Cradley Heath’s hopes of a first Division One Cup semi-final appearance were extinguished by a surprise result involving their two rivals for a last four spot. With his side sitting out the final round of fixtures, Stuart Mills could only sit and watch as Merseyside qualified at their expense with an unexpected victory at Ramsgate, a side that had already qualified for the knock out stage. Perhaps the Marauders wanted it more, they certainly needed it more, a draw from their final group fixture the minimum they required to overhaul the Hammers in the standings, the way the Rams’ number one Bojan Kraka meekly gave up the lead and victory in heat three to visiting second string Timur Lazaroff (8+1) didn’t impress the home fans one bit. And it went down even worse at Cradley. Better was to come for Lazaroff, he went on to finish second in a 5-1 behind Shane Goodwin (10) four races later, a heat that included two home heat leaders, Alexander Wagner (15) having been sent in as a tactical substitute. Merseyside had secured the draw they came for as early as heat 12, while Lazaroff’s second victory of the meeting in heat 14 secured them the meeting win which would see them topple their defeated hosts at the top of the group. Having won their section they will now face holders Manor—runners-up in Group B—in the semi-finals, Ramsgate get Don Valley, who topped the standings in the other half of the draw thanks to a double bonus point winning 60-30 success over Southampton in their final qualifier, BU21 Champion Ethan McCarthy impressing with paid 12 in his new role at reserve in the rout.

Last years top three finishers in the Grand Prix series made their first World Championship appearances of the season this week. They’ll all get to have a second, but three-time defending World Champion Valeri Lach (8) nearly didn’t, a retirement and exclusion in his earlier races in the Brighton qualifier leaving him needing a victory in his final ride to progress. He achieved that in heat 18 with an air of a rider who’d was just toying with his rivals, nonchalantly picking up the three points as the rest trailed in a distance behind. Manor’s Waclaw Kozlowski (13)—runner-up to Lach in last years World Championship—won the meeting by two points from Svein Agard, the success was the Pole’s 11th in a WSO meeting. At Malmo there was a maiden WSO victory for Edo Koutnik (13), a rider who has been lighting up the European League for the past two seasons with Plock, the 27 year old has yet to get passed the second round of the World Championship in his career, but is predicted by many to go all the way to the GP’s this year. World number three Samuel Murphy (12) opened his SL25 account with a second place finish behind Koutnik in the tie.

Don Valley—who have finished in the top two of the league in each of the past five seasons—went top of division one for the first time in SL25 after racing to a 42-48 victory at Altrincham. A first win of the meeting for 18 year old second string Olesia Kowalczyk (7+1) in heat 14 secured the Vipers their third straight win at the Cheshire venue, visiting riders had also won ten of the previous 13 races, with three of those returned by 17 year old Samuel Hill (9). While Don Valley hit the summit—they going a point clear of Denaby who lost at Southampton (52-38)—Altrincham slip 11 points adrift of safety having now lost six on the bounce in the league. One bright point for the hosts was the performance of £40,000 signing Toni Ylonen, who scored ten on what was his Panthers’ home league debut.

There are new leaders too in division two with Brighton going top with a 40-50 victory at Wednesfield. A fourth win of the meeting from reserve Jamie Hodges secured the Bombers what was their fourth away league win of the campaign with a race to spare, the 23 year old finished with best figures of 13 from five in a Bombers race-jacket. Brighton’s impressive tally of 27 league points for the campaign to date is matched by Birmingham, who are back up to second following home and away wins this week. Somerset was the venue for their away success, they snatching the points 44-46 with a Aarno Raisanen (17) last heat winning 4-2, Craig Dickson’s side had trailed by six with five races remaining.

Whiteley maintain their position at the top of division three despite pressure from London who won at Newquay this week. Heat 13 and 15 5-1’s won by Liam Marlow (16) earned the Jaguars a 42-48 victory on their travels, while a fourth away success from Whiteley of the campaign was taken on their trip to Border. California drop out of the top three however as they suffered a home 41-49 defeat to in-form Nottingham, the Red Raiders continuing to turn their season around with a victory which was secured by a Jason Saunders (7+2) winning 5-1 in heat 14.