Three-times defending champions West Ham are through to the quarter-finals of the KO Cup for a ninth successive season after pulling off a shock aggregate win over Putney. Just three up from their home first leg, the Dockers were clear underdogs to progress from the second round tie at Tibberts Corner, but a superb all round team showing extended their winning run in the competition to 14 ties. A slender 91-88 success after the second leg finished all-square at Putney this week, but that’s not the closest they’ve come to defeat over the course of their record run, this time last year they beat Brighton by a single point and have twice progressed by just two. The visitors provided six different heat winners on the night as they battled to defend their first leg lead, although they rode their luck too, with the hosts suffering two exclusions and two mechanical retirements, a crucial one in heat 13 when the engine of Jindra Kubes’s (7) bike gave up, turning a 4-2 ‘for’ into a 4-2 ‘against’. West Ham would never be headed on aggregate, the closest Putney got to them was a point, while at one stage the Dockers had extended their advantage to seven. The minor places in the last from Cameron Richards (11) and Venedict Glinka (10+1) completed their progression to a third round tie with Farnham. Farnham won at second division Medeswell to make the third round in their debut season, they one of four clubs to reach that stage of the competition for the first time, with Liden, Lane End and Long Ley also doing so, the latter two take on each other for a place in the semi-finals, Liden face Bracklesham.

A 44-46 top of the table win at Putney for league leaders Swanage was the big story of the week in the league. The Spitfires beaten at home in division one for the first time in nearly a year and a half, that after Joseph Fisher (12) expertly split the Putney pairing of Jindra Kubes (14) and the previously unbeaten Kimmo Laakso (13) to take a decisive two points in the last, a race earlier the visitors had retaken the lead in the meeting thanks to a Fisher winning 5-1, Cameron Sherwood (11+3 from seven) completing another prolific night at reserve when finishing as runner-up. Swanage went on to smash Liden 57-33 to make it nine league wins in ten, Putney—who now trail the Swans by three points at the head of the standings—meanwhile bounced back to win at Kent, 42-48 thanks to a last heat Laakso (13)/Kubes (13+1) 5-1. Elsewhere Aarno Saarinen (18) scored his first maximum for Reading since his £700,000+ plus move to the club as they won at Desford, 43-47. Saarinen’s first victory of a meeting the visitors led in throughout came when he took a rider/replacement ride in a heat one 5-1, his sixth came in heat 15 securing David Grainger’s side their third away league win of the campaign. Despite the success they remain in the relegation zone, two points adrift of safety.

A first home defeat of the season had seen Medeswell suffer a shock exit in the KO Cup. A second has left them four points off the promotion places in division two, having been within points difference of the top three. The loss came against Bracklesham, who went into the week below them in the standings but end it up into second spot, the Rhinos taking their first away win of the campaign, 43-47, thanks to a last heat Zarek Adamski (15)/Janne Puhakainen (13+2 from six) 5-1. That was the third heat maximum scored by the visitors in the second half of the meeting—the other two also involved Pukakainen—they had trailed by eight. Poole meanwhile end the week top of division three after extending their unbeaten league run to nine with a 41-49 victory at Dudley Wood, they replace Houston at the top, who suffered their first defeat in 12 competitive fixtures on their league trip to Farnham, 46-44. Farnham followed up that success with another two point league win at Warrington.

Cameron Richards (13) is back in the GP series for the first tie in four years after winning the Overseas Final in Brighton. It’s the second time the West Ham rider has won the title, Joshua Emison and Scott Shannon completed the podium. Pole’ Jarek Pawlak (13) led a top three which included Daniel Mucha and Michael Weber in the second of this weeks GP qualifiers, the Continental Final in Pila.