Southampton boss John Shuttler thought he had seen off the challenge of Andy Daniel (15) when he knocked his then club Halesowen out of the KO Cup at the third round stage. But the Brit—who has since rejoined parent club Loughborough—came back to haunt the three-times winners in the final of this years competition, he brought in as a guest by their opponents Eastbourne to replace Benjamin Hess at number one. And what a good choice he turned out to be. His 11 in the first leg at Southampton helped keep the Saints ‘half-time’ lead down to two points, in the return the 33 year old outgoing three-time World Champion scored a five ride maximum, with his fifth win of the contest securing the Hyenas the trophy. That fifth victory came in a last heat decider at The Whirlpool, his 4-2 with Harry Myers (11) turning a single point advantage into a 91-88 aggregate success for the hosts. It had been hard work throughout the return for Eastbourne, they twice falling behind on the night, the second time in heat 12 when both Vadim Rimkus (1) and Jonathan Turnbull (2) failed to score a point, a 0-5 going the way of the visiting side in the re-run of the race. Successive 4-2’s took the league champions back in front in the meeting and then on aggregate heading into the last, the first won by Kasper Larsen (9+1), the next providing Daniel with his fourth success of the contest. The victory takes Eastbourne’s number of trophy wins for the year to four, matching their tally from last season. They have also become the first club ever to win the KO Cup in three successive seasons.

Andy Daniel’s (10) three year reign as World Champion is over with Stone Cross’s Dusan Hobler (9) taking on the tag of the sports number one. He does so after topping the Grand Prix standings by four points from Soren Soenksen (11), the three-time GP winner in SL30 unable to claw back his six point deficit to Hobler in this weeks final round in Warsaw, despite winning his first three races. The hat-trick of victories included a heat five success over Hobler, which boosted his hopes of a late charge to the gold medal. Those hopes though came to an end when Hobler took his first win of the meeting, success in heat 17 securing the 26 year old Czech international his maiden world title. The Polish GP round win meanwhile went to David Bjorge (13), the Oslo man adding to his success in Denmark to finish third overall in what has been a strong debut series for the 27 year old.

The WU21 Championship has been a happy hunting ground for British riders over the years and SL30 has added to the success by the home nation riders. Grangemouth’s Alex Warren—who represents Scotland at the international level—becoming the tenth different Brit to take the title after winning this years final on his home circuit ahead of Greenhill’s Edvard Poelhuis (13) and Ryan Webb (12) of Swinton, Warren followed up a heat three second place finish to Webb in the meeting with four successive heat victories. Having secured the BU19 title in SL28, this is Warren’s second championship win, he has also impressed of late for his club, moving up to heat leader in SL30 after lifting his GSA from 5.94 to it’s current mark of 7.11.

The battle for the remaining promotion place from division two went into a final day decider at Birkenhead. The hosts trailed visiting side Bolsover by one place and one point in the standings prior to the fixture, but leapfrogged them to finish third at the death thanks to a 47-43 victory, a 5-1 from Mikhail Smirnov (12) and Lubomir Gerich (11+2) in the very last race of the campaign securing them the decisive points. Glyn Hughes’s Bombers were relegated from the top flight this time last season after four years at the highest level. At the bottom it’s relegation for Grangemouth, who had been looking safe after picking up a shock 44-46 win at promotion chasing Liden in the penultimate round of fixtures, however a later home defeat to Nottingham sees the Oilers suffer a second successive relegation. Loughborough won at Purton on the final day to secure themselves a position outside of the bottom three on points difference ahead Burrett Road (8th), however the Barons are closing at the end of the season, sparing the Bombers from the drop on this occasion.

A 44-46 penultimate round win at Sunderland secured Birstall the third tier double, the Division Three Cup winners promoted as champions after five successive years at this level. Second spot goes to Dundee, whose four year spell in division three came to an end with a 41-49 victory at Tey Grove, Wolverton went on to secure third spot with a final day home win over the same opponents.

A third straight International title secured by England this week, with the Lions ensuring top spot in the standings thanks to a 53-37 win over Denmark.