foxes 45 sheffield 45

NORTHAMPTON Foxes and Sheffield fought out a thrilling 45-45 draw in easily the best speedway meeting since the sport opened up a the Shaleway this season.

The Foxes were agonisingly close to a victory but Tigers captain Josh Pickering pulled off a sensational effort to go from third to first in Heat 15 to salvage a share of the spoils for his side.

And few would argue against that being a fair outcome from a nip-and-tuck encounter in which there were never more than four points between the teams.

Substantial new material had been added to the Shaleway circuit as the club looks to improve the quality of racing, but this is not an exact science as it beds in, and it was clear from the opening two races that some remedial work was required.

Foxes No.1 Jaimon Lidsey fell in the first race with Tigers guest Ryan Douglas also doing well to control things out-front, and after the visitors’ Rising Star Luke Killeen won Heat 2 the decision was taken to blade the track.

Things quicky settled down after the resumption where it was immediately clear that new racing lines were emerging, and the action got better and better as the meeting went on.

The Foxes drew level in Heat 3 with Niels-Kristian Iversen taking the win whilst Matej Zagar took third place from Leon Flint when the visiting rider made a mistake to somewhat cancel out Lidsey’s fall.

Pickering won Heat 4 with plenty of action going on behind him after Luke Harrison lifted, before he and Nicolai Klindt fought their way back past Killeen.

Fortune smiled on the Foxes in Heat 5 when Douglas, who was borrowing a machine from Chris Holder and was in third place, saw it expire on lap three to enable the home side to take a 4-2 as Iversen notched his second win of the meeting.

The next two races were shared, first with Kye Thomson superbly blasting around the outside of Pickering to indicate exactly what the track could produce, and then Holder won Heat 7 after his team-mate Flint had been disqualified for touching the tapes.

Thomson was at it again in Heat 8 as he established the lead ahead of Anders Rowe, but all the action was at the back with Harrison reeling in Killeen and his last bend move saw him snatch third place by 0.03s.

That put the Foxes four points up and two more 3-3s followed with Sheffield race wins, Pickering re-passing Iversen in a good early battle in Heat 9, and Holder took Heat 10 ahead of home duo Lidsey and Thomson.

There was a massive blow in Heat 11 when a dramatic second bend saw Douglas and Rowe force their way to the front for a 5-1 to level the scores, although Troy Batchelor was chasing Rowe hard and this played a part in what happened next.

Manager Chris Adams elected to bring Batchelor into Heat 12 in place of Harrison, who had done nothing wrong, but the move paid off as Batchelor produced arguably his best ride at the Shaleway to defeat Holder, with Zagar adding third place to edge the Foxes ahead once more.

Sheffield were always likely to be strong in Heat 13, and this proved the case in a memorable race which saw Lidsey hit the front and Klindt briefly join him before he was swamped by both Douglas and Pickering. A 3-3 looked likely only for Pickering to wind up the outside at the start of lap four and make it around Lidsey for the win.

At 39-39, the Foxes needed an advantage from Heat 14 and they looked set to get it until the previously scoreless Flint showed huge determination to firstly see off Iversen and then make a huge last bend blast to beat Batchelor to the finish line.

Adams elected to send out the same pairing again in the decider, this time against with all respect much tougher opposition in Pickering and Holder, yet once again it was the Foxes pairing who showed out-front.

However, Pickering was not to be denied and an incredible effort saw him pass both Northampton riders, who thankfully held on for second and third places ahead of Holder to ensure they would at least take a league point for their efforts.

Adams said: “Obviously there were a few issues right at the start, but after the work that was done it was fantastic and we saw the results of that with the racing.

“The hope was that the new material was going to mix a bit better with the stuff we’d already got, but there was just a bit too much and it was clumpy in places, so that was hard for the riders.

“Once they bladed it off it was far better, and these are the little teething problems that that we are going to have with a new venue. I’m sure over the coming weeks it will bed in and become a lot better.

“A point for a draw is better than a loss, it’s another point on the board and we’ll focus on next week now.

“It’s frustrating because you just want a meeting where all the riders do a bit and then we’ll be beating teams by ten or twelve points!”

The Foxes promotion would like to thank all supporters for their patience during the extended track grade, and look forward to the next home meeting against King’s Lynn on Monday July 27.

NORTHAMPTON 45: Troy Batchelor 11+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 11+1, Kye Thomson 9+1, Matej Zagar 4+1, Jaimon Lidsey 4, Luke Harrison 3+2, Nicolai Klindt 3+1.

SHEFFIELD 45: Josh Pickering 14, Chris Holder 10, Anders Rowe 7+1, Ryan Douglas 7, Leon Flint 3, Luke Killeen 3, Jye Etheridge 1+1.