Bournemouth Castle Cover Wessex Marine Buccaneers ran aground on the Isle of Wight on Tuesday night, incurring the biggest defeat in their short history, going down by 32-60 and having both the Baseby brothers withdrawing from the meeting with injuries.
Mark Baseby was the first of the siblings to pull out of the meeting, damaging his wrist in a heat 6 fall by which time the Buccaneers were alreaday facing a 10 point deficit and had seen just two extra points from their first tactical ride. That was through a second place by James Brundle comprehensively beaten by maximum man, former Buccaneer Danny Warwick.
Then Aaron Baseby joined the ever growing list of retirees after being a victim of a challenging move from Brendan Johnson in heat 9. Johnson was disqualified from the re-run but promptly joined Tom Hill on the sick list and although Aaron Baseby managed to limp round for a point in the re-start his night was over as he was struggling with a thigh injury.
The powerful Islanders though – claiming 9 maximum heat scores across the night – were always in control and the lack of league points from the Dorset side could prove costly in the final reckonings for the play-offs. Scorers: Isle of Wight D.Warwick 15, D.Felton 13+6, B.Hopwood 13+1, N.Simmons 7+1, L.Smethills 7+1, T.Hill 3, B.Johnson 2+1
Bournemouth K.Howarth 7+1, J.Brundle 7, K.Mason 7, J.Resch 5+1, A.Baseby 4+1, D.Halsey 2+1, M.Baseby 0