An 18 point maximum from Connor O’Brien was the highlight as Cirencester pulled off a remarkable victory at Dundee to reach the KO Cup second round for the first time. A maiden aggregate success in the competition for Paul Allen’s Centurions, who went into the second leg at the top flight Cakes holding a more than useful ten point advantage from the opener, and despite scoring three 5-1’s in the first eight races the advantage was too large a hurdle for this weeks hosts to climb. Not much went right for Dundee after the third of those 5-1’s, with O’Brien beating Cakes number one Jake Clarke (11+1) for the second time on the night when coming in as a tactical substitute in heat nine, a 4-2 there was followed by another when the Aussie returned to the track in heat 11, and two more races later O’Brien partnered up with Joseph Bailey (8+1) to score the visitors second 5-1 of the meeting, one which confirmed their side’s passage through to the last-16 with still two races remaining. Cirencester face Nottingham in an all second tier tie in the next round, the Red Dogs also eliminating top flight opposition this week in the form of Rugby. Having beaten the Gravediggers on the road in leg one, Michael Wright’s side began the second leg as favourites to progress to round two and maintain their 100% record at this stage of the competition. They made it five out of five first round wins with a full three races to spare after Joakim Naess Lund (13+1) and reserve Brandies Rank (11+2) combined for a heat 12 5-1, the home side’s third such score of the contest.

Andy Daniel has matched Steve Burton’s record of four successive British titles after winning this years final at Timperley. A heat 18 defeat to Phil Robinson (8) saw the Auckland number one drop his only point of the contest, but his second place finish was enough to secure him the crown ahead of Ben Downing (2nd) and Matthew Wild (3rd), who went on to fight out a race-off for the minor podium places. The top eight from the meeting continue on in the world championship, up next for them the Overseas Final, in which they’ll meet the leading riders from this weeks Pacific Final. That meeting was won by current Lakeside rider David Samudio, the 21 year old—who has put nearly two points on his 8.49 start of season GSA since his loan switch from Timperley—securing his first career WSO meeting win with a heat 17 victory over John Frieman (11). Frieman went on to beat Phillip Trosky (3rd) and Matthew Oliviera (4th) in a race-off for the remainder of the podium spots at Richmond.

A draw at Dundee was enough to see Southampton end the week top of the division one table. Stone Cross slipped from the summit following a three point defeat at Swinton, who themselves went on to take a share of the spoils on their latest away trip, the minor places from Tom Parsons (10) and Pavel Zirnis (11+2) securing a draw at bottom of the table Auckland for the lions. Southampton meanwhile needed a last heat 4-2 from Goran Seslar (16) and Sergey Guerk (10+1) to tie their meeting up at Dundee, a meeting they had trailed their hosts in by ten with six races remaining.

A club record home league defeat for Cirencester followed their cup success at Dundee. It’s now four defeats in a row in division two for the Centurions, whose latest loss was inflicted by Wednesfield, 39-51. Victor Bitkin (13) and Pavel Kulvajt (13) raced to four heat wins apiece for the visitors in the rout, which lifts the Wolves up to fourth and to within points difference of the promotion places. Bullbridge are up to third thanks to a 44-46 victory at Birstall, second string Thomas Klemmensen (12+1) one of six different visiting riders to win at least one race on the night, his second success returned in a match clinching last heat 4-2. In division three leaders Lakeside and second placed Tweed pulled further clear of the chasing pack thanks to away wins at Stepps and Tey Grove respectively.