Newport Mavericks 55 Buxton Hitmen 35

(Conference League ~ September 11th)

Newport won their first ever League Championship as the Mavericks swept aside the challenge of Buxton.
Chris Neath led the first race and Nick Simmons worked his way through to take the maximum five points, and it looked a potential landslide when Graig Gough and Jamie Holmes took a second 5-1 in the next.
Buxton got a window of opportunity when Bobby Eldridge fell and his bike clipped Gough in Heat 5, but the Neath/Simmons pairing restored the Mavericks' lead to eight points in Heat 6.
Eldridge fell again in Heat 7 to gift Buxton another 5-1 but Gough took command of Heat 8 and Simmons again came through the field to link up for a maximum.
When Neath and Simmons recorded their third 5-1 in Heat 10, a twelve points lead almost cemented Newport's ninth straight win.
The title was finally sewn up in Heat 12 with another commanding win from Andrew Appleton - but with local boy Gough holding out Aidan Collins and Mark Steel.
A 20-point win was a surprising margin with Eldridge having such a poor meeting at this level and Rob Finlow looking very tentative on his return from injury.

Nick Taylor

MAVERICKS12345 TotalBP HITMEN12345 TotalBP
Chris NEATH33333 15 Neil PAINTER11'01 31
Nick SIMMONS2'2'2'2' 84 Jamie YOUNG02R 2
Andy APPLETON33332' 141 Aidan COLLINS2310 6
Rob FINLOW0XR1 1 Dean GARROD1'2'02'R 53
Bobby ELDRIDGE1X22' 51 Adam ALLOTT31230 9
Jamie HOLMES2'11'F 42 Mark STEEL1R1'1 31
Graig GOUGH3X32' 81 James MANN02'131 71

Heat 1 - Neath, Simmons, Painter, Young (5-1)
Heat 2 - Gough, Holmes, Steel, Mann (10-2)
Heat 3 - Appleton, Collins, Garrod, Finlow (13-5)
Heat 4 - Allott, Mann, Eldridge, Gough (Ex) (14-10)
Heat 5 - Appleton, Young, Painter, Finlow (Ex) (17-13)
Heat 6 - Neath, Simmons, Allott, Steel (Ret) (22-14)
Heat 7 - Collins, Garrod, Holmes (F.rem) Eldridge (Ex) (23-19)
Heat 8 - Gough, Simmons, Mann, Young (Ret) (28-20)
Heat 9 - Appleton, Allott, Steel, Finlow (Ret) (31-23)
Heat 10 - Neath, Simmons, Collins, Garrod (36-24)
Heat 11 - (t/s)Allott, Eldridge, Holmes, Painter (39-27)
Heat 12 - Appleton, Gough, Steel, Collins (44-28)
Heat 13 - Neath, Eldridge, Painter, Allott (49-29)
Heat 14 - Mann, Garrod, Finlow (F.rem) Holmes (Fell) (50-34)
Heat 15 - Neath, Appleton, Mann, Garrod (Ret) (55-35)
Bronze Helmet - Appleton (Challenger) Beat Allott (Holder)
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