Dudley Heathens near to the trophy

Dudley Heathens 65 Weymouth Wildcats 27

Dudley put one hand firmly on the league leaders' trophy with a runaway win over Weymouth.

Add in their play-off and Knockout Cup involvement and the club may yet be asking the engraver to quote a discount rate for quantity.

Unless Buxton win their final match, at King's Lynn, by a gargantuan 45 points the first silverware of the new era is guaranteed.

Team boss Will Pottinger was looking for a positive reaction to last week's home defeat and Lee Smart's men responded magnificently last nigh.

The captain himself set the benchmark in heat one by lopping more than a second off the best National League time at Perry Barr.

Smart romped to a five-ride full house and was in no mood to allow the Wildcats even a single consolation heat win.

Weymouth number one James Cockle, a Brummie old boy who knows every line round the track, went closest.

He didn't put a wheel wrong when leading the final race but, before he even had time to cover Smart's expected last-bend charge round the boards, the Heathens skipper steamed up the inside to take the flag.

Cockle still had the satisfaction of taking the only points of the night from third-placed Tom Perry in that race.

The 17-year-old actually made one very fast start, in heat five, when some astute covering of Cockle's passing bid allowed partner Jake Anderson to join him at the front.

But for the rest it was business as usual, winding it up round the boards and passing at will.

This, however, was no two-man show.

Micky Dyer is adding a sureness of touch while retaining the excitement in his racing, while Anderson was full value for his paid 10 and Barrie Evans shrugged off recent mechanical problems to take three fine victories.

By Tim Hamblin