Robson stars on a dull night for Diamonds
NEWCASTLE skipper Stuart Robson flies the flag for the BTS Diamonds in the SGB Championship league’s big individual meeting at Sheffield tomorrow featuring the top racer from every club.
It is a repeat scenario for Sunderland-born 41-year-old Robson, who notched 12 points in the same event last year - reaching the semi-final race before being eliminated.
The 2017 meeting was staged at Glasgow, where Robson led the depleted Diamonds in a Championship match last night against a Tigers’ team hell-bent on reaching the play-offs.
Tero Aarnio was missing from the Newcastle side following his horrible crash at Redcar the night before when the Diamonds went down 52-38.
His races, shared out among his eligible colleagues last night, produced a paltry two points.
The Tigers ripped into the Tynesiders from the very start and with two 5-1s and two 4-2s in the first four races gave a strong indication of where the three league points were going.
Newcastle’s first winner was Matthew Wethers in the eighth race and the Diamonds’ reserve fully deserved the success as he and Robson were the only two visitors to pose a threat to the rampant home side throughout a one-sided affair.
Robson splendidly won back-toback races in the eleventh and twelfth and, with Wethers and then Matej Kus bagging third places, the Diamonds notched their only two heat advantages.
The match by then was well out of Newcastle’s reach.
It ended the way it started with a Glasgow 5-1, the Tigers’ sixth of the night, by past and present Grand Prix stars maximum man Craig Cook and Chris Harris to clinch a 58-32 victory.