NEWCASTLE “Sapphire Engineering” Diamonds, in front of ecstatic scenes at Birmingham’s Perry Barr Stadium, sensationally took the 2010 Premier Trophy Title by completely overwhelming the home side in the opening ten races to bring the first national trophy back to Brough Park in nine long seasons.
They went into last night’s all-important second leg of the Premier Trophy Final determined not to allow Birmingham’s tough talk intimidate them.
Far from it as Kenni Larsen and Derek Sneddon hammered in a superb 1-5 over the vociferous Aussie Jason Lyons who could not do anything to halt the visiting maximum much to the delight of the vast army of visiting fans.
Kyle Newman’s bike stalled as the tapes went up on Heat Two which was initially led by Dakota North on his return from injury before Brummies’ guest Lee Smart eased his way past him on the opening lap to maintain the score differential at 4-8 and over all Newcastle led by 26 points.
Birmingham’s Justin Sedgmen’s poor mid-season slump continued in the third race as he looked well out of sorts at the rear, whilst Diamond Rene Bach shot round Richard Sweetman on the second lap to give Newcastle a 2-4 with skipper Jason King in third as they went up by six, and led on aggregate 42-70.
Mark Lemon notched up Newcastle’s second heat win of the night in Heat four, and again most importantly that meant Birmingham could not pull points back in the shared 3-3 whilst in the fifth Larsen and Sneddon show out to lead but Sweetman roared round Sneddon and eventually made the pass of his life round Larsen on the last bend, but the Diamonds held the minor positions again in the 3-3 to progress the score on to 12-18 and over all the Diamonds edged ever closer to victory on 48-76.
Lyons looked set for second until North made a huge error at the end on lap one ending the Diamond’s race, but Lemon held second in a 4-2, the Brummies first heat advantage all night, but Newcastle were still 26-points up over all, whilst in Heat Seven’s re-run Bach hit the front and roared away to take a big awarded win with Aussie Steve Johnston granted second and Jason King taking the single point with Newman excluded for the fall in the 2-4 extending Newcastle’s lead still further.
Johnston and Smart took the first major Brummies score in the eighth with a 5-1 over Sneddon and Andersen, and in the ninth Lemon forced his way round Sweetman on bend one to lead well as North battled so very hard at the back to try to get on terms with Sedgmen with the Brummie sneaking the third place point as Newcastle led 26-28 and 62-86 overall.
Heat ten was the decider with Lyons out in front, Bach and King held on beautifully over Smart to share the critical heat taking the Premier Trophy out of mathematical reach of the home side, but pride on the night was still to play for as the stadium erupted in a shower of Black and White with the score at 29-31 (65-89).
Larsen took Heat 11 with another dominant win, whilst North and King led on lap one of the twelfth before Sedgmen passed King to reduce the result to a Newcastle 2-4 as the stunning visitors still led the way 34-38.
Lemon fell on bend one on his own in Heat 13 and duly excluded from the re-run which was won bravely following a first bend tussle with Lyons to share the heat with his third win of the night.
Bach took his third win of the night in Heat 14, a Diamonds’ 2-4 with North a score that also sealed the win on the night at the toughest track in the League, a venue Newcastle went down at in April by 60-32, but now holds no fears for the Tyneside squad who relinquished a 5-1, but it didn’t matter the match was won by Newcastle by two points and the trophy by 104-80.
Team manager George English said: “This is one of the best moments of my time with the Diamonds and they all thoroughly deserve this fantastic success and we’re all so very proud of the lads bringing a professional sport’s trophy back to Tyneside. It’s been an amazing night for the club – truly amazing.”
