Hammers remain upbeat

The Lakeside Hammers will travel to Eastbourne next Monday with their heads held up and determined to make amends for an untidy second half performance in their home leg of the Elite League Play Off Semi Final that saw a 10 point lead after six heats reduced to just one point.

The Hammers Co Promoter Jon Cook commented at the end of last night’s home meeting at the Arena-Essex Raceway stating: “Eastbourne have it all to lose but we are determined to rise to the occasion and give them an uncomfortable night next week at their Arlington Stadium. They showed why they are the only team to have won at our Raceway this season when they beat us back on Good Friday and we need to take a leaf out of their book and keep last places to an absolute minimum.

“We can look at a few heats and blame misfortune for not holding a better lead or we can knuckle down and put on a real show and it’s the latter that we will do next Monday. Personally, I think the dilution of the importance of the League table giving both teams an equal chance over two legs is wrong, although I would happily have had a ten point lead to cushion us, but now it’s back to the fairer one off home leg at Eastbourne for the higher finishing team and if we do go through we will truly deserve to be in the Final”.

Click here to view last night’s scorechart

Picture: Heat 10: Cameron Woodward (yellow), Peter Ljung (blue), Lee Richardson (red) and Lewis Bridger (white) – Lakeside Hammers vs Eastbourne Eagles, Elite League Speedway play-off semi-final at the Arena Essex Raceway, Purfleet – 19/09/11 – (Rob Newell/TGSPHOTO)