Post by bottesfordbullets on Jul 12, 2015 9:03:00 GMT
The second challenge meeting of the week at the Bullet Arena was a thrilling encounter with the Rowley Raptors, with the hosts coming back from 6 points down after 12 heats to take a two point lead into heat 15.
The West Midlands outfit though, led by Micky Zane and Riku Uljas, secured a deserved 4-2 to take a share of the spoils to close out on 45-45.
What will have pleased the Bottesford management and promotion was the ability to get back into a meeting so late in proceedings.
Team manager Paul Duff re-enforced this in his post match summary "Rowley came here with a good reputation and, in fairness ran us very hard and were within touching distance of an away win, what pleased me today was our tenacity and will to win at the death. young Lewie had another fine home meeting, again he and Hamish provided the depth needed in support of our top 3. However equally pleasing was the match saving 2nd place from our other reserve Luke Patryk in Heat 14, he showed real maturity to follow Hamish home for the 5-1 we needed to set up a last heat decider, I actually feel a little disappointed not to have won the home leg after nosing ahead but the boys have had an excellent few days and I'm very optimistic about the season to follow!"
Bottesford scorers :- 9/7/15 home to Rowley
Zoltan Stepukhin 10+1 (5 rides)
Mike Cartwright 10+1 (5)
Martin Greer 9 (4)
Lewie Carr 7+2 (4)
Hamish Hamilton 4 (4)
Will Stone 3+1 (4)
Luke Patryk 2+1 (4)
If Duff was happy with the home win, then he was highly delighted with the away leg victory the following evening. In a see-saw meeting to whet everyone's appetites for the coming campaign, the hosts squandered a ten point lead in the first 8 heats, before the Lincolnshire outfit triumphed with an awe inspiring last heat 5-1 to secure the 46-44 away win and the aggregate win by the same margin (91-89).
The meeting got off to the worst possible start as Rowley raced to a home 5-1 over Zoltan Stepukhin and Will Stone, that was quickly reversed by the the Bullets' exciting young reserve pairing of Luke Patryk and Lewie Carr who returned the favour in the juniors race to level the scores at 6 all.
Stepukhin though showed all his class as he recovered from the first heat to take 11 points from his next 4 rides to spearhead the victory, his only point dropped after the first race was to the vastly experienced home Raptor Gary Turner.
A Micky Zane/Peter Taylor inspired home maximum in Heat 6 saw the ten point gap open and Bottesford looked to be staring down the barrel of a big loss.
Hamish Hamilton, who scored a season's best paid 12 points for the Bullets, said "We got into a huddle after six races and Zoltan and Carts (team captain Mark Cartwright) told us to stick at it, we weren't quite making starts, but the youngsters were on the pace, we seem to have a big pool of self belief here at Bottesford, I'm loving my time here. We just seemed to dial in after that and took it to them."
To be fair a fall in Heat 10, whilst leading for Zane gifted Cartwright and Hamilton a 5-1 to set up a grand finale, before consecutive 4-2's in Heats 12 and 13 reduced the gap to 3 points. Hamilton popped out and won the penultimate shared heat 14, before following team-mate Stepulkhin home in the nominated race for a massive 5-1 to steal the win on the night and over the two legs.
If luck was on the side of the Lincolnshire septet, Duff was quick to point out some facts, "We won the difficult second half of the meeting 27-15, which , away from home is a fantastic achievement. Of course Micky Zane was a faller in his third ride, but Zoltan did him all ends up in Heat 13 to set us up for a grandstand finish. Rowley have a formidable top 5 at home, ours was a real team effort with everyone contributing, young Will Stone is a little down this week but I have every faith in him, he's only 17 and has a bright future, he'll soon be amongst the points and we'll stand by him. I told him to enjoy the wins this week, he's very much a part of our set up going forward."
Bottesford scorers at the West Midlands Arena were as follows :-
Zoltan Stepukhin 12 from 5 rides
Hamish Hamilton 9+3 (5)
Mike Cartwright 8 (4)
Martin Greer 7 (4)
Lewie Carr 4+1 (4)
Luke Patryk 4 (4)
Will Stone 2+2 (4)