A first away league win since this time last year proved a false dawn for Warley as they went on to suffer a fifth home defeat of their current top flight campaign. The Warriors maiden away win of SL36 came at the most unlikeliest of venues, as having lost on all their previous 13 visits to St Ives’s Ursine Arena, not many would have given them any hope of breaking their duck there. They did so thanks to an all round strong performance from their top five—each of which raced to at a last one heat win—plus plenty of luck, as the Pirates suffered four non-finishes in the space of five heats, two from their number one Nelek Piotrowski (6+1). St Ives went on to lose 53-37 at Beverley and slip to seventh in the standings, just points difference above the drop zone. They are however still 11 points better off than Warley, the basement side having gone on to lose at home to York, 41-49, the Vipers securing their second away win of the campaign with their third 5-1 of the night in heat 13. In all their riders took just six heat wins in what was their second away victory of the campaign, a victory which takes them to within four points of leaders Coventry in the standings. Elsewhere Doncaster end the week in the bottom three for the first time this season as they lost at home to Brighton, 44-46, the Rockets leaping above the Riverhogs in the standings thanks to a last heat 4-2, which saw them take the lead in the meeting for the first time.

Coventry inflicted St Ives’s second home defeat of the week on them to make themselves short odds-on favourites to reach the final of this years Division One Cup. 5-1’s from the unbeaten John Hawke (13+2) and his fellow ten point man Angus Rogers (14) in heats 13 and 15 secured the Crusaders a 42-48 win at the Usine in the first leg of the semi-final tie. Timperley meanwhile won on the road in their Division Two Cup semi-final opener, Mauro Papa (15 from six) winning heat 11 and 13 5-1’s—the first as a tactical substitute—for the Pelicans as they came back from a six point deficit to take a 44-46 victory in the meeting.

Richard Lewis (14) bounced back from his disappointing showing in the opening GP of the season to win the Finnish round in Pori. The SL33 World Champion and current world number six dropped just a point in taking his fourth career Grand Prix title, the Beverley and England veteran topping the standings by two points from Herman Stanic (12). 25 year old Stanic now leads the World Championship standings from Angus Rogers (11) on count-back, the Slovenian celebrated the fact by making a move to the top flight for the first time in his career, a deal taking him from Rhondda to Warley completed this week by the two clubs, which sees Alexander Gill and Maksim Mikulich head to Wales.

Buxton’s Jay Partridge (15) scored a maximum to win this season’s British Under 21 title at St Barts. The 18 year old needed every one of those 15 points to add to his BU19 crown secured earlier in the season, with both Ben Kaur (14) and Connor Wood (13) level on 12 points with him heading into a decisive heat 18 contest which featured the trio.