Fresh from their Cup win at Linlithgow, Buxton faced the King's Lynn Braves at Hi Edge. With Adam Allott on duty for Sheffield, Phil Pickering retained his place and Lee Smethills made his home debut.
The Hitmen continued where they left off in Scotland, hitting the Braves with three 5-1's in the first 3 heats. Heat 1 had to be re-run after Freddie Stephenson was excluded for bringing Neil Painter down as he dived under the Buxton skipper on the 1st turn of the 2nd lap. Lee Smethills made an impact by winning the Reserves race in the fastest time of the season, pushed all the way by team mate James Mann.
Smethills continued to make himself an instant hit with the home fans in Heat 4 as he chased Luke Clifton for four laps and put everything into one last effort around the last turn, going around Clifton and winning by about a bike's length. The heat was draw as Pickering trailed in last, doubling the Braves score. Collins and Burnett streaked from the tapes in Heat 5 for another 5-1 and Mark Steel won the next after chasing Darren Groves for three laps, passing the Aussie along the back straight on the last lap.
Mann and Pickering added another max in Heat 7 to leave the scores 32-10. The Braves brought Groves in as tac sub in Heat 8 and he recorded King's Lynn's first race win but Smethills and Steel took the other places. Groves was out again in the next race and won again, this time from Burnett with Collins passing Clifton for third.
Steel and Painter took an untroubled max in Heat 10 before more excitement in the next Heat. Stephenson, Pickering and Mann all wanted the same bit of track on the first turn and hit the deck. As Stephenson had required attention from the medics, it was decided to take the interval at this point to give the Braves rider time to recover. The track was watered and in the re-run, it caught Pickering and Stephenson out as they both fell on the first turn of lap 2. As Stephenson was ahead of the Buxton rider, he was excluded but Pickering was falling fractionally before the Braves captain anyway. Mann led the 2nd re-run all the way but Pickering slowed on the 3rd lap and started to push his bike. Unfortunately, Mann passed him before he started his last lap and he was excluded for being lapped.
Groves was out yet again in Heat 12 as rider replacement for fellow Premier League rider Peter Boast and the Workington rider showed he had sorted the track out as he held off Smethills in the first turn to record his 3rd win in a row. The Braves took a Heat advantage in 13 as Groves again and Stephenson had a 4-2 over Painter but Mann and Collins took an easy 5-1 in Heat 14. After the race Mann was given the bumps as he was unbeaten.
Surprisingly Mann was out in Heat 15 but the race was delayed as Collins failed to beat the two minutes allowance and had to be replaced by Smethills. Groves made the gate and Mann was caught behind Clifton. He dived under the Braves rider as they entered the third turn and Clifton fell resulting in Mann's exclusion. In the re-run, Groves again gated and was chased by Smethills but took the win without too much trouble.