Wildcats gain revenge over local rivals (From Dorset Echo)

Wildcats gain revenge over local rivals

10:44pm Friday 19th June 2009 in

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WEYMOUTH Doonan Wildcats gained sweet revenge at the Wessex Bus Raceway last night by hammering the Bourne-mouth Buccaneers 56-40 in the Knock-out Cup .

Still smarting from the 20-point National League defeat they suffered at Wimborne Road on May 28, the Wildcats took no prisoners as they swept aside their local rivals in impregnable fashion.

Only ex-Weymouth star Jay Herne thwarted the hosts from gaining a bigger first-leg advantage. The Aussie ace racked up 17 points and was awarded the rider of the night award but there was no doubting who was the happier boss come the end of the action.

Wildcats’ team manager Jem Dicken said: “I planned for a 15-point advantage and we have come away with 16. We could have had more and probably deserved more but it was a satisfying result and it has set us up well for the return meeting.

“When we lost by 20 points at Poole last month six of our riders had bad nights but I am sure that was a freak occurrence and that we will be a lot more competitive up there in the second leg on July 2.”

A bumper crowd packed into the Radipole Lane arena but they had to wait an hour for the action to get underway due to the late arrival of the paramedics.

Both sets of fans were beginning to look exasperated by the time they arrived but the wait was certainly worthwhile, particularly for Wildcats’ fans.

The hosts, out to put the record straight, stunned the Buccaneers by taking a 10-2 lead after the opening two heats with Matt Wright and Lee Smart, and James White-Williams and Terry Day all showing impressive form.

However, Bournemouth soon struck back with Herne and Mark Baseby taking advantage of a fall by James Cockle to cut the deficit with a maximum of their own.

A skirmish between Mark Baseby and Cockle in the pits after the heat was clear proof of the tension in both camps. And in the following race the visitors suffered a blow when Kyle Newman failed to make the two-minute time allowance and then fell going off 15 metres, which caused him to be disqualified.

Bournemouth made a quick reser-ve change for the re-run, replacing John Resch with Aaron Baseby, but he could not stop the Wildcats registering their third 5-1 of the evening through White-Williams and Mark Burrows.

The Buccaneers were clearly shaken and further maximums for the Wildcats in the following two heats ensured the home side a 26-10 lead.

Desperate to buck the trend, Herne was handed a tactical ride in heat seven and the Aussie produced a trademark performance to hold off Burrows and help capture a vital 7-2 for his side.

That cut the deficit to 11 points but Wright ensured the Cats got back on track in the next by taking his third successive victory ahead of Andrew Aldridge in the first shared heat.

Apart from Herne, the Bourne-mouth riders were being out-gated in nearly every race and that continued in neat nine with Cockle and Webster blasting away and keeping Newman at bay to stretch the lead to 36-21.

The Buccaneers needed Herne to come up with the goods again in heat 10 but Smart flew through from fourth to first to take the chequered flag in a fantastic time of 51.7secs.

Bournemouth immediately gave Aldridge a second tactical ride and although he took the win ahead of Burrows, it only resulted in a 6-3 as the Wildcats remained in control.

Herne followed up with a win in a shared heat 12 before Burrows and Smart pulled off a seventh maximum of the night for Weymouth in the following race to give them a 14-point lead going into the last two heats.

Day and Cockle won the penultimate race 4-2 before Herne completed the evening by beating Burrows and Smart.

However, despite the Aussie’s heroics, the night clearly belonged to Weymouth in what was a fantastic spectacle of cut and thrust racing.

HEAT DETAILS

Ht 1: Wright, Smart, Aldridge, Warwick 53.0, 5-1

Ht 2: White-Williams, Day, A Baseby, Resch 55.2, 10-2

Ht 3: Herne, M Baseby, Webster, Cockle (fell, retired) 53.8, 11-7

Ht 4: White-Williams, Burrows, A Baseby, Newman (time-15m, fell excluded) 54.3, 16-8

Ht 5: Cockle, Webster, Aldridge, Warwick (fell, retired), 54.3, 21-9

Ht 6: Wright, Smart, Resch, Newman (fell, retired), 53.6, 26-10

Ht 7: Herne (tactical), Burrows, M Baseby, Day, 52.7, 28-17

Ht 8: Wright, Aldridge, A Baseby, White-Williams (fell, retired) 55.2, 31-20

Ht 9: Cockle, Webster, Newman, Resch, 54.8, 36-21

Ht 10: Smart, Herne, M Baseby, Wright (retired), 51.7, 39-24

Ht 11: Aldridge (tactical), Burrows, Day, Warwick 53.0, 42-30

Ht 12: Herne, Webster, A Baseby, White-Williams 52.6, 44-33

Ht 13: Burrows, Smart, Newman, Warwick (fell, retired), 53.7, 49-35

Ht 14: Day, M Baseby, Cockle, A Baseby, 53.6, 53-37

Ht 15: Herne, Burrows, Smart, Aldridge, 53.1, 56-40