MARK Baseby believes a “bad decision” by referee Dale Entwistle led to Buccaneers narrowly hanging on to record a nail-biting 47-46 home win over Newport instead of triumphing by a bigger margin last night.

Bournemouth Castle Cover’s skipper was excluded from heat 11 of a thrilling National League clash when Entwistle judged he had brought Mark Jones down on the fourth bend.

But Baseby proclaimed his innocence after a match in which tactical man Jones’ and Tony Atkin’s 8-1 over John Resch in the re-run slashed the Dorset side’s lead from 35-25 to 36-33 in one fell swoop.

Newport continued their late rally with a 4-2 in the next race and Bournemouth were left clinging on to a 41-40 lead with two heats to go.

Then Kyle Howarth superbly pegged Todd Kurtz behind him for all four laps to win the penultimate race, with Daniel Halsey’s vital third place stretching Buccaneers’ advantage to 45-42.

Chris Mills then came from behind to brilliantly split Atkin and Jones in the final race as Bournemouth edged a thriller by one point.

Baseby, who had produced a stunning third-to-first burst past James White-Williams and Tim Webster to triumph in heat four, said: “It was a tough match, but we managed to pull it off in the end.

“That decision by the ref to exclude me was a bad decision, and it got Newport back into the meeting with the 8-1, otherwise we would have definitely won by more.

“I never touched anyone. Tony went into the bend a bit hot. He put his team-mate in an area he didn’t want to be on the track and he went down of his own accord.

“That is how they nicked the one league point off us, purely by that poor decision.

“We probably made a bad decision ourselves with the call for gates two and four after winning the toss ahead of heat 15.

“But it’s over and done with now, we got the win and just have to go and try and win away from home in our next matches at Buxton and against Dudley.”

Baseby paid tribute to Howarth and Mills for their late heroics, which stretched Bournemouth’s winning home run to 20 matches in a row since their formation at the beginning of last season.

Buccaneers’ captain said: “Kyle and Chris did well. That’s what we wanted. They produced the goods, which we needed.

“I just think Newport have been riding more than us. Last week most of them rode on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we hadn’t had a meeting for two weeks.

“We were a little cold to start with but got points in at the end.”

Howarth said: “It was awesome to win heat 14. I was dreadful out of the start and I didn’t know whether he (Kurtz) was in the dirt.

“In the first lap, I went into the dirt and he couldn’t get past.

“I was trying my hardest because I wanted to help the boys win, and we just did enough in the end.

“The track changed all the time for each race. I didn’t know where to ride, particularly in heat 14.

“I was riding all different lines, and it was my hardest ever race. I knew what the situation was, that we needed a race winner, and eventually we got the overall win.”

Bournemouth assistant-manager Neil Vatcher said: “It was a scary night. We knew it would be tough because Newport’s side have plenty of Premier League experience.

“They’re a very good side, but so are we.

“We’ll take a lot of positives away from that meeting and go into our next match undefeated, so bring it on.

“It was a great meeting, although I’m not quite sure me and Garry May enjoyed it as much as the crowd.

“The boys came up good and we couldn’t have asked for more.

“We have some special riders like last year. We hope to have a good season and see some more spectators to come back and see more of us.”