Mark Baseby admits he was lucky to have escaped serious injury after suffering a horrendous fall during the National League Four-Team Championship at Mildenhall today.

Buccaneers’ captain caught some unwanted grip while trying to pass Luke Priest for second place in a re-run of his opening race.

He was flung off his bike like a rag doll and hit the safety fence hard by the finish line at the start of the third lap.

It was an ugly looking fourth-bend finish-straight incident and it was originally feared Baseby must have sustained a serious head injury.

But after the meeting had been abandoned following only 12 of the scheduled 24 races because of a waterlogged track, he said: “I feel a little bit stiff but I’m alright, I always bounce straight back up.

“I had Priesty in front of me. But he was going so slow I went for the cut back to try and pass up the inside of him and got a bit of extra drive.

“My bike lifted. I thought I could correct it in time, but just caught the fence.

“I did a face plant straight into the fence, but I’m okay, I’ve just got a little bit of a sore neck. I don’t feel too bad at the moment.

“It will probably hurt more tomorrow.”

Baseby, whose side were still in the hunt to seal a semi-final place at the time the meeting was rained-off, added: “It could have been a lot worse for me injury wise.

“But the main thing is I’m alright. I have a bent bike, but that can be straightened.

“I’ve got to go to work tomorrow in my job as an electrician, so we’ll see how I am feeling then.

“I’m not due to ride again until Friday for Somerset in the Premier League, so I’m sure I’ll be okay to do that.

“The Buccs don’t have a meeting until we go to King’s Lynn in the cup on June 16, so there’s no problem there.”

Bournemouth had gone into the championship as one of the favourites to take the title, but only got eight points from six races and were trailing Buxton (14) and Mildenhall (10) in their group when the rain came down.

But, with two heat wins compared to none for Fen Tigers, Bournemouth Castle Cover were still in a position to make the top two and book their place in the final with races still outstanding for Daniel Halsey and Baseby.

Mildenhall’s promotion were quick to point out to the crowd it was now down to the National League management committee to decide whether the meeting would be fully re-run, or if the semi-final scores at the time of abandonment will be used to determine the finalists.

Buccaneers will hope a full re-staging goes ahead as they seek a third major piece of silverware since the team’s formation at the start of last season.

Baseby, whose bike sustained £500 to £600 worth of damage in the crash, said: “After my fall, the aim was just to get into the final.

“Once we had hopefully done that we would all have been dialled in.

“I think we could have won it overall, or been up there pushing for the trophy.

“Karl Mason produced a brilliant ride in the rain to go from third to first past Nick Morris and Tom Brown to keep us in it.

“But calling it off was the right decision. Having ridden for Mildenhall before I could see what was going to happen to the track, following the rain.

“My experience told me the meeting would be off.

“We did alright. The track was a bit tricky. They watered it out wide.

“It was really greasy coming into the corners. That’s why I struggled.

“I made a good gate but I had to go to the greasy bit and it slowed me down on the first bend.”

National League Four-Team Championship at Mildenhall

Meeting abandoned after 12 races, waterlogged track

Referee: Margaret Vardy.

First semi-final

King’s Lynn 6: 1 Scott Campos (2-1) 3, 2 Cal McDade (2) 2, 3 Adam Lowe (0) 0, 4 Jake Knight (0-1) 1. Team manager: Dale Allitt.

Dudley 11: 1 Richard Franklin (1-2) 3, 2 Lee Smart (3-2) 5, 3 Jake Anderson (1) 1, 4 Jon Armstrong (2) 2. Team manager: Will Pottinger.

Isle of Wight 9: 1 Danny Warwick (1-3) 4, 2 Ben Hopwood (2) 2, 3 Tom Hill (fell) 0, 4 Dean Felton (3-0) 3. Team manager: Kevin Shepherd.

Rye House 10: 1 Tom Stokes (0-0) 0, 2 Jamie Smith (3-3) 6, 3 Kyle Hughes (3) 3, 4 Ben Morley (1) 1. Team manager: John Sampford.

Ht 1: Smart, Campos, Morley, Hill (fell), 51.91 (2-3-0-1).

Ht 2: Felton, McDade, Anderson, Stokes, 53.22 (4-4-3-1).

Ht 3: Smith, Armstrong, Warwick, Lowe, 52.84 (4-6-4-4).

Ht 4: Hughes, Hopwood, Franklin, Knight, 52.25 (4-7-6-7).

Ht 5: Warwick, Franklin, Campos, Stokes, 53.09 (5-9-9-7).

Ht 6: Smith, Smart, Knight, Felton, 53.41 (6-11-9-10).

Second semi-final

Weymouth 3: 1 Byron Bekker (fell exc) 0, 2 Gary Cottham (0) 0, 3 James Cockle (0) 0, 4 Tom Brown (1-2) 3. Reserve: Nick Laurence (0) 0. Team manager: Jem Dicken.

Buxton 14: 1 Craig Cook (3-3) 6, 2 Nick Morris (3-1) 4, 3 Adam Allott (1) 1, 4 Charles Wright (3) 3. Team manager: Jack Lee.

Mildenhall 10: 1 Barrie Evans (2-2) 4, 2 Joe Jacobs (2) 2, 3 Luke Priest (2) 2, 4 Matthew Wright (2-0) 2. Team manager: John Adams.

Buccaneers 8: 1 Chris Mills (3-1) 4, 2 Karl Mason (1-3) 4, 3 Daniel Halsey (0) 0, 4 Mark Baseby (fell exc) 0. Team managers: Garry May and Neil Vatcher.

Ht 1: (re-run) Morris, Priest, Baseby (fell excluded), Bekker (fell excluded), awarded, no time (0-3-2-0).

Ht 2: Mills, M Wright, Allott, Cottham, 52.40 (0-4-4-3).

Ht 3: C Wright, Evans, Mason, Cockle, 52.28 (0-7-6-4).

Ht 4: Cook, Jacobs, Brown, Halsey (fell remounted), 52.62 (1-10-8-4).

Ht 5: Cook, Evans, Mills, Laurence, 52.17 (1-13-10-5).

Ht 6: (re-run) Mason, Brown, Morris, M Wright, 53.47 (3-14-10-8).