FOXES 35 BELLE VUE 55
NORTHAMPTON Foxes found the power of Premiership leaders Belle Vue too much to handle as they were beaten 55-35 at the Shaleway on Thursday.
The Aces showed exactly why they are top of the league table with a dominant performance even without two of their regular riders.
It took the Foxes until Heat 9 to register a race win, by which time the match was long gone as a contest, although there were far more encouraging signs in the second half of the meeting.
New reserve Mitch McDiarmid put in a determined, battling display after running a last place in Heat 2 when he was getting acclimatised to the track.
McDiarmid produced the highlight of the night for Foxes fans when he took third place in Heat 11 after a terrific battle with World No.2 Brady Kurtz, who appeared to have passed him on the last bend only for the Northampton rider to find speed on the run to the line and snatch the place back by 0.02s.
Fellow newcomer Adam Ellis also had a race win, that coming in Heat 14 when he worked his way through the traffic on the opening lap to get the better of Chris Harris and Will Cairns, and McDiarmid also looked set to beat Harris until the Belle Vue guest suffered mechanical issues regardless.
But Harris did play a significant role for the Aces, combining with Peter Kildemand for a 5-1 in Heat 3 as the Aces took advantages in each of the first eight races – the other seven being 4-2s, with reserve Tate Zischke impressing once again at the Shaleway and Norick Blodorn strong at No.2.
Foxes captain Jaimon Lidsey suffered misfortune in Heat 7 when he clashed with Kildemand heading into the first bend and retired later in the race missing spokes from his wheel, whilst the Dane was able to push an ailing bike home for third place.
Northampton manager Chris Adams held a lengthy discussion with SCB Referee Chris Gay during the subsequent track grade, but was advised that it would not be possible to retrospectively re-run the race once the result had been declared.
Lidsey put the Foxes’ first win on the board in Heat 9 and added another over Kurtz in Heat 13, whilst Niels-Kristian Iversen took Heat 10 with that race being re-started after Kildemand fell on the third bend with Harris taking very fast evasive action to put the bike down.
Foxes were on a 5-1 in the re-run until Harris managed to spit Iversen and Kye Thomson, whilst a 5-1 from Zischke and Kildemand in Heat 12 officially secured a comfortable win for the visitors.
Adams said: “We had too many last places and the damage was done in the first eight races really. They had heat advantages in all of them.
“You’ve got to take positives from each meeting I suppose, and if we’re looking at the scores from the second half of the meeting we’d be all level, and there were some real positive signs from Adam and Mitch.
“I’m not blaming anything but having only started this year the track has been different each week, and today with the temperatures as they were it was a lot slicker than what it was, plus we had three riders who haven’t ridden here before.”
The Foxes have a rapid chance to put things right at home when they host Leicester in a big local derby at the Shaleway on Monday.
NORTHAMPTON 35: Jaimon Lidsey 12, Adam Ellis 6, Mitch McDiarmid 5+1, Kye Thomson 5, Niels-Kristian Iversen 5, Sam Hagon 2, Justin Sedgmen 0.
BELLE VUE 55: Norick Blodorn 13, Tate Zischke 11+1, Brady Kurtz 11, Chris Harris 9+1, Peter Kildemand 6+2, Will Cairns 5, Jason Doyle r/r.
Belle Vue win the aggregate point
Photo credit: IAN CHARLES