WILDCATS underlined their title ambitions when they swept aside second in the table Boston at the Wessex Stadium last night.

An emphatic win in their first home league appearance of the season gave Brian White's side a 105-81 aggregate success that lifted them from 10th to fourth in the league after they comfortably pocketed the crucial bonus point following the Barracudas' narrow 48-45 triumph in Lincolnshire last month.

Before the match White had dared to suggest that he could not see anyone beating his men this season on their home "trick track".

And after last night's performance against an outfit expected to be right up there challenging for the championship, few would bet against a 100 per cent return at the Wessex.

White was understandably elated. "I'm over the moon," he said. " A lot of people are tipping either Boston or Weymouth to be up there come the end of the season and tonight we absolutely annihilated them.

"It's a result that will make the rest of the league sit up and take notice. To be honest I fully expected Boston to put up a bit of a stronger challenge. By the end they were dialled in to the conditions and were riding quite well, but it is fair to say we have a lot of home-track advantage and it is going to take a super performance to beat us here."

The night got off to a cracking start for Wildcats with skipper David Mason and Jack Gledhill roaring ahead of Boston's big track specialist Simon Walker from the tapes.

Gledhill then made it impossible for Walker to get by him leaving Mason to start his night with a comfortable three-pointer as Wildcats took a 5-1 lead.

Honours were shared in heat two after Boston's 16-year-old Simon Lambert got away to a flyer and fended off Lewis Bridger's determined bid to topple him but Wildcats Lee Smart and Tom Brown rattled up another 5-1 in race three to open up an eight-point lead.

Braves top scorer Carl Wilkinson, regarded as one of the best riders in the Conference after three good seasons with Premier League Newport, displayed his credentials with a fine ride from the front in heat four with Dan Giffard and Matt Bates following him home for another 3-3.

But three good wins in a row then stretched Wildcats lead to 18 points and they were never going to give up an advantage like that.

Heat six was easily the best of the night, some were saying the best ever at the Wessex, with Mason, Wilkinson and Gledhill engaged in a terrific scrap from the tapes.

The lead changed hands several times before Mason led going into the last lap and it looked like a Wildcats one-two. Then Wilkinson squeezed past Gledhill and had a real crack at the leader who just managed to hold him off on the last bend with Gledhill snapping at the Boston man's heels right up to the flag.

A tactical ride by Lambert saw Boston peg the lead with a 4-4 in race eight but as the visitors' mechanical gremlins mounted - tactical rider Wilkinson was unlucky when his engine failed as he led going into the last bend in heat nine - Wildcats won another three in a row to open up a 27-point lead by race 11.

It was heat 12 before Boston won a heat, Darren Mallett scoring a rare success for the visitors. Braves skipper Walker failed to appear for heat 13 after blowing his engine and with no eligible replacement Boston slipped further behind.

White nominated Bridger, who picked up paid 11 points, and Gledhill for the final heat but Bridger's successful night ended in disappointment on the first lap.

His bike reared when he got too much traction on the back straight and he was unceremoniously dumped on his back. Gledhill did well to lay his bike down to avoid his fallen team-mate and fortunately the in-form 15-year-old was able to get up and walk away with nothing more serious than a bruised ego.