Last updated 19:44, Thursday, 19 June 2008

AGAINST all the odds Workington Comets held onto their quarter final lead against Isle of Wight to reach the semi-finals of the Premier League Knock-out Cup.

With no inspirational number one Daniel Nermark to spearhead the Comets challenge, Workington relied heavily on the other two heat leaders.

Carl Stonehewer and Kauko Nieminen responded superbly, and with important support from Tomi Reima, Joe Haines and Charles Wright they still had seven points in hand for the aggregate victory.

Jay Herne, of Conference League Weymouth, who was standing in for Nermark, and reserve John Branney, both failed to score a point which added to the pressure.

When the Islanders rattled up two successive 5-1 heat maximums to start proceedings Workington’s overall, lead was quickly down from 15 to just seven.

The fact that 13 races later, Isle of Wight hadn’t managed to claw back another point on aggregate emphasises the supreme effort put in by the Workington riders.

Stonehewer is riding at the top of his form at the moment and he took on responsibility ion Nermarks’ absence to fire-in another immaculate points return.

He won four races, got a valuable second when put on a 15-metre handicap as a tactical substitute and was just relegated to a third place by a terrific ride from Jason Bunyan.

Stonehewer finished with 17 points from his six starts and for good measure took the nominated riders’ race to put the icing on the cake for the Comets.

Nieminen had a win and four seconds, but crucially one of those second places was worth four points as he had taken a tactical ride. He had pushed Krzysztof Stojanowski all the way and was just unable to get past.

Reima was solid at number two with four third places and crucially Haines and Wright came up with heat wins when they were needed most.

After 11 heats the Islanders were ahead on aggregate, leading on the night 43-27 but then Wright and Nieminen scored a 5-1, awarded after James Holder clipped the fence and fell as he was battling with the Comets skipper for second.

A shared heat 13 kept the Comets ahead overall by three points and then they could celebrate as Haines put in a smart gate to get away in the penultimate race. Wright took third and Workington couldn’t be caught.

Just to rub it in Stonehewer broke best in the final race and although Jason Bunyan passed Nieminen on the third lap it didn’t matter - the 4-2 was only a statistical note with the Comets on their way to a semi-final showdown with Edinburgh Monarchs.

Isle of Wight 51: Bunyan 12, Gathercole 9, Phillips 7, Fry 6, Stojanowski 9, Bargh 2, Holder 6.

Workington 43: Herne 0, Reima 4, Nieminen 12, Haines 5, Stonehewer 17, Wright 5, Branney 0.