Bears struggle as Leicester dominate
The Redcar “Agilia” Bears were brought crashing down to earth as they suffered a 60-30 defeat at the Paul Chapman and Sons Arena. In tough track conditions, Kyle Howarth and Nick Morris both hit maximums whilst Charles Wright top scored for the Bears with 11.
A strong home performance from the Lions began with three successive 4-2 heat advantages in the first 3 heats. Heat 2 saw Jason Edwards gate well to take an early lead but the Bears reserve was overtaken by Joe Thompson who used his superior track knowledge to pass Edwards on the outside to take the win.
The Lions emphatically stamped their mark on proceedings in heat 4 as Richie Worrall took a tapes to flag win whilst Joe Thompson passed Erik Riss to register Leicester’s first 5-1 of the evening. Charles Wright battled to limit another 5-1 for Leicester as he re-passed Dan Thompson but with Kyle Howarth taking a comfortable win the Bears were 21-9 behind.
The 8th race of a brisk evening saw Leicester’s Joe Thompson pick off Bears reserves Jordan Jenkins and Jason Edwards on laps 2 and 3 to extend the 2019 league winners lead to 18.
Jade Mudgway opted to use his tactical substitute card with Wright pairing Riss to try and stage an unlikely Bears comeback. The substitution ultimately did not work as Howarth took another superb win with the Bears duo packing the minor placings. The Bears hit their only heat advantage of the evening (and their only race winner) in heat 11 with the skipper Wright denying Worrall a maximum with a tapes to flag win.
Things did not improve for Redcar as the Teessiders conceded 5-1 advantages in heats 13 and 15 to put a sour note on an otherwise positive week for the club.
Redcar boss Jade Mudgway believes sluggish starts cost his side, “We really struggled out of the starts this evening, you can look at track conditions all you want but that doesn’t play a part when you aren’t getting out of the starts.”
The Kiwi believes this was a one-off for his side, “The boys tried hard this evening but things didn’t work out for us. We are capable of much more than that.”
Mudgway knows this cannot become a more regular occurrence, “The riders know this result and the manner of it was unacceptable, we are better than what we produced tonight. The boys cannot be faulted for a lack of effort but it just didn’t work tonight.”
Leicester Lions = 60
1. Nick Morris = 12 (MAX)
2. Connor Mountain = 6
3. Kyle Howarth = 15 (MAX)
4. Dan Thompson = 5
5. Richie Worrall = 12+2
6. Ben Morley (G) = 2
7. Joe Thompson = 8+2
Redcar Bears = 30
1. Charles Wright = 11
2. Adam Roynon = 1
3. Lewis Kerr = 7+1
4. Kasper Andersen = 2
5. Erik Riss = 4+1
6. Jason Edwards = 2
7. Jordan Jenkins = 3