KING’S Lynn’s recent revival came to an end as a powerful Sheffield side raced to a 49-41 at the Adrian Flux Arena on Monday.
The Tigers’ recent team changes paid off with Josh Pickering and Stefan Nielsen both impressing, whilst the home side simply ran out of race wins in the second half of the meeting.
The Minors & Brady Stars did make a positive start with four winners in the opening four races, although the visitors were already serving notice of their potential.
Whilst Richard Lawson and Ricky Wells went clear in Heats 1 and 2, Lewis Kerr and Thomas Jorgensen both took advantage of errors by their opponents, as Sheffield duo Troy Batchelor and Adam Ellis both went too wide when leading Heats 3 and 4 respectively.
The visitors did get it right in Heat 5 with the spectacular Pickering being joined by Jack Holder for a 5-1 over Kerr and Erik Riss.
Sheffield led by four points at the halfway stage although Jorgensen was an impressive winner of Heat 7, and they doubled the margin in the next race when early leader Wells lifted on turn two to allow Pickering and Nielsen to steam through.
Stars had a huge let-off in Heat 9 when they appeared to be facing a 2-4 reverse only for Ellis, clear out-front, to lift and crash heavily, whilst Riss switched inside the impeded Danyon Hume to complete a 5-1 with Kerr.
But Sheffield hit straight back in Heat 10 with Lawson passing Batchelor but unable to catch Kyle Howarth – and with the gap at six points, Lynn’s hopes were shattered in Heat 11.
The introduction of Lawson as a tactical substitute alongside Jorgensen made perfect sense, but after they were initially frustrated by a fast gate from Holder, they were then stunned by a brilliant ride by Pickering to round Lawson and then go inside Jorgensen for a remarkable second place.
That always gave the Tigers enough to defend, even with the withdrawal of Ellis due to a knee injury, and they already had the match in the bag before Pickering produced another blast from the back to secure all four league points in Heat 15.
Stars boss Alex Brady said: “It’s a tough result to take. The performance from a lot of the boys was very good, but unfortunately we couldn’t get out of the starts in the crucial heats.
“We had some good heat winners, the first four were from King’s Lynn, but we couldn’t pack the minor places which is crucial in every meeting, and it just wasn’t our night.”
Stars now prepare for a local derby trip to Peterborough on Thursday before visiting league leaders Wolverhampton next Monday.
KING’S LYNN 41: Richard Lawson 12, Thomas Jorgensen 9+1, Lewis Kerr 8, Erik Riss 6+1, Ricky Wells 4, Connor Mountain 2+1, Cameron Heeps 0. SHEFFIELD 49: Josh Pickering 12+1, Jack Holder 9+2, Kyle Howarth 8+2, Troy Batchelor 7, Stefan Nielsen 6+2, Adam Ellis 5, Danyon Hume 2+1.
