BOURNEMOUTH ace Chris Mills held his nerve in a last-heat decider to grab the second place that gave them a nail-biting 47-46 home win over Newport tonight.

Hornets pulled back a 10-point deficit and only trailed 41-40 with two races to go.

Kyle Howarth rode maturely to take the chequered flag in heat 14 ahead of Todd Kurtz, with Daniel Halsey’s third place extending Castle Cover Buccaneers’ lead to 45-42.

Newport do Tony Atkin and Mark Jones were briefly on a match-winning 5-1 in the last race.

But Mills dived up the inside of Jones on the second bend and then staved off every Jones attack to get past as Hornets’ 4-2 meant they lost by one point.

Newport became the first side to take a league point away from Wimborne Road against the Buccaneers, who held on in a thriller to grab two.

Buccaneers 47: 1 Chris Mills (3-3-2-2-2) 12, 2 Aaron Baseby (1-1-1*-1*) 4+2, 3 Karl Mason (3-2-2*-2) 9+1, 4 Daniel Halsey (0-fell-3-1) 4, 5 Mark Baseby (3-3-exc unfair riding-1*-0) 7+1, 6 Kyle Howarth (3-0-2-0-3) 8, 7 John Resch (2*-0-1) 3+1. Team managers: Garry May and Neil Vatcher.

Newport 46: 1 Tony Atkin (2-1-2*-3-3) 11+1, 2 Mark Jones (0-3-3-6^-1) 13, 3 Kyle Newman (1*-2-fell exc-3) 6+1, 4 Todd Kurtz (2-1*-3-2) 8+1, 5 Tim Webster (2-0-1-0) 3, 6 Tom Young (1-2-0-1-0) 4, 7 James White Williams (0-1*-0) 1+1. Team manager: Kevin Brown.

Referee: Dale Entwistle.

League points: Bournemouth 2 Newport 1.

Ht 1: Mills, Atkin, A Baseby, Jones, 61.90 (4-2).

Ht 2: Howarth, Resch, Young, White-Williams, 64.18 (9-3).

Ht 3: Mason, Kurtz, Newman, Halsey, 62.58 (12-6).

Ht 4: M Baseby, Webster, White-Williams, Howarth, 62.31 (15-9).

Ht 5: Jones, Mason, Atkin, Halsey (fell), 62.51 (17-13).

Ht 6: (re-run) Mills, Young, A Baseby, Webster, 62.79 (21-15).

Ht 7: M Baseby, Newman, Kurtz, Resch, 62.60 (24-18).

Ht 8: Jones, Howarth, A Baseby, White-Williams, 63.43 (27-21).

Ht 9: Halsey, Mason, Webster, Young, 63.81 (32-22).

Ht 10: (re-run) Kurtz, Mills, A Baseby (fell, remounted), Newman (fell excluded), 63.10 (35-25).

Ht 11: (re-run) Jones^ (tactical rider, double points), Atkin, Resch, M Baseby (excluded, unfair riding), 63.86 (36-33).

Ht 12: Newman, Mason, Young, Howarth, 63.37 (38-37).

Ht 13: Atkin, Mills, M Baseby, Webster, 62.84 (41-40).

Ht 14: Howarth, Kurtz, Halsey, Young, 63.54 (45-42).

Ht 15: Atkin, Mills, Jones, M Baseby, 63.27 (47-46).