Sheffield Speedway Match Reports 2005

Sean Wilson trapped and sped to a comfortable win in heat 1 with Paul Thorp shrugging off an early challenge from Ben Wilson. Scud led heat 2 from Benji Compton with Kyle Legault chasing Chris Schramm after a terrible start. Just as Kyle went for an outside pass on the first turn of the second lap Benji came to grief just ahead of them leaving them with nowhere to go. Kyle took a nasty looking tumble with man and machine flying through the air but luckily it was the bike and not the man who came off worst and all three were able to walk back to the pits. On his second bike Kyle tried hard to get on terms with Scud but would have needed a couple more laps. Ricky and Richard took a comfortable 5-1 in heat 3, and while André won heat 4 Kyle once again trailed behind Scud. Paul Thorp went straight across Ricky's line exiting the pits turn to take the lead in heat 5 but Carl Wilkinson trailed the field.

Sean took another win in heat 6 but Ben trailed Michal Makovsky. André led heat 7 with brother Benji in second ahead of Tom Madsen. Tom tried to muscle through on the inside on the pits turn at the end of lap one but Benji stuck to his line and held the place. Tom seemed reluctant to try the wide line and again went for the inside on the pits turn but this time it all went horribly wrong. The two riders seemed to get locked together and they both hurtled straight into the safety fence with Tom flying through the air before crashing back onto the track by the finish line. Both riders received lengthy attention and two ambulances were required to remove them from the track. Both were taken to hospital, Benji strapped to a backboard complaining of internal pains with suspected pelvis injuries and Tom with suspected leg injuries. Benji's bike in particular was a complete wreck and the fence required attention while a very subdued crowd looked on.

With his brother en-route to hospital André had to come out for the rerun some 30 minutes later which he won convincingly. Ben Wilson outpaced Scud on a tactical ride to win heat 8 with Kyle following home in third in what was to become his last outing as he now withdrew under medical advice as he began to feel the after effects of his heat 2 fall. Ricky and Richard awakened interest in the bonus point with another 5-1 in heat 9, but it started to look doubtful when an underpowered Sean Wilson trailed home last in heat 10.

Sheffield could only provide one starter in heat 11 as we had lost both reserves, but André took an easy win from Paul Thorp. Ricky was left to carry the Tigers flag in heat 12 with an easy win over the visiting reserve pair. Paul Thorp was pulled back for taking a flyer in heat 13, but made a good first bend in the restart and ran out winner by a considerable margin. Four points behind on aggregate the Tigers faced a big struggle as the Bandits had a tactical option left up their sleeve and sure enough Adam Pietraszko came out wearing the black and white helmet colour. He led for the first lap with Richard Hall hot on his tail. Richard put in a lovely outside sweep around turns one and two on the second lap but just as he nosed into the lead his bike developed gremlins which relegated him to the back of the field. The resulting 1-8 effectively killed off any further chance of affecting the result so well past the curfew the match was declared. The Bandits finish as runners-up to Rye House in the League but take the bonus point from the Tigers.

Tom and Benji were both subsequently released from the Northern General Hospital after x-rays revealed no broken bones. Both were battered and bruised and have extensive abrasions but can consider themselves to be very lucky to have escaped without major injury following such an horrific looking crash.

Return to Sheffield Speedway fixtures and results
Return to Sheffield Speedway homepage