THE stage is set for a thrilling second leg to the Cab Direct Championship Grand Final on Wednesday after Oxford opened up a 12-point lead over Poole in Saturday’s opening encounter.
The Cheetahs finished strongly with 5-1s from powerhouse top two Sam Masters and Scott Nicholls in heats 13 and 15, which condemned the Pirates to their heaviest defeat of the season. Nicholls said: “The other boys set it up for us in the previous races, but we’ve just seen what a big difference that heats 13 and 15 can make in the Premiership Final, where Belle Vue did the damage against Leicester in those races. “I enjoy riding with Sam and we did the business in those races tonight. “A 12-point lead is good, but we certainly won’t take anything for granted heading into Poole and we know it will be tough down there. “But we’ll down go down with the same mentality and same attitude and do what we can to bring the title back to Oxford.” Poole’s Neil Middleditch said: “We had a few boys like Ben (Cook) and Tom (Brennan) who had off-nights. But that can happen and they will come out fighting on Wednesday. We will have to hit the ground running at Wimborne Road and hit them hard early and try and eat into their lead.”
PICTURE: Sam Masters leads Richard Lawson, Sam Hagon and Cameron Heeps. Photo: TAYLOR LANNING