Newcastle 49, IOW 45

May 21 2007 By Andrew Dalby, The Journal

All seven of the Warburtons Diamonds played important roles in last night's Premier League victory at home to Isle of Wight despite some low figures in the middle order of their scorecard, writes Andrew Dalby.

Ross Brady clinched the match by winning heat 14 despite a back injury that had forced him out of Saturday's 53-40 defeat at Mildenhall after only one ride and had meant an extra trip home to Edinburgh to see his favourite chiropractor yesterday morning.

Carl Wilkinson had a terrible evening mechanically but he lent his spare bike to Ashley Johnson who had blown two engines during Saturday's action and it helped the youngster towards his best ever tally at this level. While Sean Stoddart was well ahead in heat two, Johnson battled hard to hang on to second place against Islanders reserve Andrew Bargh to give the Diamonds an early 8-4 lead.

But he claimed a bigger scalp with his third place in heat seven when making the most of Polish rider Krzysztof Stojanowski's mistake with just a lap to go.

Stoddart hit double figures for the second time this season, supporting Josef Franc for a vital 5-1 in heat nine that stretched the home side's advantage to 31-23.

That gave them some breathing space as they knew Isle of Wight's star attraction Chris Holder would be appearing in three of the last five races.

Jonas Raun recovered from crashing along with the visitors' Cory Gathercole at the first bend of the original version of heat 11, refusing the medical staff's offer of a neck brace or a stretcher. Instead, he became the runner up to Holder in the re-run and another tumble for Gathercole promoted Johnson into third spot to keep Newcastle's eight point margin at 37-29. Franc picked up his second win in heat 12 before skipper Christian Henry produced an even more vital success in heat 13.

Henry had been Saturday's top scorer with 14 points, including a tactical victory, and this time he faced Holder's tactical ride for double points.

Holder had won their previous clash but Henry gained revenge with a superb start off the inside gate on his way to being the only Diamond all night to beat his fellow Australian.

Newcastle co-promoter and manager George English said: "In an ideal world, we should have won far more comfortably but given all the aches and pains and engine problems, it was still a good effort to defeat one of the stronger sides in the league.

"We were hoping for a better score as well at Mildenhall but it was almost impossible to overtake around their tiny track and we didn't make enough good starts to keep that match closer."

Berwick Bandits Premier League meeting against Edinburgh Monarchs on Saturday was postponed with the Shieldfield Park track waterlogged after heavy rain.