RAIDERS UNABLE TO STEM TIDE
Wednesday September 21, 2016
Captain Luke Priest had labelled this match beforehand as the toughest of his side’s three remaining away fixtures in the Travel Plus National League, and so it proved as the BMR Raiders went down 55-35 at King’s Lynn on Wednesday.

The start of the meeting was delayed to enable remedial track work due to high tides in the area causing the water table to rise. Once it did commence, victories for Macauley Leek and Rob Branford ensured that the Raiders were in contention at 17-13 after the first third of the meeting, only for the hosts to turn the screw in the next segment with three 5-1s and a 4-2 from that stanza of five races.

Two further wins by Branford in the closing stages helped to steady the ship, and indeed the 22 year old finished top of the Raiders’ pile on 13 points, with Priest offering the main support with 9 and Connor Locke adding paid 6. The Raiders operated Rider-Replacement for Ben Morley who was committed to action in the Elite League play-offs.

Rye House Team Manager Peter Schroeck commented afterwards that “We are not going to allow ourselves to get too disappointed over this one because King’s Lynn are pretty strong at home and make this a fairly tough place to come to.

“Even Branny (Rob Branford) struggled a bit with the track tonight as they had to pull all the dirt off because the tide was in, although it was obviously the same for both sides.

“We’ve enjoyed a really good run recently, and we won’t let one match get us down.”

Looking ahead to the Raiders’ penultimate trip in 2016, which takes them to Coventry in two nights’ time, Schroeck continued, “We’ve got a much better chance of getting something out of Friday’s meeting. The Storm have been vulnerable at home this season (losing seven times in nine matches), so we know what the opportunity is.

“We will also have Ben (Morley) back, which will be a boost, and we won’t need to remind ourselves of what happened the LAST time we were at Brandon, when we went home with the Fours Championship trophy.”

BMR Raiders:

Robert Branford 13, Luke Priest 9, Connor Locke 5+1, George Hunter 4+1, Macauley Leek 4+1, Matt Saul 0, Ben Morley R/R

King’s Lynn:

Nathan Greaves 14+2, Jon Armstrong (guest) 14, Scott Campos 12+1, Ryan Kinsley 9+4, Taylor Hampshire 5, Lewis Whitmore 1+1, Tom Stokes R/R

Match Points: King’s Lynn 3 Rye House 0