Scotland 52: England Under-21 38
Third Test
Lothian Arena, Armadale
Friday 17th September 1999
Scotland toiled at Armadale on their way to an unimpressive win over a weak England Under-21 side. The English youngsters adapted far better to the treacherous track conditions than the Scottish track specialists. The four Monarchs in the Scottish team were riding as they had their minds on other things, probably two cup finals in the next week! With David Meldrum struggling and Barry Campbell riding as if he had never seen Armadale before, Scotland were in deep trouble early on. Kevin Little and Ross Brady steadied things with a couple of 5-1s to edge Scotland ahead. Although the English fought back, successive maximums in heat 12 and 13 secured the Test.
In reality, Scotland should have beaten the English youngsters out of sight. The visitors consisted of six Premier League second strings or reserves in the absence of captain David Howe. None of the team had much of an Armadale pedigree. By contrast the Scots had three Premier League heat leaders and six were noted Armadale specialists.
Scotland had two changes from the previous Test, with James Grieves returning after injury in place of crocked Stewart McDonald. The late change saw Mick Powell introduced in place of broken arm victim, Scott Lamb. The English team used rider replacement for Howe and had Chris Neath making his debut.
While the evening was track the track really suffered from the weather. It rained up to ten in the morning and suffered a monsoon type downpour at three in the afternoon with hailstones bouncing off the track. This left the surface slick and greasy causing trouble for all riders especially the Scots. This was reflected in the really slow race times with only two heats below 60 seconds.
Kevin Little, captain in place of Scott Lamb managed to lose the toss as he has done for Edinburgh all season. England opted for position B using gates 1 and 3 for the first heat.
Heat 1: Simon Stead, Paul Lee, Mick Powell, David Meldrum [60.3]
Stead and Lee swept ahead from the gates as Meldrum fell and restarted. Mick Powell having missed the start set off after Lee and appeared to have passed him when he ran wide and got into trouble.
(1-5) (1-5)
Heat 2: Oliver Allen, Blair Scott, Barry Campbell [61.9]
Barry Campbell was first away but slithered on the first bend and fell on the third bend. He restarted only for the race to be stopped when Simon Cartwright fell on the entry to the second bend. In the rerun, Oliver Allen stormed ahead from the tapes and had little difficulty holding off Blair Scott.
(3-3) (4-8)
Heat 3: Kevin Little, Ross Brady, Grant MacDonald, Chris Neath [62.1]
Kevin Little gated ahead of Grant MacDonald and Ross Brady. It produced a terrific battle for second place with MacDonald holding the inside line and Brady the outside. MacDonald seemed to be winning out until Kevin Little dropped back and helped Brady out by blocking McDonald’s inside line and allowing Brady to pass on the outside near the end.
(5-1) (9-9)
Heat 4: James Grieves, Oliver Allen, Blair Scott, Simon Cartwright [62.4]
James Grieves had few problems in winning but Blair Scott was again beaten by rider replacement Oliver Allen.
(4-2) (13-11)
Heat 5: Simon Stead, Kevin Little, Paul Lee [60.1]
Kevin Little was first away with the Sheffield pairing just behind and Ross Brady trying to get past. Little appeared to try and repeat the successful team riding of heat 3. He slowed things down to give Brady a chance but this backfired when Stead swept past him and then Brady ran wide on the fourth bend and dropped back before retiring on his last lap.
(2-4) (15-15)
Heat 6: Mick Powell, Oliver Allen, David Meldrum [61.9]
Powell and Meldrum made the start as rider replacement Simon Stead retired just after the start. Meldrum was passed by Allen.
(4-2) (19-17)
Heat 7: James Grieves, Chris Neath, Grant MacDonald, Barry Campbell [62.1]
Grieves won his second race but Campbell was way last and the heat was shared.
(3-3) (22-20)
Heat 8: Blair Scott, Paul Lee, Simon Cartwright, David Meldrum [61.9]
Meldrum made the start backed up by Blair Scott. With Lee and Cartwright pressing, Blair Scott moved ahead and Meldrum was unable to hold position and slipped to last.
(3-3) (25-23)
Heat 9: Kevin Little, Ross Brady, Chris Neath [62.2]
This looked a 5-1 to Scotland with Little leading and Brady holding off Neath until Allen fell. In the rerun, Neath made the start and led for some time until Little and Brady swept past on either side on him going into the first bend.
(5-1) (30-24)
Heat 10: Simon Stead, Mick Powell, Blair Scott, Chris Neath [59.9]
Simon Stead came in as a tactical substitute for MacDonald and made a superb sweep around the outside to pass Powell on the back straight. Stead won without problems in the first time under 60 seconds.
(3-3) (33-27)
Heat 11: Simon Stead, James Grieves, Paul Lee, Barry Campbell [60.1]
Simon Stead added the scalp of James Grieves to that of Powell. He produced another outside sweep on the back straight to pass the Monarchs number 1. This cut the margin to four points with Paul Lee beating Campbell and indeed pressing Grieves hard.
(2-4) (35-31)
Heat 12: Blair Scott, Kevin Little, Oliver Allen, Grant MacDonald [62.1]
Blair Scott and Kevin Little gated and produced a 5-1, to put the Scots near to a win.
(5-1) (40-32)
Heat 13: James Grieves, Mick Powell, Simon Stead, Paul Lee [59.9]
Grieves and Powell produced some form to take another 5-1 ahead of Stead and rider replacement Paul Lee. This settled the match.
(5-1) (45-33)
Heat 14: Chris Neath, Ross Brady, Barry Campbell, Simon Cartwright [61.8]
Chris Neath made a good start to win. Barry Campbell missed the start but took advantage of a second bend slip by Cartwright to move into third place.
(3-3) (48-36)
Heat 15: James Grieves, Oliver Allen, Kevin Little [61.6]
Grieves and Little started well but Stead tried a big one around the outside on the first lap and hit the fourth bend fence causing the heat to be stopped. In the rerun, Grieves and Little gated but Allen caught Little napping to split the Monarchs’ pair.
(4-2) (52-38)
|
Scotland |
|
|
|
||||
|
Mick Powell |
1 |
3 |
2 |
2* |
|
|
8+1 |
|
David Meldrum |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
|
|
1 |
|
Kevin Little |
3 |
2 |
3 |
2* |
1 |
|
11+1 |
|
Ross Brady |
2* |
R |
2* |
2 |
|
|
6+2 |
|
James Grieves |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
|
14 |
|
Barry Campbell |
1* |
0 |
0 |
1* |
|
|
2+2 |
|
Blair Scott |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1* |
3 |
10+1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
England Under-21 |
|
|
|
||||
|
Simon Stead |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
13 |
|
Paul Lee |
X |
R |
R |
1* |
|
|
1+1 |
|
Grant MacDonald |
X |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|||
|
Chris Neath |
2 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
|
7 |
|
David Howe |
Rider replacement |
(3) |
|||||
|
Oliver Allen |
3 |
2 |
2 |
X |
1 |
2 |
10 |
|
Simon Cartwright |
X |
0 |
1* |
0 |
|
|
1* |
Grieves was nothing like as dominant as usual although he only dropped one point. Kevin Little proved reliable but dropped points to Stead and Allen. Mick Powell was not qite at his best and found the track problematical.
David Meldrum and Barry Campbell both had a bad evening. Meldrum made a couple of starts but proved incapable of holding position. Campbell didn’t make any starts! Ross Brady had a mixed time helping Little to a couple of 5-1s but didn’t really start as well as usual. Blair Scott again proved a match winner despite having a poor time early on and suffering two defeats by Oliver Allen in his first two rides.
The England team were sustained by the former Peterborough ‘brat packers’ Simon Stead, Oliver Allen and Paul Lee. The Sheffield team manager must be casting a rueful look at the points scored by Stead and Lee in view of their showing for Sheffield recently at Armadale when losing out to Edinburgh in the Cup. The big scores for Stead and Lee were probably not that unexpected, however the double figure score by Oliver Allen was. He has scored only two gifted points in three matches at Armadale in the past.
While Scotland have now taken a 2-1 lead in the four match Test series, they are going to have to perform better at Workington on Saturday or risk a big defeat.
Man of the match: James Grieves
Most exciting rider: Simon Stead
Next meeting: Fourth Test, Derwent Park on Saturday 18th September 1999
John Lowe