Premier LeagueNewcastle Diamonds 55 Rye House Rockets 38FRUSTRATIONS continued for the Silver Ski Rockets with a 55-38 defeat at Brough Park in their penultimate travelling Premier League match on Sunday.

Premier League

Newcastle Diamonds 55 Rye House Rockets 38

FRUSTRATIONS continued for the Silver Ski Rockets with a 55-38 defeat at Brough Park in their penultimate travelling Premier League match on Sunday.

The Rockets have enjoyed away success at both Stoke (Premier Trophy) and Birmingham (Knock-Out Cup) so far this season.

However, they now have only today's trip to Redcar to avoid a winless run in the league itself.

Riding on a circuit adversely affected by earlier showers, the writing was on the wall as early as heat five.

By that time Rye had conceded two 5-1s, and at 10 points down had seen Chris Neath's tactical nomination produce only a shared 4-4.

In fact, it wasn't until heat 10 that the Rockets managed their first race win of the evening.

Joe Haines and guest Carl Wilkinson, in for broken knuckle victim Robert Mear, stole a 5-1 against Derek Sneddon and Kenni Larsen to make the score respectable at 37-26.

Haines was victorious again in heat 12, with Silver's third place ensuring a 4-2, but it was to be the visitors' last heat win of the meeting.

Newcastle closed out with two maximum advantages in the final three races - those vulnerable heats 13 and 15 - to take their winning margin to a comfortable 17 points.

Haines finished the night as the Rockets' top scorer with paid 10.

He was closely followed by Silver and Wilkinson on nine and Neath on eight.

Linus Sundstrom returned from the inactive list to score 5+1 from four outings.

The Diamonds, meanwhile, had unbeaten stars in Mark Lemon and Rene Bach, with all of their side contributing at least one paid win.

The victory lifts them up to third place in the table - what a difference to their calamitous table propping display in the Premier Trophy. While for the injury-hit Rockets it is a question of re-grouping prior to the league close-down at Redcar and the crucial Knock-Out Cup semi-final first leg at Edinburgh on Friday.