REACTION: “I’m not keen on last heat deciders – I prefer the team to win by a few points. But it was exciting for the fans to watch tonight.”
MONARCH Oxford Cheetahs commenced their home meetings with a dramatic 46-44 victory over the Plymouth Gladiators at Oxford Stadium last night (Wednesday) that keeps alive their hopes in the southern section of the BSN Series.
More solid Gladiators led 28-20 after eight races and were six points ahead with three races to go.
Cheetahs entered the decisive Heat 15 still two points behind. Sam Masters completed a faultless 15-point full maximum, but all eyes were on the battle for second place.
Oxford skipper Scott Nicholls thrust past Dan Thompson after a lap. But teenager Thompson built up his speed around the outside and made a dash off the final bend. It wasn’t possible to separate the two riders with the naked eye and it was several minutes before referee Gary Allen, with the aid of a frame-by-frame replay from Oxford’s new streaming service, gave the verdict to Nicholls, avoiding the need for an additional Superheat to decide matters.
With Masters and Nicholls taking their second 5-1 in the space of three races, it meant Cheetahs came from the dead against the battling visitors.
Nicholls put in the perfect captain’s performance, collecting 14+3 from six rides – including passing Ben Barker when placed into Heat 9 as a tactical substitute – being involved in three 5-1s in the closing stages.
Arguably the key race was Heat 11. Ashton Boughen flew around Plymouth guest Zach Cook on the back straight of lap 1. Nicholls glanced over his shoulder and then settled behind Boughen to ensure the 5-1 that reduced the deficit to two points heading into the interval.
16-year-old Boughen enjoyed a morale-boosting evening, scoring 8+1 and providing much needed back-up to Masters and Nicholls. Elsewhere, Cheetahs looked very rusty in just their second meeting of the season, following a heavy defeat at Poole on Good Friday.
Plymouth were a bit unlucky to lose, and both the 19-year-old Thompson twins, Dan and Joe, were in top form. That pairing took a 5-1 in Heat 12 to re-extended Plymouth’s lead to six points, but only after another battling ride from Boughen.
Joe Thompson also won Heat 14, although Jordan Jenkins and Boughen packed the minor placings to take it to the final race.
Maximum man Sam Masters said: “I’m not keen on last heat deciders – I prefer the team to win by a few points. But it was exciting for the fans to watch tonight.
“Winning last heat deciders is good – but the problem is sometimes they can go against you. When I was younger, I used to get much more worried about them. As I’ve gained experience, I’ve realised you can’t win them all, and even when you do lose them and feel you’ve let the team down, it’s not just down to that, it’s how the whole meeting has gone.
“I did see the battle for second place behind me in that final race. I did think about slowing down to help Scottie, but I felt that might get in his way a bit – I didn’t want to slow him down when he was battling for a position.
“Hats off to Plymouth. Last year, we gave them a bit of a flogging every time they came here, but they pushed us all the way tonight and they made it a close meeting. We really had to dig deep to pull off the victory.
“A few of the other guys in our team had bike issues tonight and hopefully we can get those sorted and we can win more comfortably going forwards.
“It did feel a bit strange going into the meeting today, knowing it was our opening home meeting. We’ve had to wait due to the weather, and hopefully now we start to race more often, it will improve for us as a team.”
Monarch Oxford Cheetahs 46: Sam Masters 15, Henry Atkins 2, Cameron Heeps 4, Jordan Jenkins 2, Scott Nicholls 14+3, Ashton Boughen 8+1, Luke Killeen 1.
Plymouth Gladiators 44: Zach Cook 4+1, Alfie Bowtell 8, Dan Thompson 11+1, Kyle Newman 2, Ben Barker 6, Joe Thompson 10+2, Jacob Hook 3+2.
Photo: Scott Nicholls and Dan Thompson battle for the crucial second place in Heat 15 (pic: Steve Edmunds)