Redcar gained some sort of revenge over the Workington Comets last night when they beat them 51-38 in the first leg of the KO Cup quarter final.
Workington had recently done the double over them in the BSN Series but this time two former Comets led the way in a telling Redcar response.
Charles Wright led the way with 16 points for the Bears and he was backed-up by last season’s Workington number one Connor Bailey (13).
Between them they won seven races with Jake Mulford the only other heat winner when he led home the reserves race.
It was at reserve, too, where the Bears scored heavily against their opposite numbers, Mulford and Ben Trigger notching 12 points to the Comets pair of Sam McGurk and Celina Liebmann’s two. That was from Liebmann’s second place in the reserves race.
Both sides lost a rider. The luckless Danny King fell in the first race of the night and as he had to at Northside was forced to withdraw from the meeting as a result – but at a much earlier stage.
The Comets’ exciting young Australian Tate Zischke also fell after King’s mishap but remounted and was excluded. It meant the Comets actually took a 3-2 lead with Craig Cook beating Jonas Knudsen.
But Zischke was also withdrawn from the meeting after heat five when he had fallen and remounted to finish last. Clearly feeling the effects of his two falls it was a precaution by the Comets management as they have an important BSN Series match with Scunthorpe at Northside tomorrow (3.30pm).
By that stage Workington were trailing by three points (16-13) and following two heat wins by Wright in succession which brought 5-1 and 4-2 points advantages to the Bears, the Comets were chasing the match.
Race wins for Antti Vuolas and Troy Batchelor stemmed the Redcar flow, but they were just shared heats and the Comets were unable to make inroads to the home lead.
Three successive damaging heat advantages for the Bears left the visitors trailing by 17 points going into the last three racves but they then rallied with two 4-2’s and a shared heat.
Heats 13 and 15 were the stand-out races of the night. In heat 13 Batchelor and Wright swapped places several times in first place before the Workington rider edged it.
It was a similar story in heat 15, again a 4-2 to the Comets and with Claus Vissing racing to a win in the penultimate heat Workington were able to restrict the winning margin to 13. It sets-up an interesting second leg at Northside on Saturday, May 4.
Redcar Bears 51
Danny King 0; Jonas Knudsen 7 + 1; Connor Bailey 13; Jason Edwards 3 + 3; Charles Wright 16; Jake Mulford 8 + 1; Ben Trigger 4 + 1.
Workington Comets 38
Craig Cook 8; Tate Zischke 0; Antti Vuolas 7; Claus Vissing 9 + 1; Troy Batchelor 12; Sam McGurk 0; Celina Liebmann 2.
