RAMPANT Buccaneers showed weakened Weymouth no mercy as they romped to a big 63-30 win over their Dorset rivals last night.

Bournemouth Castle Cover put one foot in the National League title play-off final with a blistering show of strength as four of their riders were unbeaten by an opponent.

Jay Herne (14+1), Jerran Hart (14+1), Danny Warwick (10+2) and Mark Baseby (9+3) were all on fire as Buccaneers took a giant step towards fixing up a final date against Plymouth or Buxton.

With Kyle Newman also impressing to grab 11 paid 12, Bournemouth had too many big guns for Wildcats to handle.

Apart from a mid-meeting blip, when plucky Weymouth took full advantage of some luck thrown their way to hit back with a 3-3 and 7-0, Buccaneers tore them to shreds.

Buoyed by a bumper crowd of more than 1,000, a fantastic figure for a third-tier encounter, Herne and Co simply never let up.

That’s because they know their form on Wildcats’ tight little Wessex Bus Raceway can be up and down.

So they wanted to rack up as big a lead as they could ahead of the second leg at Weymouth on Friday, October 9.

Bournemouth, who have won 49-41 but lost 56-40 on Wildcats’ circuit this term, will be huge favourites to go on and complete the job.

Indeed, Weymouth, the reigning third-tier champions, left Wimborne Road well beaten and with their grip on the title silverware hanging precariously by a thread.

Bournemouth, sharper out from the tapes, were simply unbeatable as they won this contest in the opening 50 metres as the riders roared and jostled for position on the first and second bends.

Boosted by the Echo’s ‘Bums on Seats’ campaign to get more spectators to watch Buccaneers and AFC Bournemouth, Herne and Co put on a scintillating show for Cherries fans who gained free admission to last night’s meeting through a forward-thinking tie-up between the speedway and football club.

With Cherries star Warren Cummings and some of his team-mates viewing the action intently, Buccaneers never took their foot off the gas.

Even when luckless Weymouth, using rider replacement for injured Buzz Burrows, lost the services of Tim Webster who flew into the safety air fence on the third bend in heat 10.

The meeting was held up for half-an-hour while the Wildcats rider, who had lost control of his bike while lying last, received medical attention.

It was first feared he had sustained a serious injury, but later confirmed Webster had only sustained “bad bruising to his lower back” and should be fit to race again soon.

Taking full notice of captain Herne’s pre-match call for his team-mates not to be “too cocky” after they’d crushed Weymouth 56-36 and 62-30 at home earlier this season, Buccaneers produced their best display of the campaign.

After quickly building up a 22-8 lead, it was just a question of how big an advantage would they take into the second leg next month.

Newman’s self-inflicted fall on the last bend while leading race seven gifted Wildcats their first shared heat.

Then the youngster failed to get away from the tapes as they rose in heat eight because of a mechanical problem and Andrew Aldridge fell on the third lap as Weymouth bagged a 7-0.

It was the closest they got to their county rivals though, as only Lee Smethills (11), James Cockle (9) and Terry Day (6) put up any worthwhile resistance.

Hart produced the highlight of the night, blasting from third to first on the back straight to shot past Benji Compton and Day to triumph in race 11, with Newman also coming from the back to grab second on the final lap.

Herne continues to be a class act at this level and, remarkably, he stretched his unbeaten home record against Buccaneers’ opponents to 28 successive races (25 wins, three second places behind team-mate) stretching back to July 2.

In fact, if he hadn’t suffered an engine failure in a cup-tie against Wildcats that night, his impressive sequence could have been 37 races without defeat at Wimborne Road.

Poole Pirates are expected to reveal the names of two more guest riders for their Elite League side today with a couple of unnamed Poles likely to be favourites to complete short term deals to line up alongside Czech Matej Kus.

Buccaneers 63: 1 Jay Herne (3-3-3-2*-3) 14+1, 2 Andrew Aldridge (1-1-fell exc) 2, 3 Danny Warwick (3-2*-3-2*) 10+2, 4 Mark Baseby (2*-3-2*-2*) 9+3, 5 Jerran Hart (3-3-3-3-2*) 14+1, 6 Aaron Baseby (1-1-1) 3, 7 Kyle Newman (3-fell-ret-2*-3-3) 11+1.

Team managers: Garry May and Neil Vatcher.

Weymouth 30: 1 Benji Compton (exc two mins-0-1-ret-1) 2, 2 Terry Day (exc two mins-1-4^-1-0-0) 6, 3 Tim Webster (1-0-1*-fell exc) 2+1, 4 James Cockle (exc lapped-2-2-4^-1) 9, 5 Rider replacement for Mark Burrows, 6 Lee Smethills (2-2-2-3-0-1-1) 11, 7 James White-Williams (0-0-0-0-0) 0. 8 Alex McLeod (did not ride).

Team manager: Jem Dicken.

Referee: Dave Robinson.

Ht 1: Herne, Smethills, Aldridge, White-Willliams, Compton (excluded two minutes), Day (excluded two minutes), 60.25 (4-2).

Ht 2: Newman, Smethills, A Baseby, White-Williams, 61.99 (8-4).

Ht 3: Warwick, M Baseby, Webster, Cockle (fell, remounted, excluded lapped), 62.06 (13-5).

Ht 4: Hart, Cockle, A Baseby, White-Williams, 62.61 (17-7).

Ht 5: M Baseby, Warwick, Day, Compton (fell, remounted), 61.12 (22-8).

Ht 6: Herne, Smethills, Aldridge, Webster, 61.93 (26-10).

Ht 7: Hart, Cockle, Webster, Newman (fell), 62.60 (29-13).

Ht 8: Smethills, Day^ (tactical rider, double points), Aldridge (fell excluded), Newman (retired), race awarded, no time (29-20).

Ht 9: Warwick, M Baseby, Compton, Smethills, 62.79 (34-21).

Ht 10: (re-run) Herne, Cockle^ (tactical rider, double points), A Baseby, Webster (fell excluded), 62.36 (38-25).

Ht 11: Hart, Newman, Day, Compton (retired), 61.66 (43-26).

Ht 12: Newman, Warwick, Smethills, White-Williams, 62.69 (48-27).

Ht 13: Hart, Herne, Compton, Day, 61.64 (53-28).

Ht 14: Newman, M Baseby, Cockle, White-Williams, 62.69 (58-29).

Ht 15: Herne, Hart, Smethills, Day, 62.23 (63-30).

Fixtures, tonight: British Under-18 Championship at Scunthorpe.

Tomorrow: National League Riders’ Championship at Rye House.