They’ve taken the league and Europe by storm, but for the second time this season Coventry Crusaders have come unstuck against Brookwood Scorpions in a major cup competition, the Sheffield based side adding the KO Cup to their Division One Cup win in spookily similar fashion. As they did going in the second leg of that earlier final Brookwood held just a four point lead from their home meeting, leaving the odds stacked against them once more at Diamond Park. But another draw on their travels saw the Paul Wyer side claim their second piece of silverware of the season at the expense of the Crusaders, who had dominated the heat victory stats. John Collins (4+3) had been promoted to the main team since the side previous cup encounter in the midlands, but he still held the same scoring threat, his second behind another of the divisional cup heroes— Adam Gozzard (8+1)—in heat eight taking the visitors into a comfortable ten point aggregate lead. A tactical substitute win in a 4-2 from the unbeaten Timo Viitikko (16+2) gave the home side hope in heat ten, but that was cancelled out by Lenny Sloan (11) two heats later, while Jens Erfort’s (4+1) first win of the clash in heat 14 secured the memorable victory. Having been defeated finalists last season in the competition, Brookwood now end this season on a high, partly making up for their five year low finish of fifth in the league. Having seen his side beat the best twice, Wyer will be looking to get the consistency into the squad required to see them win that much sort after second league title.

A last heat win in the final Grand Prix of the season saw Rustem Fakhrutdinov snatch the world title from Coventry team mate and previous holder, Timo Viitikko. The door was opened for the 31 year old Russian to take his first crown by Viitikko two races earlier, having missed the break in that race the defending champion ended up on the deck after going for too much power down the back straight of the opening lap: “I had nothing to lose, I wasn’t going to get any points where I was but the gods were against me tonight. Well done to Rustem, he deserves it!” Having made his debut in the series some 12 years ago, Fakhrutdinov has certainly done the apprenticeship, his highest previous finish in the series being fifth despite seven individual GP podium finishes prior to this season, in which he’s added four more to his career tally. His heat 20 win took him on to 56 points for the season, one better than that of Allan Lenton and Viitikko, the Brit finishing as runner-up in the series courtesy of his opening round victory in Denmark. Edvard Sistek (12) took the individual GP honours on the night, the Hove man claiming his second career GP title after racing to three wins from five races.

Bradford Hunters survived an early scare in their final home league fixture of the season to secure the points required to earn them promotion to the top flight at the first time of asking. Kidderminster’s Rob Foster headed a visitors 5-1 in the opening heat setting up a nervous night for the hosts, however a quick fire double maximum at the mid point of the clash got the Hunters back on target, second string Alex Taylor winning the first in heat eight, John Honey the second two races later to set up a 49-41 success. That was enough to clinch third spot in the division two table behind the already promoted Hull and Beverley. Mark Moorehead has wasted no time planning for division one, the promoter of the Yorkshire club—who won division three last year in their debut season—having already decided upon the line up for the next campaign, one that won’t include either of the present top two Anders Jansson or Johnny Hansen. Elsewhere Hull sealed the divisional championship with a final day 52-38 win over Norwich.

Redcar Raiders succeeded in holding off a late season challenge from Eastbourne to take the final promotion place remaining in division three, third place secured with a combination of their win over Newton (52-38) and the Racers failure to take the bonus point on offer against the already promoted Poole. Having spent the last four years at the lowest level, Redcar will race in division two for the first time in their history. Poole’s bid for the divisional title came to an end with Bury Buccaneers 44-46 win at Aldershot, the Terry Rigby side earning their eighth away league success of the season thanks to a last heat 5-1 from Pavel Spak (13-2) and Karel Drabek (14+1). Bury have competed in division three for the past seven years, their previous highest placing in that time being fifth.