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Only two weeks have passed since the Somerset ‘Dickies’ Rebels last encountered the Birmingham Brummies. On that occasion the Brummies inflicted a home league defeat on the Rebels, but this renewal would go a long way towards a place in the Knock Out Cup semi-finals for one of the two sides. In the last meeting the Rebels were without Cory Gathercole, and the Brummies lost Jason Lyons very early in the piece. Tonight both riders took their respective places, but the Brummies used rider replacement for Justin Sedgmen, who was away on World U21 Championship duty.
Against a very strong Brummies side the Rebels were looking for a quick start, but found themselves chasing shadows from the outset. Jason Lyons and Steve Johnston made the best of a level break as they lead before the first turn, leaving Ritchie Hawkins and Christian Hefenbrock toiling in their wake. As they pulled clear, no amount of hard work from Hawkins could close the gap, and the Brummies were off to a perfect start.
The situation didn’t get much better in Heat 2, as James Holder made the gate, only to be swallowed up by the equally quick starting Kyle Newman on the back straight. Newman pulled out a lead, leaving Holder to fend off the attentions of a hard chasing Ricky Wells. In the end Wells could not get to Holder, as the Brummies secured a 2-4 advantage.
The Rebels found some relief in Heat 3 as Shane Parker flew from the gate to lead to the turn. He was soon under pressure as Richard Sweetman came roaring around the second turn, close to the fence. The pair went at it hammer and tongs, swapping place for the whole lap. It took a couple of more laps, before Parker was back in a challenging position, but when he was the pass was emphatic, as he took the same line as his opponent had on the opening lap. Sam Masters recovered from a big lift to pass Aaron Summers at the end of the opening lap, but could never get on terms with the leading two.
Cory Gathercole has been in fine form lately, but he took a huge lift off the line in Heat 4, leaving him a lot of ground to make up. James Holder was beaten to the bend after a fast break alongside Steve Johnston, with Gathercole making up ground behind them. Gathercole charged passed Kyle Newman in the first turn, and then flew down the back straight, passing James Holder in the third bend, and taking up second spot behind Johnston. By the time Gathercole got to second, Johnston was gone beyond recall, and try as he might, Gathercole could not close the gap.
Heat 5 saw the Brummies pair jet off the line to lead into the first turn. Shane Parker and Sam Masters were soon on the chase, and swooped passed either side of Kyle Newman on Bend 4. Newman didn’t give up, and was soon back in front of Masters, but the Rebels man repaid the compliment on the last bend of the very next lap. Parker took up the chase of Jason Lyons at the front, but the experienced Milduran was long gone.
Referee Ronnie Allan seemed to have held some of the starts longer than normal, something that the Birmingham management complained about throughout the evening, and in Heat 6 it took its toll, as first Christian Hefenbrock moved, and the Ritchie Hawkins careered through the tapes, and was excluded. Rather than ask Hawkins to go from 15 meters, Steve Bishop chose to introduce James Holder instead, and what an inspired choice it was. Holder was only third away, behind Steve Johnston and Christian Hefenbrock, but he sailed around the outside of the pair to lead onto the back straight. Steve Johnston just held Hefenbrock’s second bend inside challenge as Holder ran round his outside. Holder easily held the former Rebels skipper, who had his work cut out holding off the persistent Hefenbrock.
Heat 7 saw the tapes issue raise its head again, this time it was Cory Gathercole who fell foul of the starting violation. Gathercole took the 15 meter option, but had a lot of ground to make up as the Brummies pair of Summers Sweetman lead from the line. By bend 3 Gathercole was in third place, and hot on the heels of Summers. As they ran out onto the third lap, he was upsides Summers, and challenging hard up the inside. Summers blocked his every move, forcing him to switch his attack outside for the final lap. Gathercole was all over Summers, but could not find a way round the young South Australian, leaving the Brummies to take a full house and a 6-point lead.
The Rebels hit back over the next two heats, reducing the deficit to just 2-points. Ritchie Hawkins took Heat 8 with a first to last run over the first lap and a half. Kyle Newman and James Holder broke quickly, with Aaron Summers close up. Hawkins came storming around the opening turns on a very wide line. His run carried him beyond Holder and Summers, but just failed to account for Newman. He was soon on terms with the Poole based rider, and completed his run to the front using the same wide line on the opening turns of Lap 2. Aaron Summers had taken third spot from James Holder, and a shared heat beckoned as they ran to the flag, when all of a sudden, Kyle Newman slowed dramatically in the shadow of the post. He was first passed by his team mate, and as he slowed further, James Holder got closer with every turn of the wheel, and agonisingly for Newman, just grabbed third place on the line.
After two third places, Sam Masters took Heat 9 with a superb cutback move of the last bend of Lap 1. Masters, Shane Parker and Steve Johnston broke together, with Johnston just getting the best run to the bend. Masters was soon on his case, and ran the wide line to challenge down the back straight. As Johnston held him on the wide line, Masters executed the perfect cut back off the final bend of the lap to grab the lead going onto the second circuit. Johnston was still not far away, and the tables were turned as he threw in a strong outside challenge on the second bend of the lap. Masters held his line, and made sure that Johnston would have to go the long way round if he wanted the place back. In the event it was enough to snuff out Johnston’s fire, and allow him to open up a lead that he would only increase as the ran out the final two laps. Parker took an easy third place to give the Rebels the advantage.
A shared Heat 10 followed, as Christian Hefenbrock and Ritchie Hawkins filled the places behind Richard Sweetman. It could have been a very different result on a couple of levels; firstly Hefenbrock caught a huge lift off the start, but was still on level terms running into the first turn. Without the lift he may very well have been leading at the bend, instead of battling for the lead with Sweetman. Secondly, Aaron Summers was challenging outside Hefenbrock, when his engine gave up the ghost. Without Summers contribution Hefenbrock was able to pressure Sweetman all the way, but could not find a way round the Brummies man, on a track that was getting increasingly slicker by the lap, as the very warm, sunny evening took its toll.
The Rebels recovery was blown out of the water over the next three heats, as first the Brummies hammered in a 5-1 in Heat 11. Cory Gathercole broke well, but just failed to make the jump on Jason Lyons. Lyons clamped Gathercole to the kerb in the first bend, allowing his young team mate, Kyle Hughes, to power around the outside to lead, and that was the race in a nutshell as far as the Rebels were concerned. Gathercole has never been one to give up the chase, and to his credit he plugged away at Lyons and Newman to the death, trying every line available to him, but to no avail.
The gap was reduced by two points in Heat 12, but not before it was started three times. In the original start, Sam Masters led from the tapes, but was soon challenged by Aaron Summers out wide. With Masters also on a wide line, Summers did not have much room to manoeuvre, and just at the vital time caught some grip and lifted. The lift was enough, and with Masters on his inside, he got out of shape, caught the fence and fell heavily on the back straight. He took a while to rise to his feet, but walked back to the pits, only to have to withdraw from the meeting with a broken collarbone He was excluded from the re-run as the cause of the stoppage.
The restart only got as far as the first turn, where in a tight bend Newman went down, and stayed down. The rest of the field had almost completed the laps before Ronnie Allan put on the red lights, so it was with some surprise that he put all four back in, when it appeared that Newman had gone down on his own. Start three saw a level break, with Masters leading into the bend from the lucky Newman. James Holder threw in a challenge to Newman at the second bend, but could not find a way passed. Newman cut inside Masters at the second bend to lead, with Masters coming back to roar around the outside off the final bend of the lap. Newman kept up the pressure, and tried to sneak up the inside of the last bend of the next lap, but had the door shut in his face. With Holder not too far away, Masters cleverly tried to slow the race in the turns to allow Holder back on terms with Newman, but Holder could not make the pass despite closing the gap. In the end Masters ran out the winner, with Newman keeping up the pressure to the end. For some reason Newman took exception to Masters attempts to bring his team mate into play, and remonstrated with him on the way back to the pits. In reality he didn’t have a case, as Masters had not done anything wrong, or indeed anything that Newman would not have done himself in similar circumstances. It’s just a shame that he took that line after being involved in what was probably one of the best races of the night.
The Rebels suffered another blow to their chances of qualifying, when they conceded a 5-1 in Heat 13. A level break saw Jason Lyons lead out of the opening bend. Behind him, Steve Johnston and Christian Hefenbrock were engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle that lasted for the next two laps, before Johnston eked out the decisive advantage on the back straight of the third lap to give the Brummies the full house and set the Rebels the task of two 5-1’s in Heats 14 and 15 to force a draw.
In the event Richard Sweetman thwarted that task as he took second place in Heat 14. James Holder broke quickly, only to see Sweetman pass him to the bend and lead to the end of the lap. Shane Parker was third away, but came charging round the outside, joining Sweetman at the front on the back straight of the second lap. James Holder powered up to Sweetman only for his compatriot to shut the door and block off his run. As Parker made his way home, Holder was all over Sweetman, but on the slick track he could not find the drive if he switched off the inside line.
Heat 15 was all about damage limitation, and taking as small a deficit as possible to Perry Barr on Wednesday. The Rebels sent out two top heat winners in Masters and Parker, against the Brummies top two scorers, Lyons and Johnston. Masters broke quickly, and led from the start. It was the telling move of the race, with Masters just having to sit on the inside line to thwart any of the Brummies pair’s attempts to pass. Shane Parkers ride illustrated the point as he tried all lines to make up ground, but every time he moved into the dirt he lost ground. The shared heat brought the final score to 42-48 in the Brummies favour. That outcome has given the Rebels a mountain to climb in the second leg, especially as Birmingham have only tasted defeat once on their home shale this season, and that at the hands of the powerful Edinburgh septet.
The Rebels were under the cosh right from the outset, and no matter what they tried they could never get back on level terms. There were some positives to take from the meeting, and they came in the shapes of Sam Masters and James Holder. Holder put in a hard working performance, topped by his Heat 6 defeat of Steve Johnston. For his part Masters just gets better and better, and his enthusiasm is amazing. He is never without a smile on his face, even when he suffers a setback. His battle with the very same Steve Johnston in Heat 9 was a joy to behold. Johno must be getting heartily sick of the Rebels younger element. The meeting sponsors, ‘Mike Manning Audio’, could not decide which of the two deserved the ‘Rider of the Night’ award, so in the end they decided to give it jointly to the pair. So now it is on to Perry Barr, with the Rebels further participation in the next round of the Cup looking seriously doubtful.
Report courtesy Dave Thompson |
Rebels
Brummies
