WEYMOUTH Weyline Wildcats launched their National League Trophy assault with a controversial victory over the Plymouth Devils.

The Cats were leading their arch-rivals 43-31 at the Wessex Raceway on Saturday night when the meeting was abandoned because of poor visibility.

Thick fog had descended over the track and referee Tony Steele decided conditions were unfit for racing after consulting with both captains and managers.

However, since the requisite 12 heats needed to constitute a result had been completed, Weymouth were awarded the win.

Plymouth were unhappy the meeting had not been cancelled earlier, but Wildcats’ chairman and manager Phil Bartlett felt correct logic had been applied.

He said: “Plymouth wanted to try and call the meeting off before the end but we were so close to getting a result that another race wasn’t going to make a difference.

“They wanted to call it off after 11 heats so that the result didn’t stand, but we were well ahead of them and stronger on the night. Our riders were fine but the other side wanted to use the conditions as an excuse because they were losing.”

Debutant Dan Halsey (8+1) starred and the shape of the team looked much more balanced, with new reserve Gary Cottham (8+1) scoring heavily at number seven.

Byron Bekker (8+1), skipper Tom Brown (8+1) and James Cockle (8) all contributed to a solid performance by the Wildcats.

And Bartlett added: “We’ve strengthened up by bringing in Dan and clearly he’s very quick. That now gives us a very strong pairing at one and two.

“We suffered with injuries that really hammered our league campaign but now we are going to go out to try to win the Trophy.

“It’s a more balanced team and quite clearly we are not top-heavy. That’s how we won the league in 2008, by having a more balanced team.”

Bekker and new recruit Halsey combined for an opening 5-1 victory before Cottham and Richard Andrews did likewise, as the new-look Wildcats made the perfect start.

The returning Karl Mason, who endured a miserable night, was disqualified from heat five and that enabled the Devils to chalk up their first maximum.

But Weymouth reasserted their supremacy thanks to back-to-back victories for Halsey, whose dream debut was showing no signs of faltering.

Ten points behind, Plymouth invoked the tactical ride facility and to an extent it worked as Mark Simmonds cruised home first to double his tally and trim the deficit to seven. Visibility deteriorated further but the Devils’ protestations were waved away, before both Matt Bates and Halsey were disqualified from heat 10.

Racing thereafter was a mere subtext to the visitors’ disquiet regarding the light, and once heat 12 was finished, referee Steele decided enough was enough.

For Weymouth though, the gloom was lifted by the knowledge they had captured a notable scalp in their pursuit of silverware.

* Friday night’s postponed meeting at the St Boniface Arena will now be held on Saturday, September 11.