Sparse crowd again tonight, but those who stayed away missed a treat of a meeting, once it got started. Heat 1 was stopped when Ricky fell on the first tun after clipping Hugh's rear wheel. Unbelievably Dale Entwistle adjudges it to be 'first bend bunching' and calls for 'all four back to the tapes'. In the restart Lee Complin and Ricky Ashworth take the lead but as Hugh Skidmore tries to dive past Adrian Rymel on the third turn they collide and both fall with Hugh getting tangled up with his own machine. There is a lengthy delay while he is attended to and the doctor sends him to hospital for precautionary x-rays to his neck. The Bandits lead in the rerun (50 minutes after the meeting started) with Adrian winning by the length of a straight but Ricky kept plugging away and passed Lee on the pits turn at the end of the third lap. Our skipper was first out of the gate in heat 2 and was joined at the front by Arlo Bugeja after Casper Wortmann got out of shape on the second turn. Casper continued to look unsteady for most of the race but Jade Mudgeway made no effort to pass him. Josef Franc and Josh Auty took an easy win in heat 3 with the Bandits getting in each others way. Richard Hall took Michal Makovsky the long way around the first bend in heat 4 before heading off into the lead. Casper looked much steadier in second place and Michal blasted around Arlo into third position on the third turn. Arlo fought back and rounded Michal out of turn two on the second lap, but Michal regained third place on the pits turn and just held Arlo at bay for the last two laps. Josef led the way in heat 5 but was passed by Adrian on the second turn. Josh picked off Lee in the same place and then rounded Josef on the third turn. A hair raising wide burst took him past Adrian and into the lead on the second lap and although Josef was right on Adrian's heels he just couldn't follow the example. Tigers lead by eight points but the racing is the best we've seen for quite some time.

Ricky won heat 6 from the gate while Jade flashed around Arlo on the third turn to pick up third place. Richard trapped to win heat 7 while Paul took the long way around the first two turns passing both Bandits in the process to extend the Tigers lead. Paul replaces Hugh in heat 8 and Dave Peet nominates Lee for a tactical ride. Paul pulls off the same maneuver as in the last heat to take the lead while Arlo is climbing all over Casper for second place. Josef tried the Paul Cooper line in heat 9 to pass Michal but ran out of track and tumbled off into the fence. It was Josh's turn to try it in the rerun which he accomplished with aplomb. Ricky led heat 10 from Paul Clews with Anders Andersen third after Paul Cooper bounced off the second turn safety fence. Paul swooped past Anders into third place on the pits turn and Anders fell on the first turn on the second lap. He leapt to his feet and was clearing his bike from the track when the referee prematurely stopped the race. The result of the rerun was unchanged with Paul nursing a sick bike home for the odd point. The Tigers lead has extended to eighteen points.

Adrian was on a tactical in heat 11 but Lee swoops around the field and into the lead on the second turn. Richard is hot on their heels but Lee is riding his line superbly until the last bend when he eases off to allow his team mate through to claim the 8-1 win. Josef traps in heat 12 but slows on the second turn. Casper swerves to miss him and Coops nearly ends up in the fence. Coops battles back and a very w-i-d-e fourth turn sees him through into second. He pushed Casper on the inside of every bend for a couple of laps before swooping around him and into the lead on the second bend of the last lap. Ricky and Richard have obviously not been watching the racing as they both concentrate on trying to pass their opponents on the inside. Richard does try an outside blast on the last lap but fails by inches. Heat 14 sees the Bandits off into the lead. Coops dives under the pair of them on the third turn but Paul Clews cuts back into the lead out of turn four. Josh also passes Casper out of the last bend to move into third position. Coops winds it on to pass Clews on the second turn on the third lap to take the lead and then Josh dives through into second place with the inside line on the third turn. Josh passes his captain at the start of the last lap but Paul responds by sweeping wide around the pits bend and just sneaks the win on the finishing line. Wow! Adrian leads heat 15 with Richard pushing on the inside line. Richard winds it on around the outside on the second lap and passes Adrian out of turn four. Josh closes in next and dives through into second place on the third turn of the third lap.

Paul Cooper is our top scorer as he inspires the Tigers to his first win as captain. Credit to the Bandits for making us work for the points but thankfully we had a track which allowed us to do just that. The crowd was seriously down and those supporters who stayed away should read this and realize they missed the best meeting at Owlerton for some years.

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