Rye House 58 Berwick 37

What a difference a day makes! Just 24 hours after absorbing a pummelling at Berwick, the Silver Ski Rockets dealt out a not dissimilar punishment to the Bandits in handing them a 58-37 mauling in the return match in Hoddesdon.

It was the Rockets’ biggest victory of the season, and a result so sorely needed in their bid to escape the wooden spoon position in this season’s Premier League.

With Edward Kennett (17) and Steve Boxall (15+1) leading the charge, Rye quickly built momentum with a comfortable 24-12 cushion that never looked likely to be disputed. Both were beaten only by Steen Jensen in separate races, with Boxall dropping his maximum hopes in the final heat of the match. A further measure of the Rockets’ ascendancy was that they restricted the visitors to just two race wins – and also prevented them from gaining an on-track heat advantage all night.

As a delighted team manager, John Sampford, confirmed afterwards, “It was a powerful performance against very strong opposition. 13 out of 15 heat wins says a lot.

“Edward and Steve were in dominant form, and Jason Garrity would have joined them with more than the paid 11 he finished with but for an exclusion for bringing down Kevin Doolan; we argued that there wasn’t contact between the two in that one.

“The rest of the side gave excellent support too. It really was a solid all-round team effort, and hopefully one that we can build on in the closing weeks of the season.”

Rye House scorers:

Edward Kennett 17 (6 rides), Steve Boxall 15+1 (6), Jason Garrity 10+1 (5), Jason Bunyan 6+1 (4), Ritchie Hawkins (guest) 6+1 (5), Oliver Greenwood 4+2 (4), Anders Mellgren R/R

Berwick scorers:

Kevin Doolan 11+1 (6 rides, inc 4 as a TR), Claus Vissing 8 (4 rides, inc 6 as a TR), Steen Jensen 7+1 (6), Matej Kus 6 (6), Alex Edberg 3+1 (5), David Bellego 2+1 (5), Matthew Wethers R/R

The Rye House Raiders made it a double success story for the club on Sunday as they picked up a 22-14 victory over Castleford in the Midland Development League fixture that followed the Premier League action. It was the Raiders’ second success of the weekend, following on from an away win by an identical score-line at Coventry on Friday, and sets the scene for a huge head-to-head against Milton Keynes at Ipswich this Saturday in the race for a place in the Championship Final.

“But those were really the only pluses tonight.”