Mechanical misfortune hits Stars

King’s Lynn were left to curse a run of outrageous misfortune as they suffered an agonising 46-44 defeat to Belle Vue in their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership opener.The defending champions snatched victory in a thrilling last heat decider which saw British Champion Dan Bewley edge out Chris Harris on the line by just two-hundredths of a second.But the match would never have been resolved at that stage had it not been for three cruel mechanical breakdowns in the first half of the meeting in the closing stages of races where Lynn held 5-1 positions.Manager Rob Lyon said: “I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that sort thing before really, it was just unbelievable.“I said to Mark Lemon (Belle Vue manager) ‘have you put a curse on us in some way?’ because it felt like that, but it was incredible, especially being on 5-1s and to have them turned into 3-3s was so frustrating, and obviously it was the difference between us winning and losing the meeting.“But that’s speedway I guess. We deserved to win it hands down but we didn’t, and that’s the bottom line.“What we have proved tonight is that we’re more than capable of competing with those types of teams, with that set-up of big hitters, so whilst we’re disappointed we move on to the next one.” The Aces arrived with a point to prove after their huge KO Cup defeat at Ipswich last Thursday, and they signalled their intent with a maximum advantage in Heat 1 as skipper Brady Kurtz and Norick Blodorn both made fast starts. However, Lynn were all set to hit straight back in the reserves’ race when they suffered their first moment of bad luck as Ashton Boughen, holding a comfortable second place behind Chris Harris, came down at the start of the last lap with a broken chain.Remarkably there was a virtual repeat in Heat 4 when Richard Lawson was out in front with Harris holding off Bewley, until on the last bend Lawson threw a chain to turn another 5-1 into a 3-3.With the Aces still four points up and Heat 5 being shared, the Stars held another 5-1 position over Bewley in the next, skipper Nicolai Klindt riding a storming first two turns, but Ben Cook was the latest to hit trouble and after being overtaken by Bewley he ground to a halt on the last lap as the visitors escaped with another 3-3. Finally Heat 7 saw both Lynn riders reach the chequered flag in first and second places, Lawson and Harris getting the job done against Jaimon Lidsey and Zach Cook to level the scores at 21-21.Klindt controlled a shared Heat 8 with Boughen clearly showing the effects of a knock to the hip, and the Stars took the lead in the next with Jan Kvech holding firm just to fend off the challenge of Bewley, who had previously overtaken Niels-Kristian Iversen for second place. Another run of shared races followed with Klindt winning Heat 10 for the Stars, whilst Kurtz became the first rider to beat Harris around the AFA in 2025 with his third win of the night in Heat 11.Kurtz made it four out of four in Heat 13 as the Aces levelled the scores, Ben Cook getting on the board with his first points of the night to at least prevent a 5-1 reverse. Stars were hoping for a big advantage out of Heat 14 but they were frustrated by Zach Cook who out-gated the home duo and recorded a vital win over Iversen and Harris to take the match into the last race all square.Bewley, who had struggled from the start all night, made a good one but Harris held a clever inside line to take the lead, and when Klindt slotted into third place it looked like Lynn could edge the victory.But Kurtz moved inside Klindt midway through the race to leave the Harris/Bewley battle at the front as the crucial one, and although Harris turned back to re-pass Bewley when the Belle Vue rider came through, there was one final move by the Aces star to win the race to the line by fractions and leave the home side just short.Stars continue their league campaign with two away matches next week, starting with the return against Belle Vue in Manchester on April 7. King’s Lynn 44: Chris Harris 14+3, Nicolai Klindt 10, Jan Kvech 8+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 6+1, Richard Lawson 4+1, Ben Cook 2, Ashton Boughen 0.Belle Vue 46: Brady Kurtz 13, Dan Bewley 10, Jaimon Lidsey 9, Norick Blodorn 4+1, Zach Cook 4+1, Jake Mulford 3+3, Tate Zischke 3+1.