Speedway's Ashes Battle

The second event of the 2012 Speedway World Cup was held in King's Lynn and ended up being a battle between Britain and Australia for a place alongside Russia and Sweden in Saturday's final. The favourites started slowly, allowing Britain to take a good lead. But that was diminished by the joker as Australia regained control. The meeting went down to the final two heats, where Australia finally won the meeting by four points. Britain and Czech Republic will go into the race-off on Thursday with Germany finishing 15-points behind in fourth.

The Australian team had their two GP riders, Jason Crump and Chris Holder, flying the flag with the familiar faces of Troy Batchelor and Davey Watt backing them up. Britain's GP rider, Chris Harris, captained the side with Scott Nicholls and Tai Woffinden both having GP experience. Daniel King was Britain's fourth member who was a reserve at the 2007 British GP. Only two heats weren't won between these two teams throughout the night.

The Czech Republic team were, on paper, due to battle Britain in a tough battle for second. The two Dryml brothers, Lukas and captain Ales, raced alongside Josef Franc and Matej Kus who have all had some sort of GP experience. The German team were arguably the team making up the numbers, Martin Smolinski captained the side with Kevin Wolbert and Max Dilger the most recognisable names of the four. Tobias Kroner rounded off the team.

Australia were dubbed to be dominant in the meeting and it began that way with Holder easily taking the opening heat. But Woffinden, Harris and Nicholls all stormed their way to victory, giving themselves ten points after four heats. Australia sat second on seven with Czech Republic on six as Franc was the only Czech to finish second. Germany sat on a solitary point courtesy of Smolinski's third place in heat four.

Britain's reign continued as Harris and Nicholls took heats five and six. That saw Australia fall six points behind and they immediately responded with the use of their joker. Crump raced it and took heat seven with King finishing third to go to within a point of Britain. A win for Holder in heat eight was enough for Australia to take the lead on 19-points, Woffinden could only finish third which put Britain on 18. Second places for Ales Dryml and Kus put Czech Republic on 11 points with Wolbert adding two more points to Germany's total with a second place in heat seven.

Heat nine had to be restarted due to a false start, Kus then went too early again and was subsequently disqualified. At the third time of asking, Crump took his second heat in a row with Nicholls in second. There was drama in heat ten as Holder and Harris went hell for leather. The two battled it out until the final lap when Holder took Harris out. The race was allowed to continue with Holder seemingly looking to have won the heat. But the referee went back and disqualified Holder, awarding the victory to Harris, a result that put Britain a point ahead.

But disaster struck for Britain in heat-11 as Woffinden packed up, allowing Watt to claim his first victory of the night. Wolbert had used Germany's joker in that heat and picked up four points. But King responded with another win for Britain to put them onto 26-points after 12-heats, one point ahead of Australia. Czech Republic had fallen to 16-points with Germany now on double figures.

King then went from hero to villain as he took Smolinski out of the heat, forcing an exclusion for the Brit. The German would then pack up on the restart on the final lap which Watt won, putting Australia two points ahead. That was then extended to three when Batchelor finished second ahead of Woffinden in third, Ales Dryml played Czech Republic's joker and took all six points, putting them just three behind Britain.

Australia would then have a seven point lead after 16-heats when Holder and Crump took their heats. Nicholls finished second in heat-15 but Harris packed-up in the 16th, leaving them on 29-points. The gap was now four as Czech Republic had moved up to 25 with a second place for Smolinski giving Germany 14-points with four heats left.

Britain used their joker in heat-17. Harris was chosen ahead of King and earned the six points, unfortunately Batchelor finished second so Australia still had a three point advantage. Three wins would mean Britain would potentially draw level with Australia and it began with Woffinden finishing ahead of Watt, closing the gap to two.

But the fight was all but over when Holder got the better of Harris on the final lap to give Australia the win and their three point lead back. The only chance Britain had in the final heat was if Nicholls would win and Crump came last. That looked very unlikely and it didn't happen as Crump took second ahead of Nicholls' third. Ales Dryml would win his second heat of the night to round Czech Republic's night off in positive fashion. Australia finished on 45-points with Britain on 41. Czech Republic finished 11-points behind on 30 with Germany way off on 15.