Rye House 52 Sheffield 38

White hot reserve Jason Garrity proved the difference maker as the Silver Ski Rockets got their Premier League programme off to the perfect start with a 52-38 home victory over a plucky Sheffield.

The British U-21 Bronze winner dropped just one point in a six ride master class as he romped to paid 17 to complete a three rider Rye spearhead with Edward Kennett (14) and Steve Boxall (11+1).

If the final margin of victory looked comfortable enough, however, it was anything but that on-track. A tense and tight opening to the meeting brought shared results in each of the first six races, and it was actually the Tigers who then edged in front with a 4-2 in Heat 7 as Garrity was beaten for the only time, by Andre Compton. The 20 year old re-appeared in Heat 8 to rescue a 3-3 after Luke Bowen had been excluded after high-siding himself in his battle for second spot against Josh Bates. From Bowen’s landing, there were obvious concerns over a possible collarbone injury, but the Testimonial star fortunately emerged unscathed from his tumble.

Trailing 35-23, the Rockets finally got their gating boots on to power past the visitors in the second half of the match. Jason Bunyan and Steve Boxall zipped to a 5-1 over Ty Procter in Heat 9 to give the Rockets the lead, then Edward Kennett and Garrity prescribed the same medicine in the next race to quickly build the safety net to 33-27.

Another maximum looked briefly on the cards in Heat 11, only for Mathieu Tresarrieu to fall while being passed by Simon Stead in a battle for second place. The Frenchman re-mounted to finish third, with partner Garrity taking the win.

The two sides then traded 4-2s to leave Rye 8 points to the good, before Boxall and Garrity withstood heavy pressure from Compton to set the seal on both the overall victory and all three match points with a 5-1 in Heat 14. Kennett rounded the fixture off by taking Heat 15 – his second win over Stead enacting revenge for an opening race defeat in a time just 0.9 sec outside of the track record – with Boxall’s third place over Compton giving Rye their ultimate 14 point margin.

While Garrity did not feature in that final race, he featured just about everywhere else, and was clearly delighted to maintain his recent rich vein of form. “My equipment is now back to where it was last year, and I’ve also got all my confidence back. It feels so good again every time I get on a bike.

“But it was a real team effort that got us home tonight. Everyone was battling for every point, and it finally came good in the second half of the meeting. We just got our heads down and got the starts we needed.

“Now we just need to keep it going to build up a run.”

Rye House: Jason Garrity 15+2 (6 rides), Edward Kennett 14 (5), Steve Boxall 11+1 (5), Jason Bunyan 6+1 (4), Mathieu Tresarrieu 5 (4), Luke Bowen 1+1 (3), Simon Lambert 0 (3)

Sheffield: Simon Stead 11(5 rides), Andre Compton 7 (5), Leigh Lanham 5 (4), Josh Bates 4+2 (4), Simon Nielsen 4+1 (4), Ty Proctor 4+1 (4), Taylor Poole 3+1 (4)

Match Points: Rye House 3 Sheffield 0

The Raiders made it a Rye House one-two over Sheffield on Saturday by beating their Tiger Cubs counterparts 20-15 for their first win of their Midland Development League season. A 5-1 from Danny Ayres and Rob Watts in Heat 5-1 made sure of the points, with Ayres thereby also making amends for a last lap fall in Heat 3 when also for a maximum result with Danno Verge.

Rye House: Danno Verge 6+1 (3 rides), Niall Strudwick 6+1 (3), Rob Watts 5+1 (3), Danny Ayres 3 (3)

Sheffield: Adam Kirby 9 (3 rides, maximum), Ben Holloway 4 (3), Ben Hewitt 2+1 (3), Dan Miles 0 (2)