The Hammers completed the double over the Peterborough Panthers on Friday evening by beating the Panthers for the second time in 24 hours to progress into the semi finals of the Elite League Knockout Cup. To further delight their supporters Swede Jonas Davidsson signed a full contact with the Club during the home leg at the Arena-Essex Raceway.
Hot on the heels of a professional dismissal of Elite League rivals Peterborough Panthers from the Knockout Cup, the Hammers promotional duo of Jon Cook and Stuart Douglas gave the fans an unexpected bonus with the announcement of the acquisition of their Swedish star, Jonas Davidsson. JD, as he is popularly known, becomes the fifth member of the Hammers first team 1-7 to be a fully fledged, and fully owned, Hammers asset.
Team manager, Jon Cook, said: “Jonas is a top flight speedway rider in mainland Europe, but has struggled to find that same form here with his previous clubs. Since joining the Hammers set up he has absolutely flourished and we wasted no time in snapping up his signature from his previous club, Swindon. If you saw his two performances at Peterborough and then the following night at the Arena Essex Raceway, it is blindingly obvious the lad is super quick and a fantastic asset of the Hammers revolution.”
The rider himself was equally pleased and said: “I really wanted to do well in England, and the Club have been fantastic in making me feel welcome and helping me in this Country. I’m absolutely thrilled to be joining this team on a full transfer, and it’s clear to me that we have the potential to go all the way. We are still in all three major British competitions and with riders like Andreas Jonsson and Adam Shields I feel we can deliver for the fans this year.”
Having won the first leg at the East of England Showground on Thursday, 51-39, the Hammers followed that up with a home victory by 50-40 to give them a 20 point aggregate win over the Panthers. This puts them through to the semi final stage of the competition where they will face the winners of the Eastbourne/Wolverhampton tie.
It was a good overall team performance that saw the Hammers through against the Panthers with Andreas Jonsson leading the way with paid 28 points over the two matches with Adam Shields (paid 21) and new Hammers asset Jonas Davidsson (paid 20) providing the main support. However, regular team members Ricky Kling (paid 17) and Leigh Lanham (paid 16) also got amongst the points and provided valuable back-up to the top three. With Finn Joonas Kylmakorpi missing the two legs through injury the Hammers were able to give their No.8 Chris Mills and young asset Jerran Hart some valuable experience of racing at the top level. Mills rode in the home leg and scored 4+1 whilst Hart made his debut for the Club in the away leg and although he failed to score he showed why is considered to be a fine prospect for the future by being very much on the pace. The final member of the side, Lubos Tomicek, failed to score in the home leg but managed an important contribution of 4+1 away at the East of England Showground.
The Hammers have no meetings this coming week with their next match scheduled for Monday 30th June, where they take on the Coventry Bees at their Arena-Essex Raceway in an Elite League match, which will be shown live on Sky Sports.
