robins’ brilliant No. 1 made a rocket-fuelled start and then shepherded Risager home to close Eastbourne’s lead to just 2 points.
Following a somewhat harsh exclusion for Lampart, the re-run of heat twelve saw Dryml collect his only win of the night to maintain the Eagles’ slender lead.
The gap between the two teams remained constant after another 3-3 in heat thirteen. In this, the impeccable Adams just got to the first bend ahead and never looked back as he defeated Kylmakorpi and Zagar for his fourth successive victory of the match.
A re-run was called in the penultimate heat after an over-anxious Kling had moved too quickly. However, the Swede made no mistake to win the re-start, as compatriot Jonasson just held off the constantly probing Woodward to force a last-heat decider.
Adams was denied a maximum return from his night’s efforts in the nominated race, despite a superb cut-back that took him ahead of Kylmakorpi on the first corner. However, he had no answer to the zippy Zagar and, as with their previous away match at Coventry, the Robins had to settle for just a single league point.
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