A BUMPER bank holiday crowd of close to 3,000 saw the Wildcats maul the Bulldogs in the second leg of this Conference League Challenge at the Wessex Stadium.

Holding a four-point advantage from the first meeting at the Oak Tree Arena on Friday night, Weymouth cruised to a 53-36

victory to take the honours 100-79 on aggregate.

And just as in the opening encounter, it was a 15-year-old schoolboy who stole the show.

Hayling Island-based rookie Chris Johnson powered his way to a stunning 18 (paid 19) points haul to leave Wildcats promoter Brian White spellbound.

He said: "All the headlines after the Wessex Rosebowl meeting and the first leg of this match have quite rightly been about Ben Barker. But it looks like we've unearthed another gem in Chris Johnson who was absolutely awesome tonight.

"He rode really well at Bristol for his eight points on Friday and you could see then he had a lot of talent. But 18 points from seven rides against an established side like the Bulldogs is unbelievable and in Chris and Ben I reckon Weymouth supporters have seen the two best 15-year-olds in speedway."

It was Danny Warwick who set the Wildcats on their way by clocking a new track record of 56.1secs in a shared heat one, which had to be delayed by Grand Prix referee Mike Posselwhite because of the massive queues of people at the turnstiles still waiting to get in.

Johnson then gave an indication of what was to come by leading team mate Nathan Irwin home in heat two, although the Wildcats had no answer to Bulldogs big gun Graeme Gordon in race three.

The experienced campaigner, who tracks for Somerset Rebels in the Premier League, left Johnson and Warwick for dead as he sprinted to a new circuit best of 55.0 secs.

Weymouth hit back to gain maximum points courtesy of skipper Justin Elkins and Johnson in heat four, and next up it was Johnson who took the chequered flag in front of visiting duo Lee Smart and Simon Walker in the youngster's fourth consecutive ride.

A Warwick\Barker 5-1 then stretched the host's lead even further, but Bristol replied immed-

iately through Gordon and Walker in an action-packed heat seven.

Elkins gated superbly to head Gordon into the back straight but the Rebels man found some extra speed to charge round his rival approaching turn three.

The Wildcats captain roared back to get within half a bike's length of Gordon only to over cook things on the penultimate lap and catapult into the fence.

Third placed Irwin then did brilliantly to put his bike down and avoid the stricken rider and there was a nervous wait as Elkins received medical treatment before walking gingerly back to the pits.

With a 5-1 awarded to the Bulldogs, the pressure was on the two Wildcats school pupils, Johnson and Barker, to prevent their opponents from closing the overall gap in heat eight.

Pride

This they did in style by scorching to first and second spots respec-

tively although Bristol did collect a 3-2 success when Cross beat Irwin in race nine which saw only two finishers.

After two shared heats in which Gordon and Elkins both prospered, it was Johnson who fittingly confirmed victory for the Wildcats with his fourth three-pointer of the meeting in heat 12.

And if that wasn't painful enough for the losers, Elkins and Warwick then rubbed salt in the Bulldogs wounds as they sped to a 5-1 13th showdown.

Gordon restored some pride for the Avon outfit by shattering the track record (54.9secs) during a speedway master class in the penultimate contest, but the air horns rang out aplenty as Elkins and Warwick nailed the final heat 4-2 to put add gloss to a wonderful night's entertainment at Radipole Lane.