BELLE VUE ACES 43 – 47 SHEFFIELD TIGERS
BV: Brady Kurtz 11 // SHE: Jack Holder 11+1
Monday night saw Belle Vue fall to a second straight league defeat at the hands of their local rivals the Sheffield Tigers, as not only did the South Yorkshire win the match, but they also took home the aggregate bonus point on offer too with a 47-43 win in Manchester. After Thursday night’s encounter in Sheffield, in which saw the two teams first league outing in 2023. It saw was the hometown Tigers that took a 48-42 victory and looked to defend a six-point lead at the National Speedway Stadium.
On a crisp and chilly Monday evening at Belle Vue, it saw the home side looking to bounce back from their defeat at Owlerton and look to also take the bonus point. However, what followed was a demonstration by the visiting side in how make a starts in Speedway. Heat 1 saw the customary filling in of programmes now to read 1-5 in favour of the visiting side after one race, as Sheffield recorded a 5-1 thanks to Jack Holder and Kyle Howarth, of who repelled the challenge of both Dan Bewley and Norick Blodorn. Tom Brennan passed Lewis Kerr on the final bend of the opening lap to be the first Aces race winner of the night in the reserve race, while Jaimon Lidsey eventually joined his teammate Charles Wright at the front for maximum points in Heat 3, as the host drew the scores level at 9-9.
Sheffield picked up a couple of 4-2 heat wins, with Tobiasz Musielak getting the better of Aces captain Brady Kurtz in Heat 3, while Jack Holder and Kyle Howarth teamed up again for another heat advantage in Heat 5 to give the Yorkshire outfit a four-point lead, and put the home side in danger early doors. To say Belle Vue’s gating ability was non-existent maybe the biggest understatement of the night, as they gated as quick as a Slug would in the 100m dash. The Tigers were just leaving them for dead at the start of every race and it was running them throughout the evening. Rarely, did Belle Vue have someone that could make an actual start. As Dan Bewley led from start to finish for a 4-2 with Norick Blodorn holding third in Heat 6; while a stunning ride by captain Brady Kurtz forced his way through the Sheffield defences on the opening bend of lap three to take victory and see a 3-3 in Heat 7.
Heat 9 saw Sheffield’s Lewis Kerr and Tobias Musielak looking on course for maximum points for the visitors, that was until Jaimon Lidsey decided to tangle with both Tigers and slotted into second to see a 4-2 and have the hosts down by four at 29-25. As the races dwindled away, so did the Aces chance of turning this meeting around. As while it was only four points the difference, barring Kurtz or Lidsey in the line up no one had any speed in their setup. Sheffield dominated making starts, as the Aces continentally found them having to come from the back to anything at all. Heat 11 finally saw a home pairing gate and out on a 5-1 – but typically, the referee stopped the race for an unsatisfactory start on Kyle Howarth, of who, just to rub salt into the wounds, wasn’t even affecting the race being at the back. In the rerun, it saw Brady make the initial start but saw Brennan not having the speed to hold off Jack Holder and saw the home side claw back two points going into the interval at 34-32 down. I could quite literally just copy and paste the phrase ‘Sheffield made the start’ in terms of every heat. As the Aces gating was truly pathetic.
Belle Vue’s Jaimon Lidsey seemed to be the only rider offering any kind of resistance from the home side barring that of his captain Brady Kurtz, as the Aussie tried his level best to keep his side still in content. However, the duo of Lewis Kerr and Adam Ellis helped to see the Tigers take bagging the first bonus point of the league season with a 4-2, now they went about trying to take two league points on offer.
Heat 13 saw the visiting side gate…again…but captain Brady Kurtz set about chasing down Holder and Musielak, to which the Australia passed both in almost one fail swoop by the start of the second lap. Bewley briefly gave the home side a 4-2 advantage, but the Pole Musielak was quick to repass and saw the Cumbrian rider register his second duck egg of the night. Heat 14 saw the unlikely sight of both Belle Vue riders making the start and getting out on a 5-1 advantage to see the scores level. But once again, the home side would shoot themselves in the foot with Charles Wright going to far out in the dirt and losing all his speed, only for David Bellego to come through into second and have Tom Brennan take victory to force an unlikely last heat decider at 43-41. The final race of the night saw an absolutely shock to no one with the Sheffield pairing hitting the front from tapes, as Tobiasz Musielak and Jack Holder lead from a determined Jaimon Lidsey. Lidsey, refused to give up and saw him swapping places back and forth with the Tigers duo for four laps. However, he couldn’t prevent a 4-2 going the way of the visitors, as Sheffield took the match 47-43 and In fairness, was no more than the travelling side deserved.
For the travelling army of Sheffield fans who made the trip over to Manchester, they were rewarded with a famous win on their rivals home track and buoyed no doubt for the rest of the season now with two comfortable victories on the board. For the Aces, there was more negatives than positives to take from this meeting. As two things that were distinctly lacking all night from the home side, was having no speed at all in the bikes, and secondly, making damn Starts. No offence to Dan Gilkes, but when a ‘Rising Star’ is putting your side of top talent to shame with constant good gates then there is something wrong. Gating has always been the Aces kryptonite for years at the NSS, as it does feel like riders have a air of ‘you don’t need to be able to gate on this track to win races’ – that maybe true, but it certainly goes a long way to make the job easier if you can get out ahead. Honestly, can’t praise Sheffield enough for their performance away. They all quickly found a setup that worked for them and everyone chipped in with Kerr, Howarth and especially Gilkes being match winners. Personally, only really Kurtz and Lidsey put up much of a fight for me, and maybe it is the pessimist in me, but I genuine fear that this maybe a long season for us here in ‘Sunny Gorton’.
AWAV RIDER OF THE NIGHT: Brady Kurtz
Belle Vue Aces = 43 (85)
- Dan Bewley – 0, 3, 1′, 0 = 4+1
- Norick Blodorn – 1, 1, 3, 2 = 7
- Jaimon Lidsey – 3, 0, 2, 2, 2 = 9
- Charles Wright – 2′, 2, 0, 1 = 5+1
- Brady Kurtz – 2, 3, 3, 3, 0 = 11
- Tom Brennan – 3, 0, 1, 0, 3 = 7
- Jake Mulford – 0, 0, 0 = 0
Sheffield Tigers = 47 (95)
- Jack Holder – 3, 3, 2, 2, 1 = 11
- Kyle Howarth – 2′, 1, 1′, 0 = 4+2
- Adam Ellis – 0, 1′, 0, 1 = 2+1
- David Bellego – 1, 2, 3, 2 = 8
- Tobiasz Musielak – 3, 2, 1, 1′, 3 = 10+1
- Lewis Kerr – 2, 0, 3, 3, 0 = 8
- Dan Gilkes – 1′, 1, 2 = 4+1
A Track With A VUE 