Isle of Wight 62 Wasps 31

TWO days after all the euphoria surrounding their fine home win over Somerset, the Wasps were brought back down to earth with a bump on the Isle of Wight last night.

Having lost the home match against the Islanders, Tim Stone's men were never fancied to win the return and any faint chance they may have had of doing so evaporated when Cwmfelinfach-based Phil Morris was forced to pull out of the trip.

Phil was still feeling the effects of his heat 13 crash on Sunday and while he is confident of riding in Sunday's home match against Stoke, he was not well enough to travel across the Solent.

That left the Wasps having to use the rider replacement regulations to cover for him and they struggled throughout, although Tom Hedley, Chris Schramm and, to a lesser extent, Nick Simmons did their best to stem what was by and large one way traffic.

But their efforts proved in vain with Michal Rajkowski failing to get to grips with the track at all, and likewise Tony Atkin and Karl Mason struggling.

The tone for what was to follow was set in the opening heat when Islanders Aussie No.1 Chris Holder scorched to victory and set a new four-lap track record for the 385-metre Smallbrook circuit of 67.0 secs.

He was followed home by partner Glen Phillips for maximum points to the home side and while Nick Simmons managed to grab second place in heat two, splitting the home pairing in the process, with Karl Mason failing to finish, the resultant 4-2 saw the Islanders move six points clear even at that early stage.

The Wasps gained a brief respite from the onslaught by sharing the points in the next two races with Hedley winning heat three in style from Polish speedster Krzysztof Stojanowski and fellow Aussie Cory Gathercole.

Two maximum home heat wins in heats five and six doubled the Islanders' lead, leading most fans present to believe that there was no way back into the match for the Wasps.

And so it proved with the only two highlights in the rest of the races, from the Newport perspective that is, being Schramm's fine win in heat eight and Hedley following suit four heats later for double points when nominated to take a tactical ride by team manager Neil Street.

That was an excellent effort from the teenager from Mildura after he was forced to rapidly fit a new throttle to his machine, his original system having disintegrated during heat 10.

But that proved to be the Wasps' last throw of the dice as the rampant Islanders ended the match in style with three successive maximum heat advantages.

IOW Islanders 62: 1 - Chris Holder 13+2 (5), 2 - Glen Phillips 8+3 (4), 3 Cory Gathercole 7+3 (4), 4 - Krzysztof Stojanowski 10+1(4), 5 - Jason Bunyan (c) 15 (5) 6 -Andrew Bargh 5 (4). 7 -Chris Johnson 4+1 (4) Newport Wasps 31: 1 - Michal Rajkowski 1 (4), 2 - Chris Schramm 9 (6), 3 Tom Hedley 13 (6), 4 - Tony Atkin (c) 3+1(5), 5 Phil Morris (rider replacement), 6 - Nick Simmons 5+1 (6). 7 - Karl Mason 0 (3)