Newport v Edinburgh - Premier League

Newport 'Darlows' Wasps v Edinburgh 'Scotwaste' Monarchs
Premier League
Sunday July 4th at 2.30pm
Meeting no. 22

Waspland Whisperings

The Wasps return to action this afternoon for their first home match in a while.  Still it was a pleasant memory of that last home encounter and win against the Berwick Bandits coming off the back of an away victory at Scunthorpe.  The boys have gone from one extreme to the other as today will be their third match in three days.  They were up at Edinburgh on Friday evening and returned here via Berwick last night.  Jason will update you on their progress.  The concentration of fixtures has worked out well for ourselves and our temporary signing Robin Aspegren for it gives us a good opportunity to look at him with regard to future team planning while he is kept busy from the off.  Robin is a 21 year old Swede and has worked is way up through the leagues in his native country to now ride for Vetlanda in the Swedish Elite League.  He is covering for Anders Mellgren who has undergone surgery after breaking a collarbone back home in Sweden.  

Today we also welcome the great Barry Briggs to Queensway Meadows.  There is a resume of his long and remarkable career on page 12 of this programme.  These days a remarkably fit 75 year old Briggo has been on a national mortorcycle tour of British speedway tracks since March collecting money for both Sport Relief and 12 paralysed ex speedway riders.  He will also have relevant merchandising for the cause on sale today plus copies of his autobiography will be available and Barry will be available to sign those.

Talking of which Ivan Mauger will be the next speedway legend to visit us and that is next Sunday for the Welsh Open Championship.  Ivan will have launched his new book the previous day at Cardiff.

Quite a weekend of speedway here in South Wales.  The Hornets take on Weymouth in the Cup on Friday evening at 7pm then its the British Grand Prix at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday then back here at 1pm for a 16 rider - 21 heat speedway spectacular.  That's to come but first the Wasps must attempt to dethrone those Monarchs.  So on with the racing! Steve.

PS Newport Speedway would like to thank the Waterloo Hotel of Alexandra Road, Pill for their kindly providing accommodation for Barry Briggs and his entourage in support of his charity ride.

Newport Wasps v Edinburgh Monarchs
Premier League
Track Record: Andrew Tully 12/07/09 57.74

Newport 33
Leigh Lanham (c) (7.66) 1, 2', 2' = 5+2
Robin Aspegren (7.00*) Fx, 3, 3, 3 = 9
Craig Watson (6.41) 0, 2, 1, 0 = 3
Kyle Legault (6.12) 3, 1', 2' = 6+2
Kim Nilsson (6.27) 1', 3, 0 = 4+1
Alex Davies (5.00*) 2, 0, 1 = 3
Todd Kurtz (3.20) 0, 2, 0, 1 = 3

Edinburgh 39
Ryan Fisher (9.14) 2', 2, 3, 2' = 9+2
Tobias Busch (7.00*) 3, Ex, 2, 3, 2' = 10+1
Kevin Wolbert (8.18) Rider Replacement
Matthew Wethers (7.00) 1', 2, 1 = 4+1
Andrew Tully (7.31) 0, 1, 3, 0 = 4
Cal McDade (3.00) 1, 0, 0 = 1
Kalle Katajisto (6.89) 3, 3, 1', 2', 3 = 11+2

Heat 1: 59.06 Busch, Fisher, Lanham (15m),Aspegren (1-5) 1-5
Heat 2: 59.10 Katajisto, Davies, Kurtz, McDade (2-4) 3-9
Heat 3: 60.65 Legault, Fisher (r/r), Wethers, Watson (15m) (3-3) 6-12
Heat 4: 62.03 Katajisto, Kurtz, Nilsson, Tully (3-3) 9-15
Heat 5: 60.77 Fisher, Watson, Legault, Busch (Fx) (3-3) 12-18
Heat 6: 60.91 Aspegren, Lanham, Tully, McDade (5-1) 17-19
Heat 7: 60.35 Nilsson, Wethers, Katajisto (r/r), Davies (3-3) 20-22
Heat 8: 61.36 Aspegren, Busch, Katajisto, Kurtz (3-3) 23-25
Heat 9: 62.81 Tully, Legault, Watson, McDade (3-3) 26-28
Heat 10: 61.09 Aspegren, Lanham, Wethers, Tully (r/r) (5-1) 31-29
Heat 11: 63.65 Busch, Fisher, Davies, Nilsson (1-5) 32-34
Heat 12: 64.40 Katajisto, Busch (r/r), Kurtz, Watson (1-5) 33-39

Meeting abandoned