Trevor Walker’s Whitemoor had won just one major trophy in their 19 seasons prior to the start of SL29. They’ve added three in the current campaign, and not many would bet against them making it four next week. A maiden league championship title the main aim for the season, that should follow the maiden 4TT crown they landed this week, and it’s no coincidence that this sudden success has come about after the arrival of Bernd Hoover at the Sheepcroft. Whitemoor were somewhat on the defensive after the first leg of this season’s 4TT final, Chalvington earning a lead in the tie when taking victory at Smethwick, with both Per Dalberg (10) and Bengt Karim (10) ending the meet in double figures. That advantage however remained in place for just two heats of the second leg at the Sheepcroft, where the host riders took control by winning the first four races, in all they would pick up ten of the 16 wins, four of which went to the unbeaten Hoover (12). Whitemoor finished the meeting with a 40 point total, their highest score in any of the 12 meetings they’ve competed in this season. Given the firepower at their disposal and the 18 point aggregate lead they’d now gained, there was little chance any of their opponents could challenge them for the silverware. Chalvington pulled back four points of that deficit in their home leg, but they’d have been hoping for a much better result than that, the Witches quartet picking up 29 points in the meeting despite managing just three heat wins. They added 27 more in the decider at Glasshoughton, where the hosts scored 37 to pull themselves through to the runners-up spot. Whitemoor had secured their gold medals well before the end.

Nottingham have been promoted back to the top flight at the first attempt. A 53-37 win over Glasshoughton (43 points) securing the club a top three finish in the second tier, they also now just a point off securing the title, which they will surely do next week. Michael Wright’s Red Stars had gone nine points up on fourth with just nine left to ride for with an earlier 43-47 win at Wordsley, a result which relegated their hosts. The Wizards have fallen from the first to the third division in successive seasons. Great Barr—who were promoted to this level last season—are also down, a defeat at Bolsover (48) ending their tenure. Bolsover are one of six clubs still in the hunt for the remaining two promotion places, they currently lie second with meetings against two teams in the relegation zone to come. Coalville (46) climbed from sixth to third this week courtesy of a crucial 43-47 victory at Glasshoughton, Anton Cirar (12) securing the three league points for the visitors with a last heat victory over Michael Langhorne (10). The Cobras host Broadwell (42) on the final day, a club still in the promotion hunt despite currently lying seventh, just three points clear of the drop zone, although both Wilmington (45) and Oxford (44) have much better chances of sneaking into the top three.

Newington will end their debut season with the division three title. That and their promotion to the second tier secured with a 53-37 home win over Denston, the Phil Watmough side then going on to celebrate their success by picking up their fifth away win of the campaign, a 41-49 victory at bottom side Halesowen. Longbridge—who’s latest meeting at Denston ended in a draw—are favourites to follow them up.

Whitemoor’s Bernd Hoover (11) needs to score just six points in the final GP round of the season to become World Champion for a third time. The 26 year old Austrian took second ahead of Taavi Raudnagel in the latest tie in Prague after a race-off, Bridgwater’s Andy James (14) having taken the meeting win for the second GP in succession. Meanwhile there was success for Vitas Kolesnichenko (14) in the World Under 21 Championship, the Sedgemoor teenager winning the final in Oslo this week by two points from Philip Sorensen. Kolesnichenko won the WU19 title two years ago, and is the sixth rider to win both world youth championships.