For the third time this season Brighton have been eliminated from a major club competition by West Ham. Out of the KO Cup, the European Cup and now the Division One Cup, all at the hands of the Dockers, who continued their SL35 dominance over the Sharks by overturning an early six point deficit in their latest meeting at the Aqua-Dome, to claim a final clinching draw. It’s a result which sent them through to their fourth Division One Cup final by six on aggregate, and having won the previous three—in SL15, 18 and 31— they’ll go into that with almost certain belief the silverware will be theirs. A fourth victory would match a record held by Putney in the competition, and it’s Putney they’ll come up against in the decider, with the Spitfires comfortably progressing from their last four tie against Peak Dean this week, winning their home second leg 51-39, having narrowly lost the first on their travels by just two. Brighton themselves had been looking to lift the trophy for a fourth time in SL35, having claimed the silverware in both the last two seasons. Their run though came to an end with still two races remaining of their semi-final, with back-to-back 5-1’s in heats ten and 11—won in turn by Vayk Kari (11+1) and Anthony Kelly (10+2)—followed by a tie clinching Kelly winning 4-2 two races later. West Ham boss Steve Hebden will be hoping that his club have already landed some silverware in SL35 prior to that two-legged affair with Putney, his sights next week on a third European Cup success, they travel to Pori for the second leg of that final with a six point advantage from the first.

Struggling Cradley gave their suffering fans reason to cheer as they picked off Dover to reach the final of the Division Two Cup. A draw at the twice winners sent Graham Weaver’s side through by 12 on aggregate, the Storm now just one tie win away from securing the club’s first piece of silverware in it’s nine year history. They go into that final against Long Ley on an unbeaten run of five meetings in the competition, and with a draw at the Lions in the group stage as part of that sequence, Weaver will fancy that his side can lift the trophy. Long Ley beat last years Division Three Cup winners Bracklesham 51-39 at home this week to win their semi-final tie by ten. Tresco and Bilston will battle it out for this years Division Three Cup, between them the pair have been runners-up five times, but with neither having won the competition, we are now guaranteed first-time winners.

Brighton bounced back from the disappointment of their latest cup exit to win at Nottingham. Czech duo Klement Kobza (13+1) and Ruda Pala (12+1) racing to a last heat 4-2 for the Sharks to secure their side a 43-47 victory in a meeting they had trailed in by six. Brighton—who’d not only been held to a home draw in the cup by West Ham, but also in the league—stay third in division one, they now four points off leaders Peak Dean and two off the Dockers in second. Nottingham remain bottom and are some 16 points adrift of safety, in fact the bottom three are pretty much detached, including Newcastle, despite them winning six of their last seven league fixtures. The latest victory for the in-form Rebels was returned at Reading, 44-46, where Neil Magee’s side snatched the points thanks to heat 14 and 15 5-1’s won by Venedict Glinka (15). Reading had earlier beaten Milton Keynes on the road by the same score, in a meeting in which 42 year old Craig Chapman scored an 18 point maximum.

It’s now ten league victories out of the last 11 for Liden who returned to winning ways at Cradley following last weeks surprise rout at Bracklesham. Strong performances from second string Adriano Fontana (7+2) and reserve Lewis Farmer (6+3) helped secure the Wildcats their fifth away win of the division two campaign, 41-49, a result that coupled with a later win over Dover takes the second placed side nine points clear of Desford in fourth. The loss sees Dover end the week in the relegation places for the first time in SL35, the Silkmen had also earlier lost their home fixture against Wordsley, 39-51, the win a club record on the road for the Warhawks. In division three Medeswell continued their strong away form with a 41-49 win at bottom side Lothian, the Magpies have won five on their travels this season, but have lost six on home shale.

At 28 Maxim Erglis (13) has had to wait a long time to claim his first WSO meeting success. However he couldn’t have achieved it in a more high profiled meeting, the Krakow number one winning this season’s Hungarian Grand Prix by two clear points from world number six Hobart Buus. The win takes Erglis up to second in the ‘closed-up’ World Championship standings, the top seven of which are now separated by just two points. Meanwhile the next generation took to the track in Milton Keynes for the WU19 Final, where Bilston’s Harry Radford (14) became the sixth different British rider to take the title in it’s 16 year history.