Eastbourne’s stay in division two should be a short one with the leaders going six points clear of fourth placed Coalville just ten meetings into the new league campaign. Eight wins out of ten now at this level for the Seagulls—who spent the previous 30 seasons in the top flight—their latest success a 44-46 victory at Hale, who had began the week in the promotion places, but end it in the drop zone following the loss. Stig Martinson (14) and Cerek Ostrowski (13+1) team rode to the minor places in the last to secure all three points on offer in the fixture, they had both won four out of four prior to the decider. Calderwood meanwhile have gone from bottom of the pile after the first month of the campaign to best of the rest, they sit second after beating Earley by 18 at the Almondell, that despite Tom Rantala failing to score in any of his four rides on his home debut. Krzysztof Zielinski (10+1) made up for the new arrival’s shortfall with three wins from his four rides at reserve, the 21 year old in double figures again having scored a season best 11 in the Cougars earlier 42-48 victory at Coalville. Three race wins once more for the Pole at the Kings, but there was five from six outings to the track for heat leader Teodar Zlobec (17), who put in his best performance of SL33 as the visitors successfully fought back from eight down in the meeting. Calderwood completed a 14 point turnaround in the scores in the final five races, taking three 5-1’s on the bounce in the process, Magnar Sobczk (8+2) finishing second to Zlobec in two of the three.

Normanton made it six league wins out of six to go four points clear at the top of division three. Kelso their hosts for their latest success, a venue they also won at twice last season. On this occasion it was a last heat 5-1 from Mattias Zimmerman (12) and Sebastian Blomstrom (13+1) which took them over the line, 19 year old Swedish reserve Christer Thurlin (6+3) also impressed in the 43-47 victory. Elsewhere a four point away success too for Mid Cams, who climbed into the promotion places for the first time since their relegation back to the third tier, second string Markus Kampula (10+1) providing the decisive heat win in the penultimate race of the contest. It was Kampula’s second success of the night, he having beaten home number one Daniel Bailey (12 from six) in his opening appearance on the track. Reserve David Kofoed (8) also raced to two heat wins in the meeting to continue his strong start to SL33.

Mattias Zimmerman (14) transferred his impressive Normanton form onto the international stage by winning his debut World Championship tie. The 25 year old hadn’t raced in any WSO meeting since finishing 14th in the WU21 Final back in SL28, five years on he dropped just a point to take the Continental semi-final victory in Lublin, finishing three points clear of Zsigmond Kadar and world number six, Dirk Miller. Miller’s fellow SL32 GP participants Martin Huffman (9) and Rubert Zmolek (8) also made the cut to the final, as did world number four Piotr Slusarski 8) from the second of the qualifiers in Gyor, a meeting won by Pori’s Lel Salata (14).