THE Newcastle Diamonds gave their all at high-flying Somerset last night in an effort to take the aggregate bonus point only to narrowly miss out on their target.
The chase hinged on a hugely controversial heat seven when, with only six points separating the teams, Newcastle sent out Josef Franc and Carl Wilkinson who had both won their previous outings.
With the riders at the tapes, the starting marshal refused to allow Franc to start in the position he wanted, despite the fact that he was within the boundaries of the allocated area.
The referee Graham Reeve then excluded the Newcastle rider and he had to start off a 15-metre handicap with Wilkinson being forced to move to gate two as opposed to the favoured gate four, where he was looking to swoop around the outside.
The resultant 5-1 gave the home team a 10-point lead but that didn’t stop the battling nature of the Newcastle side who pushed their hosts all the way in an entertaining contest.
Indeed the scoreline was given a false look when Franc went from first to last with ignition problems in one race and then Newcastle saw Paul Clews blow his motor in the penultimate heat.
Newcastle guest Ricky Ashworth had an excellent meeting and both he and Carl Wilkinson didn’t deserve to be on the wrong end of the 5-1 to the home side that rounded off the meeting.
SCORERS:
SOMERSET: Magnus Zeterstrom 14; Stephan Katt 10; Jordan Frampton 8; Emile Kramer 7; Simon Walker 6; Richie Hawkins 5; Danny Warwick 5.
NEWCASTLE: Ricky Ashworth 14; Carl Wilkinson 10; Paul Clews 6; Josef Franc 5; Sean Stoddart 2; Sam Dore 1.
