BYRON Bekker held his hands up and admitted that his slow gating was the reason for the Weymouth Weyline Wildcats’ downfall at the National League Best Pairs meeting at Newport.

Bekker, who was teaming with James Cockle, kept giving himself too much to do and in heat 14 it all came to a head when he attempted to pass Scunthorpe’s Steve Worrall only to run wide and hit the dirt, ending any hopes the pair had of reaching the final.

The South African said: “I tried to pass him but in hindsight I should have just held my position, which would have given us second and third.

“As it turned out, we would have had to have won that race anyway in order to qualify for the final but it was still an error and I need to make sure I learn from that. I just tried too hard to overtake and when you push it like that you tend to come off.

“There were a lot of good guys there and you had to get out of the gates quickly because if you didn’t it made everything so much harder.

“A lot of the them were saying the same in the changing room, as it was very difficult to pass anyone. As soon as you tried to do something you would hit a bump and more often than not it would take you off.”

Bekker went on to add: “I don’t know what it is at the moment but I just can’t seem to get off the start as quickly as I was able to earlier in the season.

“It is frustrating because I feel a lot faster than most of the other riders when I am out there but that is no good if I am continually putting myself under pressure.

“The bike I rode was due a service last week but the guy who normally does it was away so it is going in this week. The one I usually ride down at Weymouth has just had a service but it is not quite feeling the same as it did.

“So it is just little things that need tweaking really. As I rider, you have to feel 100 per cent confident with the bike to be able to perform at your best and at the moment that is not the case for me.”

The Wildcats ended up finishing fourth overall with Bekker and Cockle scoring eight and 12 points respectively from their four races.

That was not enough to overhaul the King’s Lynn Young Stars in group two, who went on to meet group one winners the Plymouth Devils in the final. And it was the Devon outfit duo of Nicki Glanz (14) and Mark Simmonds (10) who came out on top to win the title.