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Wednesfield v Horspath

Event: 19th June 2011
British Premier League
Report and Images: Andy Whitehouse
Event Details

Wednesfield and Horspath matches always turn up an interesting if not controversial clash and Sunday would prove no exception to the rule.

With Horspath nestled safely unbeaten at the top of the Premier League it was going to be up to Wednesfield to unsettle the Oxford side and on their own track the final result should have been much closer but with far too many exclusions and thrown away chances the Midlanders ultimately gifted the visitors the match.

The first half of the meeting belonged to Horspath's Mateusz Szymezak and Mark Boaler taking 7-3 wins in heats three and seven and although the other heats were well matched, allowing the Oxford side any lead would always prove difficult to pull back and going into the interval six points adrift the home side would have their work cut out.

The second half of the match was to be gifted to the visitors with Wednesfield seeming to lose their way with five exclusions and Horspath seeming to ease to an easy looking victory.

An exclusion in heat ten by Matt Beharrell for moving at the gate left Luke Draisey to hold off Mark Carmichael for a well ridden second place.

With Horspath's Paul Heard excluded in heat thirteen for moving at the gate it gave Wednesfield the chance to pull some much needed points back but Matt Beharrell picked up his second exclusion of the match for riding Steve Harris off the track on the back straight.

Heat fifteen could have proved a lifeline to the home side when Harris was excluded for obstructing Berharrell on the first lap causing the Wednesfield rider to hit the dirt, but the grounded rider was excluded in the re-run for moving at the gate leaving Lee Aris to pick up his fourth win of the day but it was to prove academic.

The final heat of the day was to sum up Wednesfield's day, with Luke Draisey excluded at the gate it was left to Aris to pick up consolation points for the scoresheet but uncharacteristically the Wednesfield rider was excluded for slowing the race leaving the Horpath pairing of Heard and Harris to complete a lap to take seven points and the Match victory 92-78.

Match Score

Wednesfield 78: Lee Aris 16, Mark Griffiths 16, Chris Jewkes 14, Dylan Radcliffe 11, Terry Norman 9, Luke Draisey 5, Ben Higham 4, Matt Beharrell 3

Horspath 92: Mateusz Szymczak 18, Paul Heard 14, Chris timms 14, Steve Harris 13, Lewis Osborne 12, Mark Bolaer 11, Mark Carmichael 7, Chris Osborne 3