Lakeside Hammers 54, Eastbourne Eagles 36

AGAINST a side of some quality including world championship leader Nicki Pedersen, Hammers achieved a solid Elite League A fixture victory that delighted manager Jon Cook, desperate to win against his old team.

None of the Hammers let him down and all managed to get among the points. None more so then another former Eagle in Adam Shields who showed his true class around the raceway in gaining 13 points. Hammers did not have it all their own way and after heat two they found themselves behind when Stefan Andersson rode around the outside of Lanham on the first lap to gain a 4-2 heat advantage and 7-5 lead on the night.

The lead did not last long as Hammers' Joonas Kylmakorpi marshalled skipper Paul Hurry around the track to a 5-1 maximum.

Although Hammers went further into the lead in heat six through Shields and the battling Henning Bager who managed to get past Trevor Harding into third position for a 4-2 heat advantage.

That extended lead did not last long as the visitors replied with immediate effect as they gained an advantage by the same score line with Davey Watt and David Norris teaming up.

The match was swinging both ways but it took a turn for the better for the Hammers when against a weak line up of guest Ryan Fisher, taking the place of Lewis Bridger who was away on British under 21 duty and Harding, Bager and Hurry gained a heat maximum.

Heat 10 saw the Hammers increase their margin with the ever impressive Shields collecting his third win of the night with Bager getting the vital third place to give the Hammers an eight point lead at 34-26. Hammers opened up a ten point gap in heat 12 when Kasprzak and Hurry were only divided by Davey Watt.

But that ten point gap meant that the Eagles could now use a tactical rider. Pedersen was nominated for a tactical ride and, for the only time in the meeting, missed the start to trail Adam Shields and Joonas Kylmakorpi. A charging Pedersen came under Kylmakorpi on the third turn and was excluded when the Finn hit the deck.

Pedersen was excluded and with that went Eagles' hopes of getting anything from the meeting.

Kylmakorpi and Shields went out again and got a heat maximum in the re run of heat 13. This was followed by another heat maximum from Christian Hefenbrock and Leigh Lanham even though the Eagles tried their hand at another tactical ride with Davey Watt starting 15 metres back leaving the scores at 51-33 with one heat remaining.

That was a shared one and the Hammers came away with a hard fought victory in which the score was a little bit deceiving as to the quality of the meeting.

Victory prompted Cook - who was synonomous with the Eagles for so many years - to say: "We didn't get going in the first part of the meeting but really got it together over the course of the second half.

"We need these larger margins of victory to give ourselves better opportunities for bonus points during the rest of the season."

Hammers: 1. Adam Shields 2 3 3 3 2 13. 2. Henning Bager 1 1 2 1 5+2. 3. Krzysztof Kasprzak 2 2 2 3 9. 4. Christian Hefenbrock 1 1 1 2 5+4. 5. Joonas Kylmakorpi 2 2 1 2 1 8+4. 6. Leigh Lanham 2 0 2 3 7. 7. Paul Hurry 0 3 3 1 7.

Eastbourne: 1. Nicki Pedersen 3 3 3 X 3 12. 2 Ryan Fisher R 0 1 R 1. 3. Davet Watt 3 3 2 2 1 R 11. 4. David Norris 0 1 3 0 R 4. 5. Rider replacement. 6. Stefan Andersson 3 1 2 R R 6. 7. Trevor Harding 1 0 R 0 1 2.

Heat-by-heat:

1: Pedersen, Shields, Bager, Fisher (fell rem, ret) (3-3) (3-3) 59.2

2: Andersson, Lanham, Harding, Hurry (2-4) (5-7) 59.4

3: Watt, Kasprzak, Hefenbrock, Norris (3-3) (8-10) 58.5

4: Hurry, Kylmakorpi, Andersson, Harding (5-1) (13-11) 59.0

5: Pedersen, Kasprzak, Hefenbrock, Fisher (3-3) (16-14) 58.6

6: Shields, Andersson, Bager, Harding (ret ) (4-2) (20-16) 59.2

7: Watt, Kylmakorpi, Norris, Lanham (2-4) (22-20) 58.9

8: Hurry, Bager, Fisher, Harding (5-1) (27-21) 59.9

9: Norris, Kasprzak, Hefenbrock, Andersson (ret) (3-3) (30-24) 59.0

10: Shields, Watt, Bager, Norris (4-2) (34-26) 58.5 11: Pedersen, Lanham,Kylmakorpi, Fisher (fell rem, ret) (3-3) (37-29) 58.7

12: Kasprzak, Watt, Hurry, Andersson (ret) (4-2) (41-31) 59.3

13: Shields, Kylmakorpi, Harding, Pedersen (tactical ride - exc unfair riding) (5-1) (46-32) 59.9

14: Lanham, Hefenbrock, Watt (tactical substitute), Norris (ret) (5-1) (51-33) 58.7

15: Pedersen, Shields, Kylmakorpi, Watt (ret) (3-3) (54-36) 58.9

THE Hammers' home meeting against Belle Vue on Friday, June 29 - the evening before the British Grand Prix at Cardiff - has been moved to the following Wednesday, July 4.

Also, Hammers' Knockout Cup clash with Eastbourne has been pencilled in for Friday, September 14.