SHEFFIELD 58 FOXES 32
NORTHAMPTON suffered their heaviest defeat of the season as they were beaten 58-32 at Sheffield on Thursday.
The Foxes failed to recover from a super slow start which saw them concede five 5-1s in the opening six races which immediately put them on the back foot.
No.1 Jaimon Lidsey stopped the run of Sheffield advantages in Heat 5 before Niels-Kristian Iversen and Matej Zagar claimed the minor places in Heat 7 in two shared races.
Trailing 35-13, team manager Chris Adams opted to give Lidsey an additional outing in Heat 9 as a tactical substitute - but the Australian missed out in the opening turns whilst partner Nicolai Klindt took the chequered flag with the gap remaining at 22 points.
Lidsey got back to winning ways in Heat 11 though, as he teamed up with Kye Thomson for the Foxes’ only advantage of the evening as they took a 5-1 over home skipper Josh Pickering.
Iversen came up with just a fourth Foxes’ race win in Heat 14 on a tough night at the office, and a contest which saw Troy Batchelor inform the club he couldn’t take part due to a knee injury in the build-up.
Team manager Chris Adams said: “It was a bit last minute so we had to have a quick ring around and we thank Freddy Hodder for jumping on board.
“It was a very difficult night for us though and it was pretty much done after those first four races which all ended in 5-1s against.
“No matter where you’re riding you’ve got to have the right set-up to even compete; this is a tricky track, we hadn’t been here yet this year, and it wasn’t one of our best performances shall we say.
“We finished off a little bit better but Sheffield were by far the better team.”
Northampton are back in action next Thursday (August 6, 7.30pm) when they travel to Ipswich.
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1
SHEFFIELD 58: Leon Flint 14+1, Anders Rowe 13, Josh Pickering 12+1, Chris Holder 9+4, Luek Killeen 7+1, Jye Etheridge 3+2, Jack Holder r/r.
NORTHAMPTON 32: Jaimon Lidsey 9+1, Kye Thomson 7+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 6, Matej Zagar 4+1, Nicolai Klindt 4, Luke Harrison 2, Freddy Hodder 0.
Sheffield win the aggregate point
Photo credit: CHARLOTTE FLANIGAN