Aces Ride Away With First Leg Advantage

Belle Vue go into Thursday's Premiership Play-off Grand Final second leg knowing that they must defend a 12-point lead if they are to bring the Premier League title back to Manchester for the first time in 29 years.

But it’s a battered and bruised, depleted Aces team who make the trip across the Pennines to face Sheffield tonight (Thursday) after an incident packed meeting saw the home side reduced to just 5 riders in the 51-39 victory in Monday’s first leg at the National Speedway Stadium.

Belle Vue lost Jye Etheridge as early as heat 4 when he collided with the Sheffield riders in a messy start that saw the young Australian struggling to get off the bike before being flung heavily into the first bend airfence.

Though he eventually got to his feet, it was a clearly battered and dazed Etheridge who walked back to the pits to be ruled out of the meeting by the medics.

More misfortune befell the Aces in heat 5.  Matej Zagar and Charles Wright led coming off the second turn, before Jack Holder came powering up the inside of Wright, putting the Belle Vue man into the fence in a high-speed collision on the back straight.

Incredibly Wright was able to take his place in the re-run, swooping around the outside of Lewis Kerr to join Zagar in a 5-1 maximum.

But worse was to follow for Wright in heat 9, as the ever-trying Stockport-based rider gave chase to Sheffield top-scorer Tobias Musielak and hit the fourth-bend fence hard in a spectacular crash, which also saw him withdrawn from the meeting.

Sheffield were quicker away from the starts in the early stages, with Brady Kurtz and Tom Brennan having to come from behind for a share of the opening heat, and Norick Blödorn coming from the back to win heat 2 in another 3-3 shared race.

The Zagar and Wright pairing opened a 6-point lead with advantages in heats 3 and 5, only for the visitors to pull two points back in heat 6.

Busy Blödorn was forced to take a full quota of 7 rides as he covered for injured teammate Etheridge, and he claimed vital third places in 4-2 advantages behind the flawless Robert Lambert in heat 7, and Tom Brennan in the eighth race.

Though Kurtz and Brennan took a 5-1 in heat 10, Sheffield pegged the five-man Aces back again to an 8-point lead when Adam Ellis defeated Zagar in heat 12.

With both Wright and Etheridge ruled out of the meeting, the hard-working Blödorn was Belle Vue’s sole representative in the penultimate heat, and though he threw everything at the visiting pair, he conceded a 5-1 reversal.

Lambert and Kurtz gave the Aces hope for the second leg by taking brilliant 5-1 wins in heats 13 and 15, the former completing his second successive perfect 15-point maximum score since joining the side as a replacement for injured No.1 Max Fricke.

Speaking after the meeting, skipper Brady Kurtz said “Twelve points up with only 5 riders, we have to be pleased.  Everyone chipped in when we needed them to, and it all comes down to Thursday now, and that’s all that matters.”

Aces scorers:   Robert Lambert 15, Brady Kurtz 10+3, Matej Zagar 10, Tom Brennan 7+1, Norick Blödorn 6, Charles Wright 3+1, Jye Etheride 0.

Picture by Ian Charles