No joy for Rockets in pairs finals
THE Silver Ski Rockets failed to make an impression at this year's Pairs Championship.Linus Sundstrom and Rye House captain Chris Neath conceded two 6-3s and two 7-2s in their four outings under the 4-3-2-0 scoring system employed for this event.
THE Silver Ski Rockets failed to make an impression at this year's Pairs Championship.
Linus Sundstrom and Rye House captain Chris Neath conceded two 6-3s and two 7-2s in their four outings under the 4-3-2-0 scoring system employed for this event. On a Somerset circuit that lacked its normal high quota of passes and competitive racing lines, Swede Sundstrom managed two second places but Neath failed to disturb the scorers as the Rockets propped up their round-robin group with 10 points, three adrift of next team Berwick.
It was also a long night for Sunday's visitors to Hoddesdon, Glasgow, whose hopes effectively evaporated when Shane Parker sustained a painful blow to his back in the Tigers' first heat.
That necessitated a trip to hospital for further evaluation and the use of meeting reserve Tom Brown for the rest of the meeting.
Defending champions Workington and King's Lynn topped the two qualifying groups to lead the charge into the semi-finals, but were then promptly eliminated by hosts Somerset and Birmingham, respectively.
The Comets were on the wrong end of a 7-2 against the Rebels, while the Stars' involvement effectively ended when Darcy Ward was excluded for bringing down the Brummies' Jason Lyons in the first attempt at that race.
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Tomasz Piszcz claimed the re-run, chased home by Tomas Topinka and with Lyons third as the Midlanders took a 6-3 to advance to the decider.
There they upset home pair Steve Johnston and Emil Kramer with another 6-3 to clinch the first ever pairs title for the Birmingham club in the competition's 34 year history.
King's Lynn and Workington shared third place as curfew restrictions at the Oak Tree Arena prevented a run-off for that position.
Group 1:
King's Lynn 24 (Tomas Topinka 14, Darcy Ward 10+2)
Somerset 23 (Steve Johnston 12+2, Emil Kramer 11+1)
Scunthorpe 20 (Magnus Karlsson 11+2, David Howe 9)
Berwick 13 (Josef Franc 7, Michal Makovsky 6)
Rye House 10 (Linus Sundstrom 10, Chris Neath 0)
Group 2:
Workington 27 (Adrian Rymel 14+2, Kevin Doolan 13+1)
Birmingham 19 (Jason Lyons 12+1, Tomasz Piszcz 7+1)
Edinburgh 17 (Andrew Tully 9+1, Ryan Fisher 8)
Redcar 16 (Gary Havelock 10+1, Ty Proctor 6+1)
Glasgow 11 (James Grieves 7, Shane Parker 0, Tom Brown (res) 4)
Semi-Finals: Birmingham 6 King's Lynn 3 (Piszcz, Topinka, Lyons, Ward (ex); Somerset 7 Workington 2 (Johnston, Kramer, Doolan, Rymel)
Final: Birmingham 6 Somerset 3 (Lyons, Johnston, Piszcz, Kramer)
