Former Workington Comets star Richard Lawson might be out of action for the rest of the season.
Lawson crashed out early in last night’s meeting for King’s Lynn at Wolverhampton and suffered a suspected broken collarbone.
The West Cumbrian had only recently joined the Stars following the closure of the Eastbourne Eagles track.
Wolverhampton took another step towards clinching top spot in the Premiership with the convincing 54-36 win over the Stars.
Kings Lynn manager Alex Brady said: “It’s not a fair reflection on the efforts. The lads battled deep but obviously losing Rich in his second ride was really, really tough.
“Trying to plug the gaps with Injury Rider Replacement and tac. subs and reserve switches is difficult to manage and juggle, but the boys gave it everything.”
It means Wolves could complete a clean sweep of home wins when they conclude their regular schedule against Peterborough next Monday – the only team who could deny them league leadership and the right to pick their play-off semi-final opponents.
Another former Comets rider – and one like Lawson who came through the scrambling ranks – Craig Cook has recently returned to action after taking a short break because of mental health issues.
He scored well for Glasgow over the week-end and last night picked-up 10 plus 2 riding for Ipswich in a 55-35 defeat to Peterborough.
Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins, himself a former Workington rider, said: “We came here and everyone was looking forward to racing and finishing on a bit of a high point after a disappointing season.
“In reality we were not good enough again against a very good team despite some strong efforts from a few of the boys. It was good to see Cooky back again and scoring.”
BelleVue returned to form and turned the tables on Sheffield with a 54-36 victory in their latest Roses battle in Manchester.
The scores were close at the halfway stage with only two points between the sides, but the Aces were much the stronger side in the closing part of the meeting.
West Cumbrian Dan Bewley from Maryport led the way with a paid maximum (14+1) and British Champion Adam Ellis scored 11 for the Tigers, who were in no mood to celebrate despite King’s Lynn’s defeat at Wolverhampton securing the Owlerton side’s place in the play-offs.
Former Comets star and current Sheffield manager Simon Stead said: “Not good enough, simple as that. We were beaten by a better team and it’s disappointing, I’m left frustrated again.
“They were better than us and I’m not going to offer any excuses, we just weren’t good enough.
“We need to lift ourselves for Thursday when we go to King’s Lynn, and we know the areas of the team where we didn’t perform as we should expect.”
