Isle of Wight Warriors just miss out on winning first UK domestic speedway tournament of 2020

They travelled to Plymouth’s Coliseum Stadium for a three-team tournament also involving Eastbourne.

It took a magical pass on the final bend of the last heat from Eastbourne’s Great Britain Under 21 international Tom Brennan to pip Plymouth’s Henry Atkins and grab the crucial extra point that propelled the Sussex side to the top of the leaderboard - just a point ahead of the Warriors.

The action took place in front of a crowd limited to 400 plus those watching a live stream online.

All three teams can point to elements of bad luck with young Warrior Chad Wirtzfeld in particular encountering lots of problems.

New Warrior Tom Woolley showed some impressive gating skills and battled hard for little real reward whilst the bulk of the scoring was done by returnee Connor Coles, fast and aggressive, and No 1 Ben Morley who turned in another silky performance to top score with 13.

After the main event, the four top scorers contested a single heat ‘Dash For Cash’ where Morley took a very heavy fall on a congested first bend.

Warriors co-promoter Barry Bishop said: ‘Congratulations to Eastbourne on their win and congratulations to the Plymouth club for the massive amount of work that they have done getting their stadium covid compliant.

‘It’s been fantastic having live speedway back and I’m incredibly proud of all four Warriors as well Connor King who was guesting for the Eagles tonight.

‘Everyone put on a fine showing and as the track evolved the racing got better and better.

The sport of speedway was the real winner.’

Scores:

Eastbourne (31): Tom Brennan 10, Jake Knight 9+2, Jason Edwards 10, Connor King 2+2.

Isle of Wight (30): Ben Morley 13, Tom Woolley 4, Connor Coles 11+1, Chad Wirtzfeld 2.

Plymouth (28): Alfie Bowtell 12, Richard Andrews 4+1, Henry Atkins 11, Arran Butcher 1, Kris Andrews 0.