Hammers through on aggregate. Hurry hurt.

The Arena-Essex Speedway team went down by 20 points at Peterborough on Thursday evening in the second leg of their Knockout Cup tie against the Panthers but still managed the aggregate win by four points following their superb home victory the previous Friday by 24 points.

The overall victory on a difficult racing surface at the East of England Showground did, however, come at a cost to the Essex based Club. Paul Hurry, their influential reserve was injured in a second heat fall, which resulted in him having to take an ambulance trip to the local hospital. The initial diagnosis was that the had sustained a knee injury following his knee hitting the wooden safety fence behind the Peterborough air fence on the first bend. Following his fall the meeting referee went down to the pits and spoke to the riders of both teams as it was apparent to everyone that the track needed some urgent work done on it.

A period of 30 minutes tyre packing followed, which did ease the problems but the Hammers Promoter, Ronnie Russell, then had to cover Hurry's remaining three rides by using his other reserve, young Polish rider, Lukasz Romanek. Although the Pole gated well he struggled around the first bend and eventually failed to score from any of his seven rides.

The Hammers went into the match without their Swede Andreas Jonsson but in Scott Nicholls, they had a more than adequate guest replacement. The Coventry rider amassed a total of 13 points from his five rides, which included a fine win in heat five, when he took a Tactical Ride. The resultant 7-2 heat advantage to the Hammers brought them back into a match that appeared to be running away from them.

Going into heat 12 the Hammers trailed by 10 points and knew that they needed a minimum of six points from the remaining four races to claim the aggregate win. Things did not look good for the Essex Club when the Panthers claimed maximum 5-1 heat advantages in heats 12 & 13. This meant the minimum requirement from the final two heats was to get four points.

The aggregate win was secured in the penultimate heat when the Hammers captain, Steve Johnston roared to his second race win of the night much to the delight of his team-mates and the Hammers travelling supporters. The result of the final race was, therefore, academic, but Scott Nicholls split the Panthers pair of Sullivan and Andersen for second place to give the home side the win on the night by 20 points but the important aggregate win went to the Hammers.

Ronnie Russell, the Hammers Promoter, has provided an update on Paul Hurry's condition, following his crash in heat two at Peterborough on Thursday evening.
Ronnie stated: "Paul was released from Peterborough hospital at 12.20am this morning after x-rays revealed no bones had been broken around his knee. The knee took the full brunt of the impact with the Peterborough wooden fence. The hospital believe that he has, however, sustained cartilage or ligament damage.

The hospital put the knee in a Velcro splint to take some of the pressure off the knee, which is, at present, very swollen. Paul has arranged an urgent appointment with his specialist at 12.30pm today and further information is likely to become available following that appointment."
The Hammers promoter continued: "

The specialist, who was originally recommended to Paul by Former Hammers captain Kelvin Tatum, has previously dealt with the arm injury that Paul a couple of years ago. Depending on what he finds he may be able to deal with the injury himself, although the Club has other specialists available, one of whom is based in Gothenburg, Sweden.

"It was a real downer for the Club when Paul fell, although the team responded magnificently to claim the aggregate win against the strong Peterborough side, which puts us through to the next round of this year's Knockout Cup competition."