Heathens 58 Scunthorpe 33 (From Dudley News)

Heathens 58 Scunthorpe 33

10:29pm Tuesday 17th July 2012 in Sport

DUDLEY Heathens went back top of the National League with a comfortable win over sorry Scunthorpe.

Skipper Adam Roynon scored a 12 point maximum and set a new Monmore Green track record as the hosts won all but two races in a scrappy encounter.

Byron Bekker (13+1), Ashley Morris (11+1) and Darryl Ritchings (10+2) all scored heavily to make up for the absence of Tom Perry.

But for some sloppy errors the margin of victory would have been greater as Steve Worrall was the only rider to win for the visitors.

Too many crashes to mention, a temperamental tannoy and debatable refereeing – this was a messy night all round at Monmore Green.

The Heathens were far from their best and didn’t need to be as the visitors put in a display which at times, in all honesty, bordered on the comical.

Meeting of the year it wasn’t but this was still a much needed win for the hosts ahead of a testing trip to Stoke on Saturday, where they will be without the talismanic Roynon and the in-form Morris.

Four maximums in the first four heats gave the hosts a big lead which would never be seriously threatened, even though Worral’s victory in a heat five tactical ride – aided by a Bekker crash – meant the scoreline would never become too embarrassing.

That race, which saw Tommy Fenwick pip James White-Williams to give the visitors an 8-1, saw the first real competitive action of the night.

At times the flow of bad luck for the visitors threatened to become a tidal wave. In heat seven, Tom Young crashed out on the first bend forcing a re-run from which team-mate Oliver Greenwood failed to even get out of the gate, leaving home duo Morris and Ritchings to a 5-0 procession.

The hosts were not without their own problems. Both Ritchings and White-Williams took tumbles on a night where the track seemed to be causing plenty of problems.

Aside from Roynon’s blistering new track record of 56.26, the racing highlights when they came were from Morris and Worrall.

The Dudley man nipped inside Scunthorpe’s number one on the final bend to steal heat 11 but Worrall, who will ride as a guest for the Heathens at Stoke on Saturday, got his own back in the final race after Morris crashed out to salvage some pride for his side on an otherwise forgettable evening.