WINNING START FOR CHEETAHS

OXFORD made a flying start to their Cab Direct Championship campaign with a 53-36 home win over Redcar.

Such a scoreline looked unlikely when the Bears led by two points after five races, but the Cheetahs then raced to three successive 5-1s to take control of the meeting.

Ashton Boughen then defeated Charles Wright when the visitors’ captain was taking a tactical substitute ride, as the home side pulled clear for the win.

Sam Masters scored 12+2 and Cameron Heeps added 10+2, whilst Boughen and Luke Killeen impressed at reserve with the latter collecting 10. Wright scored 11+1 for the Bears.

Killeen said: “I’m definitely happy with how it went today. It’s the first time I’ve scored double figures at this level without the help of the bonus points, while it was also the first time I’ve won more than one race on the same night and the first time I’ve won a race outside of the reserves race in Heat 2. It’s all moving in the right direction.

“It was a really good team performance from all of us and it was nice to start our league fixtures with a performance like that.

“We kept on fighting the whole night, because not only did we want to win, but we also wanted a decent lead for when he head to their place to secure the aggregate point.”

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Photo credit: STEVE EDMUNDS