Islanders furious as their speedway cup dream ends

They they were held to a 45-45 draw in the second leg of their semi-final against King's Lynn.

And with the side from Norfolk having won their home leg 49-44, they won 94-89 on aggregate to progress to a final against either Somerset or Welsh side Newport.

The man who was effectively responsible for breaking the hearts of Islanders' fans was King's Lynn's guest reserve Chris Schramm.

He was drafted in to replace James Brundle, a move within the rules but which created much controversy.

Lynn stated on their official website over the weekend that they were effectively sacking Brundle and replacing him with Adam Allott, who is set to make a track return after a lengthy spell out of the sport through injury.

They were quoted as saying: "James Brundle is the rider who will make way for Adam after the management were far from happy with his attitude in recent meetings".

Lynn co-promoter Jonathan Chapman added: "Unfortunately we didn't get the whole thing put together until Sunday and you have to give the BSPA (British Speedway Promoters Association) three days notice to change your team that means the earliest we could get him (Allott) into the team was Wednesday so James (Brundle) will still ride on Tuesday".

On arrival at Smallbrook, referee Dave Watters was handed a written note signed by a doctor stating that Brundle was suffering from a dislocated shoulder and, as permitted by the regulations, Schramm was drafted in as a replacement.

And his outstanding 13 (paid 16) return from the No.6 berth for the Stars, which saw him top their scorechart, was the telling factor.

But it has to be said that one or two of the Islanders produced below par performances.

Their cause was certainly not helped either when both skipper Jason Bunyan and reserve Andrew Bargh both experienced problems with their bikes whilst preparing or the meetings in the pits.

They were both forced to switch to their back-up machinery.

Islanders joint team manager David Croucher was furious at Lynn's tactics.

"To say that King's Lynn used the reserve guest facility rule to their advantage would be a massive understatement," he said.

"They managed, because of a failing in the rules as far as I am concerned, to replace an under performing reserve, with a Premier League Heat Leader who scored 13 paid 16 from six rides!

"And, if anyone wonders why the perception of BSPA Rules by the public is what it is, well, you couldn't have made this up.

"James Brundle was sacked according to the Kings Lynn official website, but was due to ride at our place on Tuesday.

"Then we were told he had tonsillitis; then we were told he was witholding his services.

"In fact the King's Lynn management arrived with a Doctor's' note that looked as though it had been written on a scrap of paper with a John Bull Printers Kit stamp in the right hand corner, stating that Brundle had dislocated his shoulder!

"We had not been advised of a guest replacement until we got a call late yesterday morning, saying it was Newport's Chris Schramm.

"When did Kings Lynn ask Chris to ride? When? At 12.30pm, bearing in mind he lives in Essex?

"I would not have embarrassed Chris by asking the question, but I would bet he was called over the weekend - they knew what they were doing.

"The whole thing was a premeditated fit-up, and all perfectly within the rules, always provided that Brundle did dislocate his tonsils, or whatever it was!

"This was payback for us using Simon Lambert at Kings Lynn, who WAS a proper three point reserve, and put himself in hospital trying to help us out when we were forced to use him to replace broken ankle victim Andrew Bargh.

"King's Lynn lodged an appeal against us using Simon, which was turned down, and so they did what they did last night.

"I genuinely think that if King's Lynn win the KO Cup, their fans will feel they had to cheat to do it.

"We didn't race against Kings Lynn last night, we raced against Chris Schramm and some other guys.

"Not withstanding all of that, we had a bad night, and had Lynn come down and beaten us with Simon Lambert or any other true reserve, we would all have said well done, we didn't deserve to win, but that was not the case.

"When we lost at home to Kings Lynn in June, our only home defeat of the season, Brundle had two rides, scored no points, and was withdrawn.

"I can''t remember what for, probably tonsillitis again, but yet another Guest Reserve, Thomas Suchanek, took his other rides and scored six points.

"And how many did we lose by - 5 points. How about that!

"I am gutted for our fans and for Chris Holder, who wanted a winning team this year.

"We deserved to be in the Final, and a Sick Note has robbed us of the chance".

WIGHTLINK ISLANDERS 45 KING'S LYNN 45.

(Premier League KO Cup semi-final, 2nd leg) King's Lynn win on aggregate 94-89.

ISLANDERS SCORERS: Chris Holder 15, Cory Gathercole 2, Jason Bunyan 6+1, Glen Phillips 7+2, Krzysztof Stojanowski 10, Andrew Bargh 2, Chris Johnson 3+2.