Stellar Academy win two as title goes to the wire

After a long and eventful night The Stellar Monarchs Academy completed a 100% home record with victories over both Oxford Chargers and Leicester Lion Cubs, but they didn't manage to pick up either of the aggregate bonus points. The destination of the National Development League title remains undecided with all three of tonight's teams still in contention!

Oxford now have 17 points with one away match left, Monarchs Academy have 16 with one away match left, and Leicester have 13 with one home and one away match left.

Home captain Connor Coles said "In our last home match we struggled a bit against a depleted Steelers team so I knew these would be close. It would have been nice to get a bit closer to the bonus points and not leave it down to last heat deciders. I think if we win our last match at Belle Vue we will be in with a good chance. I've enjoyed being captain this season, though Dayle Wood really shares it with me. They all know what they are doing anyway."

The first match on the night was against Oxford who were the only team in a position to take the title had they won tonight. However their hopes were diminished when they unusually had been turned down for a facility for the absent Jacob Clouting.

The Academy had lined up strong guests in Workington's Championship regular Vinnie Foord and Steelers reserve Luke Harris, a double figure scorer a fortnight earlier. However neither worked out in the first match as Vinnie struggled with severe machine problems plus a fall, and Luke failed to reproduce his earlier form.

Wonder boy Cooper Rushen took on both fixtures, adding a guest booking for Oxford to his Leicester appearance, and he probably learnt a lot on his first Armadale appearance, which started with a fall in the opening race of the night.

With a huge deficit (32 points) for the aggregate bonus the Academy needed a strong start but they didn't really get it as they were regularly pegged back. They gained three 5-1s but lost two in the first five heats, and were just two ahead at heat 8. The home side were heavily indebted to the pairing of Connor Coles and Jordy Loftus who gained four 5-1s together in the match including the last heat decider!

Luke Crang made a very good return to racing after a year out with a paid win in heat 1 and a victory in heat 8, and Dayle Wood as ever was effective, but the problems Foord was having allowed the Chargers to keep things close.

Harry Fletcher was a surprise packet at reserve for the Chargers starting with two paid wins and some very steady riding, and overall the Chargers were the more solid outfit. Their middle pair of Senna Summers and Ashton Vale was impressive.

A heat 13 5-1 from Rushen and top scorer Darryl Ritchings kept the Chargers just two down, but Jordy Loftus kept his nerve to take heat 14 and then romp home in the final heat as well.

Rushen came down on the last bend in that race and he was indebted to Connor Coles for a smart laydown to avoid serious damage. Coles was awarded the paid win for his troubles.

An unfortunate casualty after his spirited performance was Harry Fletcher who spun into the fence in heat 12 after nearly hitting Senna Summers' back wheel. He took a while to rise and was forced to pull out of the second match when he was due to be guesting for Leicester.

This left Leicester in something of a pickle as Fletcher had been due to ride at no. 4 alongside the rider replacement facility for Max Perry. In truth neither of the visiting sides had made much of a job of plugging the gaps in their sides and they paid the penalty. Things got worse for the Lion Cubs when Eli Meadows, winner of heat 2, was ruled out also following a first bend incident in heat 4 of the second match.

The result was that from heat 5 onwards Leicester had only four riders! However they did well enough to keep things close all the way through. Cooper Rushen and Ben Trigger both managed to defeat the Coles-Loftus pairing and the crucial contribution this time for the home team came from Vinnie Foord with his machinery functioning by now.

He won his first three heats but was beaten by Rushen in heat 13 after he had been creeping forward at the tapes.

Luke Crang in his first meeting for ages was probably tiring during the second match and was unfortunate enough to fall in heat 8 when leading on the last lap. The Academy had been gaining momentum and were six up but this was a setback.

Trigger then won heats 9 and 10 and this virtually ended home hopes of the aggregate bonus which had briefly looked feasible against the depleted visitors.

Indeed even the match victory was coming into doubt as the end of the night neared. Visiting reserve Kieran Douglas was picking up a lot of key points and at the end of heat 14, won by Loftus, Leicester would have needed a last heat 5-1 to level the scores. This would not have been out of the question for Rushen and Trigger but they didn't get their chance as the curfew had been reached – never a satisfactory conclusion.