WEYMOUTH will take a nine-point advantage to Dale Head Lane tomorrow for the second leg of their Conference Trophy battle with Buxton.

The Wildcats set themselves up for the bonus point with a 52-43 success over the Hitmen at the Wessex Stadium last night.

The victory owed much to the efforts of skipper David Mason and reserve Jack Gledhill who returned scores of 13 and 12+2 respectively with Dan Giffard (9) and Chris Courage (7+1) making useful contributions.

But while the Wildcats were carving out their 12th home victory of the season, it was visitor James Wright who really caught the eye.

The Buxton number one showed why he was crowned Conference League Riders champion earlier in the year with a stunning 17 points from six outings.

Wildcats manager Brian White said: "James is an exceptional talent and I think we've seen a future Elite League star in action. The six races he won he did so in really good times and you can see why he won the league championship.

"The trouble was he didn't get a great deal of support from his team mates other than Carl Belfield who scored 13+1

"In contrast, we had four riders scoring seven points or more and it was that team effort that proved the difference on a night of excellent racing."

The visitors appealed to be getting off to a perfect start with James Wright leading partner Jon Bethall to an easy 5-1 in the opener.

But just as supporters were beginning to fill in their programmes, down went Bethall twice on the final circuit to hand the Haven Wildcats a share of the spoils.

Heat two saw a nasty crash involving Hitmen reserves Charles Wright and Carl Belfield, who clattered into each other when chasing Gledhill and Chris Ferguson into the fourth bend on lap one. Wright, who suffered a wrist injury and was forced to withdraw from the meeting, was excluded by international referee Tony Steele leaving Gledhill and Ferguson to pick up where they left off in the rerun with a fine 5-1 maximum.

Dan Giffard and Wayne Barrett then repeated the dose to put the hosts 13-5 ahead and they increased their lead to 10 points after Courage and Ferguson were split by Benji Compton in heat four.

Buxton hit back in style when James Wright roared over the line in a super quick time of 55.7 seconds as the Hitmen scored their first heat advantage of the evening in the fifth

Mason then took the chequered flag or Weymouth in a shared sixth encounter and the hosts moved into a 12-point lead after Courage and Gledhill showed the way home in the next.

Buxton needed something special to get them back into contention and they got exactly that in heat eight.

Out came Belfield as a double tactical ride and his second place behind captain Bethall brought a 7-1 success for the Derbyshire outfit.

That closed the gap to five points but the Wildcats put more daylight between themselves and their opponents with a cracking 4-2 success in the next.

Courage sped away from the grid and was never troubled out front, but the action was behind him where Belfield fought off a gutsy challenge from Giffard to take the runners up spot.

Mason and Gledhill then cruised to a comfortable full house over Paul Burnett and Lee Derbyshire but the visitors made the most of the tactical ride rule in the 11th.

This time it was the brilliant James Wright who doubled his tally in another lightning time of 55.5 seconds with Bethall following him home for an 8-1.

Wright went even quicker with a 54.4 seconds victory in a shared heat 13, but not before Giffard and Gledhill had notched up a 4-2 for the hosts.

The Wildcats wrapped up the win in the penultimate contest in which Gledhill and Barrett secured another 4-2 after Derbyshire had been excluded following a heavy fall.

And just to prove that James Wright was not invincible, Mason used his home track knowledge to deny him a seven-race maximum in heat 15.