Redcar v Newcastle preview
This Friday night sees the Redcar Agilia Bears take on their good friends from the up the road, the Newcastle Diamonds in Championship Action (7:30pm start).
The Bears will be looking to keep up the good form of last weekend, where they took 7 points from the 3 meetings. Promoter Jitendra Duffill was delighted with his sides performances, and was pleased to see Erik Riss finally make his home debut for the club!
“What a great weekend for the Bears that was! Jade and I had discussed our goals for the 3 fixtures we had before the weekend and targeted 6 points, knowing that would push us securely into the top 4; we bettered that and took 7 points which I believe was a great achievement. It’s difficult to single out any single rider as they all played their parts. It was great to finally see Erik Riss grace the MPA and I think you will agree that he was definitely worth the wait. He is spectacular to watch! I was also very pleased to see Michael complete his first full maximum for us and he did it in superb style, passing several opponents on the night. Michael got off to slow start to the year and I’m really happy to see him silence his early season doubters.”
It will be another tough meeting at the MPA this Friday, as Newcastle have a number of ex-Bears in their ranks as well as riders who go well around the Teesside track. Thomas Jorgensen, Ulrich Ostergaard, Lasse Bjerre and Steve Worrall have all donned the Bears racejacket in the past and Danny Phillips is a local lad who knows the track well. Max Clegg is a former Julie Lewis winner here and Matthew Wethers has been in fine form for the Diamonds so the Bears will need to be on top of their game. Indeed, Duffill was surprised to see them lose at home to Somerset on Sunday:
“Tonight we welcome our closest neighbours Newcastle Speedway and their supporters. I was a little shocked that they got beat at home last Sunday as on paper, they have a very solid and impressive line-up. We won’t read too much into that result as they have several riders capable of scoring very well here this evening and we will need to be on top of our game to ensure another 3 league points. We need to keep applying pressure to the 3 teams above us and ideally, Jade and I would like to finish higher than 4th position and we believe we are capable of that.”
The Bears will be at full strength for the meeting, which will be a relief to any fans who witnessed Jordan Stewarts nasty crash on Sunday against Eastbourne. After visiting hospital on Sunday night it was revealed there were no broken bones, and although he was battered and bruised he has been resting up all week and all being well will be fit to take his place on Friday.
It shapes up to be another exciting clash – don’t forget that all 16 and under are free with a paying adult!
Redcar: Erik Riss, Kasper Andersen, Michael Palm Toft, Jordan Stewart, Charles Wright, Tom Woolley, Nathan Greaves
Newcastle: Steve Worrall, Ulrich Ostergaard, Lasse Bjerre, Matthew Wethers, Thomas Jorgensen, Max Clegg, Danny Phillips