Last updated 07:30, Friday, 25 April 2008

COMETS started their southern tour with a tough assignment at title favourites Reading and were always on the back foot eventually going down 54-39.

Reading showed why they are most people’s tip to lift the championship as they powered home with plenty in hand.

Former Comets star Ulrich Ostergaard dropped only one point in five rides and that was when Comets skipper Kauko Nieminen did the business in heat 12.

Down in Reading the match had been billed as a clash between the league’s top two riders - Ostergaard and Workington’s Daniel Nermark.

But they met only twice on the track and each time the Reading man was the victor.

They had a great battle in heat five, which could have gone either way, but Ostergaard got away from the gate fastest in the last race and was always going to hold off his fellow countryman.

Nermark finished as Workington’s top scorer with the help of a tactical ride win in heat 11.

But the highlight for Nieminen was heading Ostergaard, who has been virtually unbeaten round the Reading track.

The Workington skipper was helped by the fact that Danny Warwick got in his team-mate’s way but even so it was a great effort on the night from the Finn.

He was even thrown in as a tactical substitute in the penultimate heat but just couldn’t get into the contest early enough and his third place only earned the mandatory one point.

Before his introduction the Comets had trailed by nine points but the 5-1 by Tomas Suchanek and Jamie Smith sealed Workington’s fate.

A 4-2 in the last when Nieminen came out again and was out of the points gave Reading their 15 point winning margin.

The disappointment for Workington was that second strings Charles Wright and Scott Smith failed to score a point between them in six rides. The fact that there were 13 points at the bottom end of the Reading order, and only six for Workington, also emphasised the problems that the Comets faced.

Workington’s tally wasn’t helped when Carl Stonehewer had an engine failure on the first turn of heat 13 and although Mark Lemon beat Nermark, the fact that Tom P Madsen pushed home for a point after he had suffered mechanical problems, only added to Workington’s misfortunes.

The Comets had six race winners - three from Nieminen; two by Nermark and one from Stonehewer but picked-up only four third places throughout the 15 races.

Team manager Ian Thomas said: “I think we gave it our best shot but they were the better team on the night. It might be different at Workington.”