Woeful Wolves’ night to forget
Wolverhampton suffered their heaviest home defeat since September 2015 on a night to forget at Monmore Green.
The Parrys International Wolves were comfortably beaten 52-38 by Belle Vue as the Aces completed a Bank Holiday double following their 54-36 victory in Manchester earlier in the day.
The Monmore men had to wait until heat 12 to register their first race advantage of the night – and by that point it was a mere consolation. Wolves were much slower away from the starts and produced a well below par performance in front of their home fans.
Belle Vue got off to a dream start when in-form Aces skipper Max Fricke and former Wolf Ricky Wells got the better of Sam Masters and Kyle Howarth for an opening maximum.
Local lad Ashley Morris got his first points of the day with a convincing victory in heat two before Belle Vue doubled their advantage as Jacob Thorssell and Nick Morris failed to make an impact in their first outing of the season on home shale.
It looked as though the Aces were set to extend their lead to 10 in the fourth when experienced campaigner Kenneth Bjerre came by Luke Becker at the back, but skipper Rory Schlein produced a fine move to sneak under Jaimon Lidsey to limit the damage.
But race rusty Thorssell and Nick Morris became the second pairing to feel the brunt of the Fricke and Wells combination as they continued their unbeaten start.
Back-to-back shared races followed, the second of which saw Schlein again take the chequered flag, but tactical substitution Thorssell got stuck out at the back after a poor start.
Belle Vue were soon back in the heat advantages though when Lidsey won the eighth and Wells crept under Ashley Morris for third.
They again gated on a maximum in heat nine before a fired up Nick Morris drove under Dimitri Berge into bend three creating room for Thorssell to take third.
Heat 11 saw a battle of the two unbeaten Aussies but it was former world under-21 champion Fricke who got the better of home man Schlein, with Wells coming out on top in an intriguing battle with fellow American Becker.
The hosts managed a hat-trick of 4-2s in the final four races, but the damage was already done.
Wolves head to King’s Lynn next Monday in the Premiership.
WOLVERHAMPTON 38: Rory Schlein 10, Sam Masters 9+2, Jacob Thorssell 6+1, Kyle Howarth 6, Ashley Morris 4, Nick Morris 2, Luke Becker 1.
BELLE VUE 52: Max Fricke 13, Steve Worrall 10+1, Jaimon Lidsey 9+1, Kenneth Bjerre 7+1, Ricky Wells 6+2, Dan Bewley 6+1, Dimitri Berge 1+1.
