Overcoming a start straight crash in moto one and a first lap slip in the second encounter, Swordy proved his fitness and speed are still there even if his luck is not. Similarly, the Molson team’s MX1 satellite rider Tom Church almost mirrored Swordy’s exploits by crashing within 50 metres of his teammate on the first lap of each of the MX1 races.

Despite not racing for over a month Stephen Sword’s return from injury was outstanding. Looking past the race results that were hampered by the first lap crashes in both motos, Stephen shocked many people by proving he has levels of speed and fitness equal to those that he showed before separating the AC joint in his right shoulder at the French Grand Prix.

Only racing once since then – in an attempt to hold onto his MX2 British Championship lead – Stephen arrived in South Africa ready to race. The Scotsman proved that point by scrapping with MX2 championship leader Tyla Rattray in his qualification heat on his way to a third place finish but he was much less fortunate in Sunday’s points-paying races.

Battling back from last to 10th in race one and last to 13th in race two, Swordy ended the day in 10th overall but lost ground in the championship chase and now sits in 12th with just five rounds left.

“The qualifying heat went okay and I was happy with third place because I’m a bit race rusty having not raced since the end of June,” explained Steve. “I was reasonably happy with the ride in my heat and it gave me confidence because I knew I’d be able to race better today and it gave me a good position for the start. My aim was for top five overall but as it turns out I was battling from the wrong end of the pack in both races.

“In race one I only got about 20 metres off the line before I locked bars with Tyla Rattray which yanked my handlebars around and caused the front wheel to knife in because the ground was so soft. After that I got up, put my head down and got on with it. I was pretty pleased with the way I was riding in the first moto, my lap times were good and my fitness was good too and I was able to charge hard all the way to the end – it’s just a shame I crashed at the beginning.

“In the second race I got a bit further around the lap before crashing. I was running around sixth then I came together with somebody else while I was on the gas and my front wheel washed out and I went down. If I hadn’t crashed that could have been a good race for me. My lap times were good enough for me to run at the front in that race and my fitness was good so I’m quite disappointed with my day – luck just wasn’t with me today and that’s what you need sometimes.”

Tom Church was also missing that essential luck in the MX1 class. After showing good speed all weekend, Tom’s 16-15 scorecard doesn’t really tell the tale of just how well the young Wiltshireman was riding.

Having to pit in race one after getting involved in a terrible first turn pile up Tom’s ride back through the pack showed his speed and fitness is well up to scratch as he posted consistent times throughout the 35-minute plus two lap moto.

Race two was equally as difficult for TC after a crash and another solid performance yielded a 15th place finish. Undeterred by his bad luck, Tom’s now looking forward to this year’s remaining races.

“In the first race I was really committed going into the first corner but unfortunately there was a bit of a crash and that caused a domino effect and I went down pretty hard and hit my head and wrecked my helmet. I came straight into the pits, got everything fixed up and then I had to battle my way through the pack. I got through to 16th place which was okay considering how much time I lost at the start of the race.

“In race two I kind of wimped out at the start because I was kind of psyched out from the crash in moto one and I didn’t want to go down again. I pushed pretty hard on the first lap but ended up crashing in the same place that Stephen had in the MX2 race. I got up and had to come through the slower guys and that was really dodgy. One of them got out of shape on a jump and landed on my arm and bent my clutch lever. To be honest I’m not sure how he didn’t break my arm because he hit me pretty hard so that was a bit of a nightmare.

“I came through as well as I could. I was able to pass Campano and I was catching Noble for a while but to be honest I didn’t feel too good in that race because I had hit my head so hard in the first race and also I felt sick between the motos. “It’s been a tough weekend for me. I was riding well in qualifying but I had bad luck at the start of both races today. I feel I’m riding quite well, my fitness is good and I’m just looking forward to the next few races now starting with Foxhill for the British championship next weekend.”