SGB Premiership, Grand Final, second-leg: Wolverhampton Wolves 42, Swindon Robins 47 (agg: 89-90)
Sam Masters won the final heat for Wolverhampton Wolves in the Midlands but Swindon Robins snatched the SGB Premiership title.
Edinburgh Monarchs’ skipper needed Rory Schlein, a former Edinburgh rider, to come home third.
Schlein, however, finished a disappointing fourth and Swindon, 47-43 behind after the first-leg, and eight points adrift on aggregate at 61-53 after four races at Wolverhampton, came through.
Berwick Bandits star Nick Morris was second in the final race and World Championship leader Jason Doyle third and the 3-3 was enough for the battling Wiltshire side.
Doyle was best for Robins with 13 points and Morris collected 11 while Schlein finished on nine for Wolverhampton.
Monarchs’ German rider Mark Riss disappointed with one point for the Midlands club and ex-Berwick rider Liam Carr failed to score while guesting for Robins.
Meanwhile, Glasgow Tigers will be minus two riders when they bid to stay in the Knockout Cup on Friday (7.30pm).
The Scots are minus both Dan Bewley and Jack Smith for the semi-final, first-leg tie at Ashfield.
Instead, Bewley, the newly-crowned National League Riders’ Champion, and Smith will ride for Manchester-based Belle Vue Aces in Friday’s National League play-off semi-final, second-leg at home to Lakeside.
Speedway bosses met to discuss the issue earlier this week and a statement said that Belle Vue’s fixture takes priority over Glasgow’s home match.
This is owing to the fact that the meeting was scheduled and confirmed before that of Glasgow’s.
Lakeside, incidentally, take a 16-point lead to Belle Vue for the second-leg following a 53-37 victory at the Arena-Essex Raceway.
Former Berwick Bandits rider Liam Carr top-scored for a patched-up Colts side with 12 points.
Lakeside boss Kelvin Tatum said: “We’ve given ourselves a chance going into the second-leg.”
Belle Vue’s Andy Mellish said: “Given our track record at home, we have a fighting chance and we’ll give it our all.”
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