BELLE VUE ACES 51 – 39 SHEFFIELD TIGERS
Belle Vue will head into their Grand Final second leg against Sheffield on Thursday night with a 12-point lead, as the Aces injury jinx struck twice with two riders forced to withdraw through injury during their 51-39 victory over the Sheffield Tigers. Belle Vue fans will still be trying to process how they feel over that result – as while a 12 point lead isn’t remotely good enough to defend down at Owlerton; the flip side to that is, with the losses of both Jye Etheridge and Charles Wright who crashed out in the meeting, having a five-man side double their advantage from six points to twelve points is a tremendous effort.
It saw a big crowd on hand to watch the first leg of this Premiership PlayOff final, and the first two races saw how close the sides were, as Lewis Kerr was the unexpected race winner in Heat 1 for the Tigers; while Norick Blodorn took the reserves race to see the scores level at 6-6 after two races. Matej Zagar made a rare gate for a home rider all night, as he outgated Adam Ellis to the first corner in Heat 3, with Zagar’s teammate in Charles Wright sitting in third for a 4-2 and giving the hosts the lead. Heat 4 saw the first of the nasty crashes happening in this meeting, when Sheffield’s Connor Mountain and Belle Vue’s Jye Etheridge tangled with each other heading to the first bend and saw Etheridge taking the bigger impact of the crash.
It saw the extremely rare sight of the ambulance coming onto the Belle Vue track, though Etheridge picked himself up and walked slowly back to the pits where he would later be withdrawn. Norick Blodorn then came in for his third of eventual seven rides to replace his teammate in the rerun. The Tigers gated again, as Tobiasz Musielak and Connor Mountain hit the front, only for Robert Lambert to storm past them both to take victory. Heat 5 saw yet more spills and drama, as this time Jack Holder was excluded for bringing down Charles Wright on the back straight, while almost nearly running into the back of Matej Zagar as he fell off on turn three of the opening lap.
Belle Vue picked up a 5-1 in the rerun to lead 18-12 – though the riders were already going extremely deep out towards the fence for the racing line. Sheffield to put it bluntly, embarrassed the home side on their lack of gating, as Tobiasz Musielak and Justin Sedgmen got out on a 5-1 before Brady Kurtz split the duo to a 4-2 to the visitors. Robert Lambert made it a comfortable two wins from two in Heat 7, as Blodorn took third but was fighting on all fronts, as he battled with Kyle Howarth and then tried to chase down Adam Ellis but couldn’t.
The German youngster was back at it again in Heat 8, when he and Lewis Kerr raced for second, with the Sheffield man always having that extra bit of speed on his opponent. Meanwhile Tom Brennan made a superb gate to see him take victory and have the Aces up by eight points after eight races at 28-20. However, the track became almost a one line track with everyone looking to ride the highline, which saw disaster striking the home side once again in Heat number 8. This time it saw Charles Wright crashing out of the meeting; as the Aces man was comfortably in third and saw him opting to go wider and wider before eventually clipping the air fence and taking a heavy fall that saw the red lights come on and him forced to withdraw.
Sheffield was awarded a 4-2, and saw Mark Lemon’s side dropping like flies with a second rider lost through injury on the night. Belle Vue now needed their big guns to fire on cylinders in the second half of the meeting, and Heat 10 FINALLY saw the home side making the gate, as Kurtz and Brennan picked up a 5-1 to lead by ten. Heat 11 saw the race of the night with Jack Holder having his only decent ride of the match, as he made Robert Lambert earn his race win with the pair passing and repassing over the course of the race with the Aces man holding on for victory.
Belle Vue’s inability to gate all night was their biggest problem throughout, as Heat 12 saw the Tigers hitting the front from tapes with Ellis and Sedgmen leading, only for Zagar to then cut between the two and limit the damage to a 4-2.
In reality, the hosts needed two five ones in Heats 13 & 15 to help their cause, as Lambert and Kurtz provided one of them in Heat 13 as both made starts; then Norick Blodorn in his seventh and final race was forced to go it alone with no Wright, and a no reserve change possible, as Howarth and Sedgmen recorded a huge 5-1 over a weary Blodorn. The German battled all night and his six points doesn’t reflect how well he rode; meanwhile the big story was that the lead shrunk from 12pts to 8 with one race to go.
Belle Vue’s hopes of maximum points were helped when Tobiasz Musielak clipped the airfence off turn three on the opening lap to see the Polish rider excluded from the rerun, as Brady followed Lambert who recorded back to back maximums at home as part of a 5-1 to see the Aces finishing 12 points up after the opening leg and have a mixed bag of emotions after it.
Sheffield will no doubt feel very confident indeed of turning that deficit around very early doors, as the Aces have been woeful in their past three trips over the hills this season. Lemon’s side have suffered an 18 point, as well as two 16 points at Owlerton, all three would be no good to the Manchester side if they couldn’t pick up a win. If the Aces do hope to win their first league title in the 21st century, and first since 1993, they’ll need a lot of luck in the second leg for sure.
Belle Vue Aces = 51
- Brady Kurtz – 1′, 2, 3, 2′, 2′ = 10+3
- Tom Brennan – 2, 0, 3, 2′ = 7+1
- Matej Zagar – 3, 3, 2, 2 = 10
- Charles Wright – 1, 2′, F = 3+1 (Withdrawn)
- Robert Lambert – 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 = 15
- Norick Blodorn – 3, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1 = 6
- Jye Etheridge – 0 = 0 (Withdrawn)
Sheffield Tigers = 39
- Jack Holder – 0, EX, 2, 0 = 2
- Lewis Kerr – 3, 1, 2, 1′ = 7+1
- Adam Ellis – 2, 2, 0, 3, 1 = 8
- Kyle Howarth – 0, 0, 1, 3 = 4
- Tobiasz Musielak – 1′, 3, 3, 1, FX = 8+1
- Justin Sedgmen – 2, 1, 1, 1, 2′ = 7+1
- Connor Mountain – 1′, 2, 0 = 3+1
A Track With A VUE 