East Midlands duo Long Eaton and Mansfield will come up against each other in the KO Cup final just weeks after fighting in out for the Division One Cup victory. The two clubs are separated by just 20 miles of motorway travel, the M1 providing a direct route between the two, but it’s took over 16 years before they met in competitive action. Long Eaton have been by far the most successful out of the two over the years, that despite having began SL1 in the third tier, while their fellow founder members began life a division higher. They had swapped divisions by the end of the second season, with the Rifles going on to achieve top flight status at the end of SL4. Many trophies followed for Martin Smith’s side, including for the first time last year, the League Championship silverware. Pete Watmough’s Mansfield’s success has been limited to the lower divisions, and then they had to wait until SL11 before landing the third tier double. This year has seen them compete at the top echelon for the first time, with that long awaited first competitive meeting against the Rifles coming in the opening week, a 50-40 victory one to remember. Another first now as they take each other on in the KO Cup, and they’ll do so with the trophy itself at stake. Mansfield reached their second final—they were runners-up in SL11—by completing a ten point aggregate win over another local side, Nottingham, this week. Reserve Victor Zick (8+2) amongst the heat winners in the 49-41 second leg home win which took them through. SL8 winners Long Eaton meanwhile smashed division three leaders Barnsley by 18 on aggregate in their semi-final tie.

With six meetings remaining the gap between third placed Belfast and league leaders Long Eaton has closed to five points. The two will meet in Derbyshire early next month, where a Sinks win will really set the title race alive ahead of the final two rounds, their first task though is to get as close as possible to the defending champions, and a 41-48 victory this week at Swinton has seen their deficit narrow. It was a victory which was all down to heats 13 and 15, races in which the unbeaten Daniel Pesola (14+1) helped bring about 5-1’s, as a solid team rider to heat winner Stephan Beck (7) in the former and the one to take the chequered flag ahead of Jan Tomanek (11+1) in the finale. Long Eaton meanwhile were adding to their away points tally for the campaign at Sedgley, although Martin Smith will certainly see it as a point dropped considering the Sprites—who were relegated after failing to win the meeting—had lost six in a row in the league and won just three of their 20 previous top flight fixtures. The hosts Petter Guillikson (9+1) and Vadim Kozel (8+1) scored a shock last heat 5-1 to leave the final scores all-square.

East Hull end the week back in the division two promotion places following a 44-46 victory at bottom side Buxton. The result relegates the Bees after five years at this level, that despite there still being six rounds of racing remaining. A last heat 4-2 won by Jarek Szczepanski (13) took the Flyers to their third away win of the campaign in a meeting they had trailed in by six, but also led in by eight. The three points gained means Bournville—who had been in the top three—enter the run-in a point behind the Flyers in fourth spot.

A run of just one defeat in six has seen Southend re-join the promotion battle in division three. They cut their deficit to the top three to two points with the help of a 43-47 victory at Abdy, where Belal Dlouhy scored a best of 12 for the Eagles since his recent switch from Chesterfield. A couple of places and four points better off than Southend are Nottingham, who consolidated their position in the promotion spots with a draw at Kent, which Ivan Sergey (9+1) and Sampsa Nikula (14+1) secured for them with a last heat 4-2. Nikula had been used as a tactical substitute earlier on in the night after the Red Devils slipped eight points adrift of their hosts.

Barnsley look set to end their first season in the sport with at least one trophy after winning the first leg of the Division Three Cup final against Southend by 24. Uzor Rosko (14+1)—a mid-season £1/4million signing from Prague—scored a maximum for the Bears in the 57-33 rout.

Pori’s Sven Roth (13) was the surprise winner of this season’s British Grand Prix in Houston. A maiden GP round success for the 33 year old at the 15th attempt, he had failed to score in double figures in his 11 previous meetings and managed just three last week in Malmo. Four wins took the Pori man to the title by two points from Brit’ Julian Harrison (2nd) and Durko Karban (3rd), who fought out a race-off for the minor podium positions. Marcin Jaworski (9) retains a two point lead in the World Championship, Karban moves up into second. Meanwhile this weeks WU21 Semi Final in Richmond was won by Houston’s Leon Henrichsen (14).