8:20am Friday 10th July 2009
By Ned Payne
FUMING Swindon Robins chief Alun Rossiter took aim at controversial match referee Dave Watters as Lakeside Hammers proved his nemesis for the third time this season.
Injuries to star man Matej Zagar and reserve Paul Hurry severely hit Robins’ hopes of securing a 10th straight Elite League victory - but Watters’ performance also angered Rossiter on a chaotic night at Blunsdon.
Watters perplexed many at the Abbey Stadium with a harsh exclusion of Hurry in the second race of the night, when Hammers’ Jason Lyons had hit the deck behind him.
And he also tried the supporters’ patience with a series of reruns for apparent unsatisfactory starts.
Rossiter blasted: “We were racing the seven riders of Lakeside and the referee.
“I’m not making excuses - we lost it because Matej ended up out of the meeting, that’s the bottom line.
“Unfortunately the referee was being assessed and he did everything by the rulebook - no common sense prevailed.
“He was just so worried about his assessment, that he did it - bang, bang, bang.
“It was absolutely dire. You can’t do that, it’s going to cost us a lot of money.
“We got beaten fair and square because we lost Zagar but the refereeing was shocking.’’ The Essex outfit also dumped Robins out of the Knockout Cup last month, although the Robins could at least console themselves with the thought that they remained top of the league after nearest rivals Wolverhampton Wolves failed to take any points from their visit to new-look Ipswich.
Robins skipper Leigh Adams opened the night with his customary panache and was only just over half a second behind his 2007 lap record, but Fisher’s bike problems saw the points shared.
Fellow reserve Paul Hurry, fit following a back problem, then had a bad start to his evening when he was harshly excluded after coming together with Lyons midway through lap one.
Lyons - whose bike had got caught up with Hurry’s - then got up to win the rerun from Fisher.
Simon Stead and Travis McGowan made sluggish starts in three and though Stead made a valiant comeback on the final lap, ex-Blunsdon man Jonas Davidsson held him off on the line as in-form Hammers skipper Adam Shields took victory for a 12-6 lead.
Robins returned the 5-1 favour in the next as they profited from the exclusion of Joonas Kylmakorpi, Fisher leading in Matej Zagar for the maximum.
Another maximum from Fisher and Adams resulted in the hosts taking the lead for the first time.
Just as if it looked as if the evening was beginning to get into a rhythm, carnage ensued.
First Zagar, Shields and Davidsson went down in a heap on the first corner, and then in the re-run Zagar crashed spectacularly and Hurry could not avoid him, resulting in the exclusion of the Slovenian.
In the re-run Hurry was pipped for second on the line by Davidsson after a thrilling battle, with Shields out in front.
Lyons then continued his excellent night as he led in the battling Stead in yet another re-run, to give the visitors a 26-22 advantage.
Stead roared past Kylmakorpi to bring Robins within two points of their opponents in eight before Adams roared past Shields, with McGowan third, to even matters at 30-30.
But the hosts as a clearly-injured Zagar retired from 11 because of a back injury he sustained in his earlier fall.
Hurry, who had suffered a recurrence of his own injury, was unable to contain Richardson and Nieminen and Lakeside had opened up a four-point lead with four races to go.
Stead and Fisher shared the points with Shields and Morris, Shields producing a brilliant manoeuvre at the end of the first lap to pass both Robins riders.
And when Zagar did not make the start for race 13 the writing was on the wall for Alun Rossiter’s team, and Richardson beating Adams to inflict further damage.
Robins needed a maximum from 14 if they were to take victory overall, but were denied when Watters called back the fast-starting McGowan and Fisher for the eighth rerun of the night.
The pair roared clear again but as Fisher tried to keep Davidsson and Lyons at bay, he lost control on the final bend of lap two, allowing the two visitors through.
McGowan was a comfortable winner but Hurry’s slip meant the hosts were six points down going into the final face-off.
Adams delivered his third win of the night and Stead finished third, as Robins ended four points down on the jubilant visitors.
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