Chalvington will have to wait another year at least to make their KO Cup final bow after once again coming up short at the last four stage of the competition. The Chiefs had been clear favourites to progress after earning a draw at Smethwick in the first leg of the tie between the two top flight clubs, however the Meerkats kept it tight throughout the Lullington Heath return, before pouncing on victory in the last. A 5-1 from Mike Conlon (13) and Kristoff Muller (11+1) decided things in favour of Stephen Hodgkinson’s visitors, the maximum taking them in front for the first time in the tie since heat nine of the opening leg. Stuart Smith will point to more bad luck inflicted on his side, with Per Dalberg (8) suffering an untimely broken chain when leading heat three, while a fall from Dylan Gibson in heat nine cost the hosts another vital point. Still their riders aren’t blameless, Smith will be extremely disappointed that Jason Danoff (11) and Bengt Karmi (11) couldn’t defend a two point advantage in the last, they’d dropped just two points between them in the meeting prior to the decider and should have really brought it home. A 44-46 victory on the night for Smethwick, who progress to their third final, they have yet to lose any of them and are now also three from three at the semi-final stage of the competition. Newport Pagnell stand in their way of maintaining their 100% winning record in the latter stages, the Kings—who lifted the trophy in SL24, 25 and 27—breezing past division two side Bolsover in the last four after adding a 56-33 home win over the Kings this week to their six point victory on their travels. Deniz Rask (15) scored his first KO Cup maximum of SL29 in the club’s latest victory.

A first away win of the campaign may have come too late to save Wordsley from relegation from division two, but it has moved them off the bottom of the table for the first time in over two months. They’re replaced by their defeated hosts, Great Barr, who went down 44-45 to the Wizards after conceding a last heat 4-2, that race result seeing them slip behind in the meeting for the first time. Kyle Ward (14) and Risto Anttila (14) secured the visitors the points, Anttila had won a heat 11 5-1 ahead of deadline day signing at second string Jiri Sivok, levelling the scores at the time in a meeting they had trailed in by eight.

Newington made big inroads towards landing the third tier double in their maiden season. Phil Watmough’s side have gone ten clear at the head of division three with just 18 points left to fight for, a 44-46 victory in their top of the table clash at Loughton all but ending their rivals hopes of denying them the title. Andy James (14) dropped just a point as the Rebels raced to their fourth away win of the campaign, just as he’d done in the first leg of the Division Three Cup final at Wimbledon, the four-time world champion scoring 17 in the meeting as Newington reached the half way point of the tie just two adrift of the Wanderers with their home leg to come.

A second Grand Prix victory of the season has seen Bernd Hoover (12) extend his lead at the top of the World Championship standings to 12 points. Sedgemoor the venue for Hoover’s tenth career GP success, it though his first in the British round of the series, one the Whitemoor rider claimed with a race-off victory over Magnar Kozlowski. A race-off too required to settle third spot on the podium, Per Dalberg (10) beating Cestmir Sulak to take the minor honour.