First away success for the Academy

There was a dramatic conclusion to the Stellar Academy match at Redcar against the Middlesbrough Tigers, with the Academy moving up to fourth place in the league by grabbing a 46-44 victory.

A delighted team manager Scott Wilson was full of praise for his team's efforts. ""I think this is the result we've deserved all season. We got one or two breaks during the meeting but I do feel that we deserved to win.

"We started well and built up a good lead, but we knew Middlesbrough would come back at us, which they did. We looked to have it all sewn up in heat 15 and then things got a bit more dramatic with a coming together and an exclusion for Dayle. Fortunately we got over the line in the rerun.

"Kyran Lyden gave his best performance for some time. If I could convince him we were racing Middlesbrough every meeting what a rider he'd be! It's a great feeling to get an away win and it jumps us up the table, which is a nice bonus for the lads as we come to the end of the season."

It was a win that the Academy had looked capable of getting for much of the night as they were solid enough to avoid last places, only one of those in the first 8 races. That meant that the couple of 4-2s and a heat 8 5-1 were enough to give the Academy a handy 21-27 advantage at that stage.

Dayle Wood and Freddy Hodder were the first two race winners and excellent guest Jacob Clouting combined with star reserve Kyran Lyden for that heat 8 success. Kyran gave one of his best performances throughout the match on the track which is closest to his home.

Middlesbrough did fight back over the second half of the match with former Armadale rider Danny Phillips winning a couple of races (heats 9 and 12) which both finished as home 4-2s. Thet left the score at 35-37 with three heats left, and given that both Jake Mulford and Ben Trigger were unbeaten it did seem the Academy would be hard pushed to finish the job.

Then came the shock announcement that Mulford was to be replaced in heat 13 by William Hocaniuk, a promising but very raw reserve. It appears that Mulford was feeling unwell. While Trigger won the heat, Hocaniuk came down while battling with Max Perry and the Academy stayed ahead.

Dayle Wood got his second race win in heat 14, and Kyran added the point, meaning that Middlesbrough needed a last race 5-1 to force a superheat. With Mulford again missing (though not officially withdrawing from the meeting) there seemed little chance of that as Wood battled with Trigger up front, and Clouting lying third.

However Dayle tried too hard to hold off Trigger and fell on the pits corner! Ref Breckon quite rightly ordered a rerun, and in this Danny Phillips was backing up Trigger ahead of Couting – until suddenly he slowed up with a puncture!

So that was it, a win is a win even with a little bit of good fortune and a reward for the hard work they did throughout the match. Now to take on the Champions.