Nermark and Nieminen secure title for Comets
Last updated 21:25, Wednesday, 02 July 2008
WORKINGTON Comets landed the Premier League Best Pairs title again after an epic battle at Somerset’s Oak Tree Arena.
Skipper Kauko Nieminen and partner Daniel Nermark pipped the home side Somerset Rebels to give the Comets their fifth win in the prestigious competition.
And Workington team manager Ian Thomas, a stalwart of the speedway scene for 40 years, thought it was the second best meeting he had seen in all that time.
“I’m not just saying it because Workington won but it was sensational, a credit to the Premier League because some of the racing was just breath-taking.
“I’ve always thought that a meeting at Wimbledon in 1980, when I managed England for the first time in a match with the USA which ended in a draw, was the best meeting I had ever witness but this one ran it close,” he said.
Popular Workington skipper Nieminen said: “It was the greatest moment of my career in British speedway. It was a bit special and one I will always remember.”
Nermark, Workington’s new number one this season and a leading rider in the Premier League added: “It was always going to take a bit of winning and I’m glad we were able to get there in the end.”
To clinch the title the Comets had to beat hosts Somerset who had not been beaten all night but Nieminen and Nermark followed-home Jason Doyle for the 5-4 points split which wrapped-up the trophy.
Nieminen had already ridden in Denmark and Sweden during the week before rushing back to Britain to ride in the Pairs.
No sooner was he finished there than it was off to Slovenia to contest a World Team Cup match for Finland, alongside his Workington team-mate Tomi Reima.
They finished second with 40 points behind the winners Czech Republic (59) while the hosts Slovenia were third on 35 and Italy, including ex-Comet Mattia Carpanese who scored three, fourth with 16 points.
Nieminen scored 12 points for his country while Reima, currently back home while he sorts out a family health care problem, notched six.
Workington’s Carl Stonehewer was guesting again on Sunday for Glasgow Tigers at Mildenhall in a Premier League match and scored nine and two bonus points in a 56-35 win.
Second string Joe Haines was also riding on Sunday as he top-scored with 14 points and a bonus in Boston’s 62-25 home win in the Conference League over Sittingbourne.
