M’Bro Tigers v Oxford NDL

[Fortythirtyeight]

Well as no one else has bothered with a summary and I’m sat on the beach at Workington here’s my effort.

Tigers on paper appeared strengthened with guests Hodder and Norman ( he’s one to watch ) replacing Ablitt ( at Scunny ) and Ward ( retired ) whilst the Chargers look good on paper the shock home defeat should just have been an early season blip.

Poor crowd ( for Friday night at Redcar ) but warm night and track looked better than previous weeks.

Tight score early doors with Chargers Watson never finishing a race and Broadhurst not upto speed whereas Tigers were solid but lacking race winners and S.Pijper withdrawing with an old injury meaning extra rides for the promising Southwick and decent Sadler.

Heat 9 changed everything.

Veteran Mudgeway infront leading Oxford pair when on bend 3-4 Mudgeway takes a wobbler due to his grasstrack style ( he did this on this bend in each of his races ) , Ritchings appears surprised and falls meaning his team mate , either Fletcher or Broadhurst ? ( the announcer was very poor and inaccurate all evening ) lays it down whilst at the same time Mudgeway is catapulted into the air fence , all his own doing in my opinion.

Takes a while but the the ref ( Mr. Hunter ) excludes both Oxford riders ?!?

Gobsmacked!

Tigers add a 5-1 to this 5-0 and now look good for a comfortable win.

Charges fight back helped by Tigers Southwick fall-exclusion and impressive Scott & Ritchings to be 3 points behind going into heat 14.

Here’s where the match is decided . 
With Southwich leading but clearly got a machine issue and slowing on lap 3 he coasts into bend 1 shaking his head as Vale goes inside him to avoid him. Southwick ends up in the fence, kicks his bike in frustration as the red lights come on. Everyone but the ref marks their programmes as a Oxford 5-1, even Roy Clarke starts telling the crowd how unlucky Southwick was when it’s then announced that the ref has awarded the race 4-2 to the Tigers as he says Vale knocked Southwick off ( he wasn’t even under power ! )

even more gobsmacked !

Chargers deserved their last heat 5-1 and to their credit didn’t appear to make a big fuss about being robbed of the match by two of the worst decisions I’ve ever witnessed in 50+ years of speedway.

otherwse….a good meeting for NDL.

Young Norman ( a former Redcar junior ) impressed at no.2, Southwick is fast and a bit wild but great to watch.

Chargers Ritchings was class, expectantly backed by Bears rider Scott and young Fletcher was impressive.

Tigers now looking for 2 or even 3 riders to replace Ward, Trigger and possibly Mudgeway?

 

 

 

 

[KK62]

Good report Steve , glad you remembered Seth was a former Redcar Cub ( as was Cooper Rushen and Ollie Bovingdon and even young Binns for a short time ).

There certainly was some scratching of heads on those two decisions and as I was stood with a few Oxford fans I found myself apologising to them ( yet it wasn't my fault ! ) and it did make a mess of my programme.

You’re a bit harsh on Jade as he's only mid 30’s and is only helping out due to Triggers retirement. His ‘style’ is different and can look strange to those who haven't seen a ‘leg trailer’ before but he tells me he knows what he’s doing ( having watched him on the grass he can handle a bike ). 

Oxford would have won but the decisions made it otherwise and its nice to see the Tigers competitive this season .