King's Lynn Stars win first home Premiership clash as Craig Cook enjoys dream debut

King’s Lynn Stars 52 Wolverhampton Wolves 38

Great Britain ace Craig Cook top-scored in a dream King’s Lynn debut to win their first home Premiership clash of the season versus Wolves tonight (Monday).

The Norfolk outfit, successfully sealing their first victory of the league campaign in six attempts after a rash of away defeats, had brought in both Cook and well-known local rider Simon Lambert which seemed to energise them for this Adrian Flux Arena clash.

An outrageous pass between Schlein and Masters by Cook sealed the contest in a Heat 13 4-2 as Lynn were in an impregnable 46-32 position.

Lynn opened up a 12-point lead mid-meeting and held on with four successive 3-3 shared heats prior to Cook’s wizardry.

Wolves arrived in West Norfolk with an injury concern over former British Under-21 champion Kyle Howarth, who crashed out of the British semi-final at Redcar.

They used rider replacement in place of the 25-year-old which yielded precisely zero points.

The early action was plagued by tapes-busting problems: the opening heat, won by ex-Star Sam Masters was restarted, with a warning for blue-helmeted Michael Palm Toft to remain still at the start.

Next was Wolves reserve Luke Becker’s turn to be excluded for a tapes offence; this race was shared too.

Heat 3 saw Lynn vice-skipper Ty Proctor smash the tapes and the Aussie was replaced by S. Lambert in a Wolves 5-1 via Jacob Thorssell and Nick Morris.

Cook took his bow in the next outing, following home teammate Kerr in a 5-1 reply to level matters.

Lynn immediately maxed out again through Jorgensen and Proctor, with Nick Morris retiring.

Move of the night came from Palm Toft to pass Wolves skipper Rory Schlein at the end of bend three to win Heat 6. Cook added the fastest time to put the Stars in successive 4-2's and 25-17 up.

Palm Toft and S.Lambert slammed in another 5-1, so Wolves resorted to putting in Thorssell as a tactical sub in Heat 9 when the unlucky Jorgensen had bike issues and retired in a 3-3 race.

Thorssell won Heat 10 in another shared result to make the scores 36-24 at the interval.

The Cook/R.Lambert combination sealed a last-heat 5-1 as Thorssell fell on the final bend.

Poultec Stars captain Lambert was fresh from a second successive Grand Prix semi-final at the weekend, recording two victories and a seven-point tally in Slovenia.

The Norwich-born GB star and ex-Tiger Cook are both in Glasgow on Saturday for a GP qualifier.

The visitors tracked Schlein, Masters and Ashley Morris as ex-Lynn riders with a varied degrees of success.

Lynn are next in action at Swindon on Thursday, and their next home meeting is on Monday, June 17 against Ipswich in a derby.

Lynn: Robert Lambert 8+1, Michael Palm Toft 8+2, Ty Proctor 7+1, Thomas Jorgensen 5, Craig Cook 13+1, Lewis Kerr 7+3, Simon Lambert 4+1.

Fastest time: Cook, Heat 7, 58.48secs.

Wolverhampton: Sam Masters 8, Kyle Howarth R/R, Jacob Thorssell 13, Nick Morris 4+2, Rory Schlein 6+1, Ashley Morris 4, Luke Becker 3.

Fastest time: Thorssell, Heat 10, 58.69secs.