Development League Challenge

EXETER FALCONS 22

WEYMOUTH WILDCATS 14

THREE heat wins from Matt Bates proved not enough as the Weymouth Wildcats were defeated in their first completed meeting in five years.

Bates was the star of the show for the former Radipole Lane outfit at Somerset’s Oak Tree Arena, in which the Wildcats were left a man down.

Issues with his van thwarted Niall Strudwick’s efforts to get to the track, meaning the three Wildcats’ riders were left to fill in for him throughout the clash.

The Weymouth side soldiered on however, with Lawrence Fielding scoring one point and Connor Fletcher, who also only just made the start after suffering mechanical gremlins with his own transport, totalling four points on the evening to go with Bates’ nine.

In the points for the Falcons was Henry Atkins with nine points to his name.

Saul Bulley racked up six and Craig Nethercott sealed a solitary point to add to the Exeter total, as they claimed the win by eight.

Wildcats’ co-promoter James Tresadern told Echosport: “It was a good night and there were plenty of fans there.

“It was weird because once we actually left home to head to Somerset, we got a phone call from Niall saying his van had problems and he wouldn’t make it.

“Then, Connor had the same sort of problems and when we got to the track we were two down.

“I don’t know what he did it but Connor performed miracles on his van and he got there at about 8.30pm."

“The boys did well though. Connor did well once he got there and obviously he just got his bike out the van, warmed it up, and got out on track, so he couldn’t set it up as he wanted.

“It was unfortunate that Niall couldn’t make it, it would have been a lot closer if he would have made it.”

A post on Strudwick’s official Facebook page said: “As a race team would like to apologise to Weymouth Wildcats promotion for this happening and apologise to our supporters and followers as well.

“Hopefully these issues will be sorted and Niall can be back racing in the near future.”