British speedway title eludes again

Wolverhampton's marathon wait for a British champion is doomed to go into a 52nd year.

The club has never seen one of its own on the podium's top step in an event launched as far back as 1961.

Andy Grahame's runner-up spot to Kenny Carter in 1984 is their nearest miss so far – but how close Tai Woffinden went to sending the Monmore Green fans home in raptures.

Woffinden seemed destined to take the crown after reeling off five straight wins, including the night's fastest time.

Instead, a combination of falls, his previously injured shoulder and a refereeing error saw him relegated to third spot on the podium, where he has stood twice before.

But Woffinden had been holding his shoulder as early as heat nine, when he was the unwitting meat in a rapidly converging Ricky Ashworth-Ben Barker sandwich and took a sprawling first-bend fall.

The problem was exacerbated when the first running of the final saw all four contestants converge on the same patch of shale and take a bruising tumble.

If that was bad enough for a man who had broken his shoulder on Easter Monday, worse was to follow. An electric start took Woffinden to the front but Edward Kennett's daring dive up the inside into turn three spelled trouble for both.

With the title at stake, neither would yield but Kennett came up fractionally short of being able to hold his line and brought them both down.

Kennett was inevitably disqualified but Woffinden was now clearly struggling and to compound his misfortune referee Dave Dowling then missed a clear flier by Chris Harris, who nudged the Wolves man wide in the first turn and set off for glory.

But Scott Nicholls, who reckoned afterwards that he had been ready to strike as Woffinden and Kennett came together, had other ideas.

On lap two, Nicholls surged into and then past Harris on the back straight, the contact causing a high-speed wobble for the Belle Vue man.

Had he gone down there would have been every chance of a disqualification for Nicholls and the title being settled by a shootout between Harris and Woffinden.

But the victim stopped on, saying graciously afterwards: "Fair play to Scott, he read my move well and took the win."

The drama on track was matched by the quality of the action, making this one of the best British finals of recent years.

There was a bewildering array of passing, particularly in the earlier heats.

Most notable was Stuart Robson's dive between Nicholls and Oliver Allen in heat two, a third to first surge by Lee Richardson five races later and an extraordinary burst by Harris in heat 11.

Fourth out of turn two, he was in front by the next corner with a string of stunned foes in his wake.

On any other evening, the unluckiest rider would have been Ben Barker, who was knocked wide in his first race by Kennett and led Woffinden in heat nine only for a fall by Ashworth to produce a re-run in which he was third.

But last night's hard luck story belonged to Woffinden.

By Tim Hamblin