Eastbourne Eagles 50 v 39 Birmingham Brummies

Sunday 21st June 2015
National League Speedway Knock Out Cup Quarter Final Second Leg
Eastbourne Eagles won 92-86 on aggregate
Arlington Stadium, Hailsham
Admission: £12.00
Programme: £2.00
Attendance: 700 (estimate)
Match Rating: 2

I headed over to Arlington today for another taste of speedway, meaning I have been to each home meeting of the Eastbourne Eagles since my first ever meeting last month. Vagaries of the fixture calendar, though, means this would be the last home fixture for almost a month.

This promised to be an intriguing and nail-biting meeting, arguably between two of the better teams in the division, both having competed in the Elite League last season, and this being the second leg of the National League Knock Cup Quarter Final, with today's visitors, the Birmingham Brummies, bringing a five point lead from the first leg, having secured a 47-42 victory. The feeling was that they should have built up a healthier lead though, with the Eagles seemingly invincible at home this season, with 12 points the narrowest margin of victory.

On a mainly overcast but breezy afternoon, this meeting turned out to be something of a disappointment, a stop start affair with frequent breaks for track maintenance, several heats being stopped due to crashes and the start lights causing a lengthy stoppage for a fault to be repaired. The Brummies actually extended their aggregate lead to seven points after the first heat, but immediately the Eagles got right back in the match with a 5-1 to cut the lead back to two. The next three heats were drawn, before the Eagles made their move into the lead, claiming 5-1's in the sixth and eighth heats, sandwiching a 3-3 draw, as the Eagles opened up a ten point lead on the day, and five point lead overall, after eight heats.

In the remaining heats, Eastbourne did just enough to see the meeting out as, despite only two of the seven heats were won by an Eastbourne rider, Birmingham only won the final heat, and indeed this was a theme of the afternoon. Birmingham had the two highest scorers overall in Adam Ellis and Tom Perry, all of Eastbourne's riders contributed, whereas Birmingham's lower team members scored poorly or failed to finish...or even start. So, it was job done for the Eagles, who progressed to a two legged semi final against local rivals, the Kent Kings, but in truth, a meeting that promised much excitement turned out to be a rather dull, stop start event that meandered disjointedly to a home win.

Eastbourne International Tennis, Day One Qualifiers

Saturday 20th June 2015

Devonshire Park, Eastbourne

Admission: Free

Order of Play Leaflet: Free

Programme: £5.00

After very much enjoying my first taste of live tennis at last year's Eastbourne International tournament, I had been eagerly looking forward to this year's tournament, to again take advantage of free admission on the first day. A considerable extra bonus attraction came when it was announced that former Great Britain number one, Laura Robson, would be playing today, in her first competitive action after being injured for the last year and a half following wrist surgery.

The layout of Devonshire Park today was very similar to last year, although this year the free tickets were only available on the gate and not on-line, and unlike last year, a programme was produced, although in truth, it had little relevance to today's action, with no mention of the qualifying rounds, and the focus - understandably - being on the big names in the tournament, the current WTA tour, and the history of tennis at Eastbourne. The 114 glossy pages were a good read though.

On arrival at Devonshire Park twenty minutes or so ahead of the 11am start, a quick scan of the order of play leaflet noted that, rather disappointingly, no tennis was being played on centre court today. For my first game of the day, I headed for court three, one of the outer courts with a rather intimate atmosphere with spectators being very close to the action and making use of fold up chairs along both lengths, to cheer on an English hopeful. It would certainly be a tough ask of Naomi Cavaday, a wild card entry into this qualifying competition and 370th in the WTA rankings, against 10th qualifying seed and 61st in the WTA Rankings, Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru. After Dulgheru strolled through the first game, Cavaday won the next two to take an early two games to one lead. That was to be as good as it got for Cavaday though, as Dulgheru won the next five games to take the first set 6-2. The second set followed a similar pattern to the first - Cavaday won the first game, only for Dulgheru to overpower the underdog, and as Cavaday cut an increasingly forlorn and dejected figure, Dulgheru won the following five games straight, to claim the second set 6-1.

At the conclusion of that game, I turned round to the adjacent court, court four, where a marathon first set was just about to reach its conclusion, where seventh qualifying seed and 58th WTA ranked Kurumi Nara, from Japan, prevailed 12-10 in a tie-break against 85th WTA ranked Spaniard, Lara Arruabarrena. Unfortunately, the second set was not to be as closely fought as the first, with Nara winning the first four games, and although Arruabarrena won the fifth and seventh, Nara eased to a 7-6, 6-2 victory.

After that, it was straight to Court One for the main attraction of the day - Laura Robson's return to the WTA circuit after 17 months out. Even entering the court 45 minutes ahead of the 1.30 start time, I claimed one of the very few seats left as the stands were packed to capacity - forcing many to use vantage points outside to watch the action - to cheer Robson on. Robson is not even currently ranked due to her long absence, but she was hoping that she could ease herself back into competitive action by accepting a wild card entry into the qualifying stage. But she had no luck with the draw, as her opponent was number one qualifying seed Daria Gavrilova, of Russia, who has soared up the WTA rankings to 41st following some great form of late, which has included wins against Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic. Given tremendous support by the home crowd, although Robson showed flashes of good tennis, Gavrilova was relentless in her accurate returns, and she coasted to a very easy 6-0 whitewash in the first set. It was something of a relief when Robson avoided a total whitewash by winning the second game of the second set. But that was all she had to show for her efforts, as Gavrilova won the remaining games to claim a 6-1 second set victory. So, a disappointing comeback for Robson and the home crowd, but it was always going to be a very tough ask in her first game after so long out against a player bang in form, and the match will have been beneficial to Robson as she tries to get back into form - indeed, the final scoreline of 6-0, 6-1 was harsh and did not really reflect some good tennis that she played at times, but was ruthlessly swept aside by an opponent in terrific form and confidence.

I then stayed at Court One, albeit switching stands, to watch my third and final full game of the day. It promised to be a good one, with the 2013 Eastbourne champion Elena Vesnina, the Ukrainian ranked 82nd, against 12th qualifying seed and 63rd ranked American Lauren Davis. Unsurprisingly, the first set was extremely even, as each game went to serve and sent the set into a tie-break, but with the score at 3-3, play was suspended with light drizzle settling over Devonshire Park. After about a half hour break, Vesnina went on to win the tie-break 7-4. Davis started the second set strongly, winning the first three games, and quite bizarrely, Vesnina seemed to go into self destruct mode, as she really seemed to lose her composure, increasingly shouting out her frustration and eventually losing the second set 6-1. In the third and deciding set, Vesnina won the first game, but then lost the following four, and really became a beaten woman, as she continued screaming out her frustration, taking it out on the ball by smashing it into the ground and even voiced her displeasure against some of the umpire's decisions. Davis saw the game out comfortably to win the final set 6-3, a win she certainly deserved with a strong all-round game today, and she was a popular winner who remained focused and determined throughout, unlike her opponent.

Although some further tennis was being played on the out courts, I decided I had seen enough for one day just before 6, having taken in around again around seven hours of action and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere again, as I contemplate whether to buy a ticket for Finals Day next Saturday...

Eastbourne Eagles 54 v 39 Rye House Raiders

Sunday 7th June 2015

National League Speedway

Arlington Stadium, Hailsham

Admission: £12.00

Programme: £2.00

Attendance: 800 (estimate)

Match Rating: 3

Following my first most enjoyable experience of speedway a fortnight ago, today I made a return visit to Arlington. Indeed, I almost certainly would have returned last Sunday, had the Cup meeting against the Birmingham Brummies not been rained off. In fact, I think I have probably found a sport to follow during the dark summer months without football...

Whereas the last meeting against Cradley Heath always promised to be a close and entertaining encounter, with the hosts virtually invincible at home and the visitors top of the league, one of the biggest names at this level in speedway, and who brought a relatively sizeable and vociferous following down with them, today's meeting did not contain the same ingredients. The Rye House Raiders are an affiliation with the Premier League outfit Rye House Rockets, and somewhat against expectations, went into this fixture in the bottom three of the table. Rye House have already raced at Arlington this season in May, losing 56-36 in the National Trophy, and had only won one of their six league meetings so far this season. The programme sold today was the one prepared for last Sunday's postponed meeting, with a four page insert relevant to today's meeting including scorecard, presentation of today's visitors and some other snippets of updated news.

On a generally clear afternoon, warm in the sunshine, this meeting was completely dominated by the Eastbourne Eagles, and without a rally in the later heats, the final scoreline would have been much more one-sided than it finished. The Eagles won the first four heats, including two 5-1's, to open up a ten point lead. They opened that up to twenty points by the end of the eighth heat, thanks to two further 5-1's, and although a Rye House rider won two of the first ten heats, the team did not outscore the Eagles in any of the heats.

After an interval to prepare the track, with the recent prolonged sunshine causing dusty conditions, finally the Raiders made some inroads into the Eagles' lead, albeit by now surely a consolation losing point was the best they could hope for. After playing their joker in the eleventh heat, they reduced the deficit by three points, and then went on to win the following two heats, including a 5-1, to reduce the Eagles' lead to eleven points. That was to be as good as it got for the visitors though, as the Eagles won the final two heats 4-2, to secure a 15 point margin of victory, a victory which saw the Eagles rise to the summit of the table, albeit after more meetings than the surrounding teams.

Whilst this meeting lacked the excitement and close nature of the Cradley Heathens fixture a fortnight ago, it was still a pleasant afternoon in the sunshine, enjoying the competitive yet relaxed and friendly atmosphere that seems to present at speedway meetings.