STOKE’S slim hopes of a play-off place went up in the air as the Belle Vue Colts inflicted the Potters second home league defeat of the season winning 48-42 at Loomer road on Saturday night.

The A.R. Richards Potters went behind early on as the Colts opened up with two 4-2 advantages before 15-year old Dan Thompson took victory ahead of Jordan Palin with Luke Priest third for a 4-2 leaving the Potters trailing 8-10 after the opening three heats.

Stoke drew level in heat six as skipper Tom Perry powered home to beat Colts guest Ben Morley with Shelby Rutherford taking third for a 4-2 with the teams being tied at 18-18.

The Potters then took the lead in heat nine as Thompson and Priest combined for a 4-2 the youngster beating Morley with the Colts trailing 28-26.

The Colts then struck back with a 5-1 from the impressive Connor Bailey and Kyle Bickley over Connor Coles and then romped in with two further 4-2 race wins in the following couple of heats to lead 42-36 with two heats remaining.

Drawn heats in the final two races saw the Colts home to victory to leave the Potters without a win in seven meetings in league and cup.

Potters skipper Tom Perry said “We are obviously disappointing to lose, we wanted to finish the season on a high with our final four home meetings starting tonight especially after just missing out last night at Plymouth, it’s always the last few heats. I don’t know whether we are chasing set-ups towards the end. We start well and, in most meetings, have a good couple of races in heats 10 to 12 and then things slip away from us and it’s really disappointing.
“There’s lot’s of ifs and buts from this year with points being lost at silly times and lost in the final few heats in heats 13 and 15 by myself in those heats which were crucial heats, if we say well this happened and that happened we’d be top of the league it’s just how speedway is and no one goes out not to score points no one wants to score nothing as riders we then go home upset and angry and unfortunately it’s just one of those nights again and I hope we can get victories in our last few home meetings and finish the season off with some victories.”

NATIONAL LEAGUE
STOKE 42: Dan Thompson 11+1, Connor Coles 9+1, Tom Perry 8, Joe Alcock 6+2, Luke Priest 6, Shelby Rutherford 2+1, Kieran Douglas 0.
BELLE VUE 48: Ben Morley 13, Connor Bailey 13, Kyle Bickley 9+1, Jordan Palin 7+2, Danny Phillips 4, Ben Rathbone 1, Ben Woodhull 1.