No-show guest hammered as winning run ends

Panthers rider Chris Harris top scored for GB in the World Cup Final. Panthers team boss Carl Johnson has blasted a noshow guest after his side’s winning run came to an end. The city side were beaten 5141 at Glasgow last Saturday when forced to operate with rider replacement at the top of the order.

Johnson enlisted the services of Redcar racer Ben Barker for the trip to Scotland with Chris Harris away on World Cup final duty with GB.

Barker then dropped out due to illness on the morning of the meeting, leaving Panthers bosses unable to hire another suitable guest at such short notice.

But Barker was spotted in attendance at a National League meeting at Stoke on Saturday night - even taking to the track for practice laps.

Johnson blasted: “Ben has shown a total disregard for the sport and the paying public.

“He has let us down bigtime and he can rest assured that he will never be offered another guest booking or team place while I’m involved at Panthers.

“People get poorly, but if someone is well enough to go to a meeting, be interviewed on the centre green and practice, they are able to race.

“Ben agreed to take the guest booking and I feel he has withheld his services. In my view he should be punished.

“I sent Ben a message to let him know my feelings .”

Johnson will be able to approach Barker in person on Sunday when Redcar visit the East of England Arena (5pm).

That is the first of three clashes between the two sides in a week. The Bears are back at Alwalton the following Sunday (July 23) with a clash in the North-East in between on Thursday, July 20.

The meetings continue to come thick and fast for the city club with three outings in as many days this week.

They entertain Sheffield tomorrow (Friday, 7.30pm), then go to Workington on Saturday, before hosting Redcar.

Johnson added: “A few weeks ago we were 15 points off the play-offs and we have now got that gap down by more than half, but we need to pick up results on all three nights this week.

“We owe Sheffield one after they won at our place last month, but we know we’re in for another tough meeting and they have booked James Shanes to guest at reserve again.

“Workington is a place that suits most of our guys and we’ll go there with the aim of getting something, and we need to make sure we follow up the away win at Redcar by beating them at home.”

Panthers are without Bradley Wilson-Dean on Friday and Chris Harris on Saturday due to SGB Premiership fixture clashes. Kevin Doolan of Berwick steps in for Wilson-Dean against Sheffield with Michael Palm Toft replacing Harris at Workington.

*Harris top-scored for GB in the World Cup final, but his haul of seven points was not enough to prevent the national side from finishing last. Hosts Poland won the event. Panthers issued a statement of play-off intent – by slamming a team currently occupying a top-four spot.

The city racers roared to their biggest away success of 2017 despite being without their number one and their skipper.

Chris Harris was with Great Britain, while captain Ulrich Ostergaard was a midday drop-out with a sickness bug.

But stand-in skipper Paul Starke and Harris’ guest replacement, Richie Worrall, led the way with hefty hauls of points.

Jack Holder was only defeated Paul Starke was in great form at Redcar. once in four races and only a crash prevented Bradley Wilson-Dean from joining the aforementioned trio in double figures.

Panthers took command with four advantages in the opening five races to open up a 12-point advantage, and their grip on the contest tightened when two Redcar riders withdrew following a heat seven spill.

Charles Wright (who was briefly knocked unconscious) and Danny Ayres (who was excluded and left nursing arm damage) took no further part after an incident when the former was taking a tactical ride.

Jonas B. Andersen then went in pursuit of doublepoints for the hosts in the re-run, but he was beaten by Starke with reserve Liam Carr, who contributed a fine seven points in his first away meeting for the club, collecting an unchallenged third place to secure a 4-4.

Redcar did rally with a couple of 4-2s to reduce their arrears to eight points, but Panthers soon kicked on again to finish the job.