Workington Comets were not in the hunt at the Champions Pairs final last night as they finished last in the qualifying heats.
Their night was summed up in their final outing when Troy Batchelor was excluded at the start and Antti Vuolas could pick-up only two points from third place behind the Glasgow duo of Anders Rowe and Chris Harris.
In their four races the Comets pair did not gain a heat advantage – beaten 6-3 by Edinburgh; 5-4 by Scunthorpe; 7-2 by Redcar and then 7-2 by Glasgow.
Their total of 11 points was the lowest in the competition with Batchelor scoring 7 and Vuolas 4.
Glasgow were the top scorers with 26 points but in the semi-final they were well beaten by Redcar Bears who had scored 20 in qualifying.
In the other semi-final Poole Pirates, who were the third top scorers with 22, were beaten by the home team Oxford Cheetahs who had notched 24 points in qualifying.
Unfortunately the final was marred by a spectacular crash involving Oxford’s Scott Nicholls and Redcar’s ex-Comet Charles Wright.
It was a difficult call for the referee and several pundits called it different ways – Wright excluded, Nicholls excluded or all four back. In the end it was Nicholls who was excluded and the race awarded to the Bears.
Not the way anyone wanted the championship to end but Redcar were regaining the trophy they won two years ago as Wright and Danny King stood on top of the podium.
Qualifying scores
- Glasgow 26 – Chris Harris 2, 3, 4, 3 = 12; Anders Rowe 4, 4, 2, 4 = 14. Oxford 24 – Scott Nicholls 2, 2, 4, 2 = 10; Sam Masters 4, 4, 3, 3 = 14.
- Poole 22 – Richard Lawson 3, 3, 4, 3 = 13; Ben Cook 4, 0, 3, 2 = 9.
- Redcar 20 – Charles Wright 3, 4, 3, 4 = 14; Danny King 0, 2, 4, 0 = 6.
- Edinburgh 17 – Josh Pickering 4, 3, 4, 4 = 15; Paco Castagna 2, 0, 0, 0 = 2.
- Scunthorpe 17 – Michael Palm Toft 0, 3, 3, 3 = 9; Kyle Howarth 2, 2, 2, 2 = 8
- Berwick 13 – Lewis Kerr 2, 2, 2, 4 = 10; Drew Kemp 3, R, 0, 0 = 3.Plymouth 12- Ben Barker 0, 3, 0, 0 = 3; Dan Thompson 4, 0, 3, 2 = 9.
- Workington 11 – Troy Batchelor 3, 4, R, N = 7; Antti Vuolas 0, 0, 2, 2 = 4.
