Holders West Ham are into their 11th Division One Cup semi-final—only Swanage (19) and Putney (14) have featured in more—following a 46-44 win over Lane End in their latest first round fixture. It was a third straight success in this years competition for Steve Hebden’s side, and another narrow one at that, the Dockers in fact only taking the lead for the first time in the fixture when Antony Kelly (11+1) and Cameron Richards (10) scored a 4-2 in the final race. It’s a win that secures West Ham’s passage with a group meeting to spare, competition debutants Lane End remain favourites to take the other qualification spot in that half of the draw, any size of home win over Kent in their remaining tie will be enough to see them leapfrog Putney into the top two of the standings. Success too off the track for West Ham, with Hebden landing his top target in the new transfer window, he strengthening his top four with the addition of 25 year old Hungarian Tarjan Lengyel, who will slot in nicely at second string with a GSA of 7.27. Lengyel was released by Benfleet in pre-season after the Robins revamped their squad entirely, he cost the Dockers £423,000. West Ham were far from the only club to spend big this week however, new Pairs Champions Putney got in on the act with the £401,000 purchase of Jack Reynolds, he’d been at Peak Dean for nine years prior to his release at the end of last season. Division two relegation zone sitters Bolsover and Bilston also made £1/4million plus moves, bringing in Oksana Falin and Szever Kin respectively to bolster their survival bids.

More home disappointment for Kent who are still without a win at the Iron Ring two months into SL36. Their third division one defeat at the circuit of the season was a second in succession by a 44-46 margin, Reading the latest club to claim victory there, doing so when 43 year old Craig Chapman (14) crossed the line in second place in the last. Chapman had won all four of his previous heats, all resulting in 4-2’s for the visitors. Crucially he was backed up well by the rest of the Whiteknights septet, most notably 19 year old reserve Rezso Ferko (8), who raced to wins in heats two and 14, again both resulted in Reading 4-2’s. David Grainger’s side—who avoided relegation by one place last season—end the week outside of the bottom three for the first time in over a month, they scrabbling up to seventh with a 46-44 home win over Desford who slip to eighth, all four of Reading’s wins of the campaign have been by a four point margin or less. Elsewhere another away point for Brighton when they took on West Ham, Hoburt Buus (14) beating Antony Kelly (11+1) in the last at Custom Court to ensure the scores would finish level in that.

Four riders from the worlds top ten began their bids this week to return to the GP series. And all four made it through their initial qualifiers, the Scandinavian semi-finals. The first in Oslo was won by a rider who surprising missed out on a GP spot last year, Aarno Saarinen (14), the 11 point Pori rider topping the standings by a point from Tom Bruhns to complete his eighth WSO victory. World number five Sladan Bruhn (10) qualified through to the final from fourth. SL35 GP riders Kimmo Laakso (11), Tommy Leinonen (10) and Hobart Buss (10) safely negotiated the tie in Pori, that was won by Long Ley and Sweden rider Martin Latt (12), the success the 29 year olds first in his WSO career that now spans 21 meetings.

Three 4-2’s and a 5-1 in the final five races took Dover to a 41-49 victory at Tresco in their second tier clash. It sees them end the week two points clear at the top of the standings, reward too for them in the Division Two Cup even thought they didn’t ride in the competition this week, with results elsewhere confirming a second successive semi-final spot for the club. Bolsover won at Long Ley in the group 44-46 to make themselves favourites to follow the Silkmen through, they recovering from 12 down in the fixture to take the victory with 5-1’s in heats 13 and 15. Disappointment though in the league for the Bears, they going down at home by the same 44-46 margin with the visit of bottom side Bilston, who secured their first points of the campaign with the minor places in the last. Earlier the Bull Terriers had suffered their fifth straight home defeat in all competitions since their promotion to this level, Tresco the latest to enjoy the hospitality at the Steelyard, particularly 19 year old second string Nalek Duda (9+1) who raced to two wins in the 43-47 victory.

Warrington and Poole booked their places in the Division Three Cup semi-finals with large home wins over Farnham (54-36) and Calne (58-32) respectively. Houston have put themselves in a strong position to also make the last four thanks to their draw at Benfleet.