ACES EXIT TITLE RACE

BELLE Vue manager Mark Lemon admitted Ipswich proved a step too far in their defence of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership title.

The Aces have not enjoyed their trips to Foxhall this season and Thursday’s play-off semi-final second leg provided a further addition to their run of defeats in Suffolk as they went down 59-31 for a 22-point aggregate defeat.

Norick Blodorn gave them a race win in Heat 1 as the Aces started with a 4-2 but it was largely downhill from there as middle-order duo Jaimon Lidsey and Zach Cook both suffered crashes, whilst star spearhead Brady Kurtz and Dan Bewley totalled just eight points between them.

Lemon said: “We’ve been here four times this year and obviously our performances have been pretty poor. To execute that in a play-off semi-final, it’s a horrible feeling to be quite honest. 

“The boys tried everything, they just couldn’t get off the starts. You can’t give anyone a head start on a track that’s so one line. 

“It’s the way it is. You can’t take anything away from Ipswich, they’ve been the best team all year. We had a couple of spills too, but we had 12 lasts, you’re not going to win anything with those results. 

“We’ve got a young team. I was banking on seeing more progress than we had, but experience cost us at the end of the day. I’m proud of the boys regardless. It’s disappointing, it’s going to hit home pretty hard.”

OFFICIAL REFEREE SCORECARD
Available here

Photo credit: JEFF HIGGOTT