Don’t write us off just yet, says Bears boss
DON’T write us off yet is the message emanating from the Media Prima Arena despite Redcar’s ambitions to secure a league and cup double seemingly being devastated by injuries as they enter the closing stages of the season.
The Agilia Bears finished a highest-ever third in the Championship table and have been selected by league leaders Leicester as semifinal opponents, with the first leg at the South Tees Motorsports Park venue on Friday, September 27, and the return in the East Midlands the following evening.
But two big crashes last weekend left the Teessiders without Danish heat-leader Michael Palm Toft for the rest of the campaign – and with both reserves Nathan Greaves and Tom Woolley likely to be ruled out of at least the two-legged final eliminator.
Rather than mope over the club’s misfortune, promoter Jitendra Duffill is determined to turn the negatives into positives and is industriously working, within the sport’s complex rules on replacements, to come up with a team to present a strong challenge to the division’s long-time pacemakers.
Fast-rising American Broc Nicol, who has been making people sit up and watch at Sheffield this season, has already been booked to stand in for Greaves in both matches against the Lions, while Duffill has confirmed that no fewer than three quality number ones from elsewhere have approached him offering their services in place of the unfortunate Palm Toft, who remains under observation in a Newcastle hospital after fracturing a vertebra and suffering lung complications last Sunday.
“We’re still full of confidence as I’ve managed to obtain a couple of guests who I don’t think weaken us at all,” stresses the Bears boss.
“A lot of people think that we are down and out after what happened at the weekend, but I can promise you that we don’t see it that way at all!”
Meanwhile Redcar skipper Charles Wright becomes Britain’s latest addition to the World Championship circus when he makes his Grand Prix series debut at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff this weekend.
Wright qualified to join the world’s elite by winning the British title at Belle Vue in July yet, ironically, while his success may be celebrated by Bears supporters, his presence under the roof of Welsh national stadium has ensured that any hopes the club might have had for the Championship Pairs at Somerset the night beforehand have been severely dented.
Palm Toft was the next in line to partner the league’s recently crowned Riders’ Champion Erik Riss in what still would have been a formidable twosome, but his absence means young Australian Jordan Stewart gets called up.
“Erik proved when winning the Riders’ crown that he can beat anyone, and the 4,3,2,0 scoring used in the Pairs means that we are still not writing off out chances of winning,” explained Duffill.
“Somerset’s track doesn’t ride unlike Redcar and doing well in the Pairs is as much about who comes third and about not finishing last.”
Wright, who will be taking part in Grand Prix practice on Friday, has savoured a stellar season, with his average soaring to stand third in the division’s statistics and, while acknowledging the standard of the opposition on Saturday, the 30-yearold Bears number one insists: “I’m going there to do my best and hopefully make everybody proud of me while taking as many big scalps as I can.”