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Danny Phillips v Joe Thompson, round one Image Credit: Jack Cupido

Danny Phillips the hero as Devils win again

REPORT Friday 24th September 2021, 11:30pm

by Mike Hunter

It was another very enjoyable National Development League fixture at Armadale tonight, with the lively young Leicester Cubs the visitors. Even though they had the formidable Thompson twins in their ranks the Armadale Stellar Devils ran out 50-40 victors with Danny Phillips scoring 14 points.

Afterwards Danny said "It was a hard meeting! I seemed to have a Thompson twin, either one or both, in every race! Good close racing though. I think that rain in the early stages helped a little bit because we had similar conditions last week! I just left a gap in my first race and Joe Thompson passed me, otherwise I'd have scored a maximum."

Danny was by no means the only success in the home ranks but it had to be as good a meeting as Danny has had around Armadale considering the opposition. He was only beaten in his first race when, having gated and ridden wide in the early stages, he came in a bit tighter and found Joe Thompson flying round him.

He learnt from that though and gained his revenge over Dan Thompson in heat 11 in spite of a strong challenge from the visiting number one, and he followed that by winning heats 13 and 15 against both the Thompsons in each heat.

William Lawson made his return and won his first three heats with a bit to spare, adding solidity to the top end of the Armadale side. However he slid off on the first corner of heat 13, leaving Phillips to face the Thompsons alone, and then just failed to get into second behind Phillips on the opening lap of the last race.

Archie Freeman was actually racing his first full home meeting for the Devils and just dropped a single point in a stylish display. There are few more impressive 16 year olds in British Speedway.

The improvement of Gregor Millar continues and he very nearly took the scalp of Joe Thompson in heat 6 in a race won by Lawson. He held Joe off for most of the race but missed out in the end. He did finish with a paid win in heat 10.

Tom Woolley wasn't as impressive as in his previous home match and he did come a cropper in his final heat when trying to slip inside Tom Spencer. He clipped Spencer's back wheel and came down awkwardly against the fence, but was soon up.

Lewis Millar scored well enough also and the only home man not to join in the points spree was George Rothery who is getting into all sorts of bother these days. His bike seemed to be going well enough this week but he was just too bold in trying to ride wide fast lines, coming a cropper in all his four heats. His final ride was so unfortunate because he was trying to team up with Archie Freeman for a match-winning 5-1, riding more cautiously than in his earlier rides, but he caught the fence and came down, mercifully unhurt.

The Thompson twins have important matches with the senior Leicester side this weekend but were fully committed to this fixture taking 11 rides between them. They were probably surprised how well the Devils performed but they gave their all throughout.

Ben Trigger (just 15) and Tom Spencer (the only non-teenager in the Cubs' team) both won a heat each and nobody was likely to complain they didn't get their money's worth tonight.