Newport visited Owlerton fielding a team with a strong trio of proven riders including ex-Tiger Kyle Legault and frequent guest Craig Watson along with Leigh Lanham, but then four Owlerton debutantes who were unknown quantities. Unfortunately for the Tigers the previous weekend's stock car meeting meant that the track was exactly the same, an unknown quantity, and it turned out to have a couple of undesirable features not least of which was a section of turn two which was breaking up which caught several riders out.

The Wasps flew from the gate to lead heat 1 (Ricky Ashworth doesn't like gate 4 does he!). Alex Davies flew from the tapes to win heat 2 as neither Paul Cooper nor Simon Lambert could match his speed. Another debutante, Kim Nilsson, flew from the start to lead heat 3 with Josef Franc looking for the outside pass but running out of track. If Josh can't cope then we know the lack of passing is most likely down to the track. Robin Aspegren shoots into the lead hotly pursued by Josh who lifts out of turn two and narrowly avoids the fence while the rest of he field pass him. Simon goes for the inside dive on turn three but Robin sticks to his line and holds onto the lead. Josh is trying hard to pass Todd Kurtz and at times looks barely in control but he dives through into third place at the start of lap two, and leaves it late on the last lap before rounding Simon. Josef and Richard lead the way in heat 5 with the Wasps well off the pace and Craig retires on the last lap. Scores level.

Robin makes another lightning start to lead heat 6 but Ricky dives through into the lead exiting the pit turn. Hugh comes under pressure from the speedy Alex but does well to keep him contained and the Tigers take the lead. Josh  gates well to lead heat 7 but hits a rough patch and wobbles exiting turn two. Kyle over-reacts and throws his bike down and after a brief delay the ref makes a poor decision and excludes Josh. The Wasps gate in the rerun and Paul can only follow them home. The track looks good, but is obviously deceptive. Hugh and Simon take an early lead in heat 8 and extend it as Craig obviously has mechanical issues which culminate in a broken primary chain (?) as he starts the last lap. Heat 9 was 'all four back' after Robin took a flyer. Josef and Richard led the rerun with Robin trying hard to make amends until he got all out of shape on the second bend of the third lap allowing Alex through for the solitary point. Hugh led heat 10 with Kyle and Ricky in hot pursuit. Kyle took the lead with the inside line out off turn four but Hugh moved wide looking for drive. Just as he switched back looking to pass Kyle out of turn two Ricky ploughed straight into him and they both took heavy tumbles. It was obvious to everyone on the first turn who the culprit was but Dave Dowling discluded Hugh! Kim traps alongside Kyle in the rerun and Ricky does his normal 'striking poses for the photographers' act en-route to last place. Thanks to Ricky our handy six point lead has been slashed to just two.

Leigh  leads heat 11 from Josh with Paul working overtime to hold off Craig who has switched machines. Leigh sheds a chain at the start of lap 3 to gift the Tigers a maximum heat win. Josef steams into the lead in heat 12 and the Wasps have no answer, but neither has Lambo who trails home last. Ricky traps from gate 1 in heat 13 but then goes ridiculously wide allowing Leigh to pass him exiting turn two. Ricky dives back into the lead on the third turn but Leigh reciprocates on the first turn of the second lap. Ricky grabs a hand full of throttle and demolishes a section of safety fence on the second turn! Robin had retired at the time the race was stopped so it was a two man re-run. Leigh trapped and was comfortably ahead until Josh scraped the fence and blasted around him at the end of the second lap. Kyle trapped from Paul and Alex in heat 14. Alex tried to pass Paul at the start of lap 3 but Paul took his line allowing Richard up into third place. Richard blasted past Paul on the last lap but had no chance of catching the Canadian on his way to his first win of the night.

Seven points up into the nominated heat so all we need for maximum race points is a shared heat. Josef and Josh (top two scorers, how predictable) are Eric's choices. Kim and Kyle win the toss and take 1&3. Would you put Josef off gate 2 or 4? Think back to last week. Shame Eric didn't. The Wasps gate, Josef is stymied on his outside run, Josh battles his way under Kyle out of turn two on the last lap but it isn't enough. Another league point goes adrift. I hope Eric is good behind the scenes in other ways, because his recent tactical aptitude is straight out of the Reg Wilson "An Idiots Guide To Team Management" (which I believe he paid full price for)!

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