Raiders miss out on KoC to arch rivals.

The Rye House Raiders missed out on the Conference League Knockout Cup for the fourth successive season at the weekend. In the first leg at Hoddesdon on Saturday night, riding against arch-rivals Mildenhall, the Raiders won 46-43, only to go down 48-41 at Mildenhall Stadium on Sunday.

The Rye House Conference League side has now lost at the final hurdle four times running, in 2000 against Boston, in 2001 against Somerset, in 2002 against Buxton and now against the Fen Tigers. Boosted by the return to the side of inspirational captain Edward Kennett, the Raiders came back from behind in the home leg on Saturday night, with Kennett dropping just one point from five rides.

But the team was hurt by two major factors. First a point dropped by James Cockle midway through the meeting when he was excluded for causing a race to stop. Cockle felt that he had been left no option but to lay down his machine by Fen Tigers reserve Daniel King, but the refereed adjudged that King's move was a fair one.

Then more heartbreakingly there was a super ride from rookie Barry Burchatt who was one lap short of a breath-taking 5-1 with Steve Boxall when his machine stopped in heat 14. Had Burchatt been able to complete the maximum heat advantage then the Raiders would have taken a seven-point lead to West Row and the tie would have really been up for grabs.

As it was the Raiders rode superbly in the second leg to force a last heat decider which they had to win. The Raiders lined up for heat 15 with Kennett and Boxall who had been in scintillating form earlier in the meeting racing to three straight wins including a defeat of the home star Paul Lee.

Both Kennett and Boxall had already beaten Lee who himself had been involved in a horror crash with Cockle in heat 11 of the second leg. But Lee made a fantastic swoop around the outside of both Rye House riders in the winner-take-all last heat to ensure that the Raiders went home to Hoddesdon as runners up once again.

The grand finale to the season at Rye will see the Rockets and some of the Raiders taking on the best of the Premier League in the classic Hertfordshire individual. Last season Arena Essex's Leigh Lanham was the star of the show after a tussle with the Isle of Wight's Adam Shields.

This year's line up will include all of the Rockets team, plus three of the Raiders - Steve Boxall, Barrie Evans and Joel Parsons - plus visiting mercenaries including Leigh Lanham and Joonas Kylmakorpi from Arena Essex, Chris Neath from Swindon, Steve Masters and Chris Harris from Trelawny .