Despite missing all their Polish-based star riders, Horspath defeated their main Elite League title rivals Wednesfield Aces 90-86 in a thriller at the Village on Sunday.

Hammers rode an almost perfect first half capitalising on errors from the visitors on a track soaked by heavy morning rain.

Mark Boaler and Zac Payne grabbed a 7-3 for Horspath in the only one of the first six heats that was not drawn.

Hammers notched a 6-3 in heat seven via Chris Timms and Ryan Taylor taking advantage of a machine failure for Lee Aris.

A further 6-4 courtesy of Lukasz Nowacki and Lewis Osborne pushed the hosts lead to nine.

Hammers went 12 up with another Nowacki and Osborne 6-4 in the 11th.

The visitors hit back in heat 14 with a 7-3 from Marcus Wadhams and Matt Smith In the next race, Aces were racing away to a maximum before Nowacki was brought down by Aris who was excluded. Horspath took the re-run 7-2 via Nowacki and Wayne Hutt.

Wednesfield rallied again with their own 7-2 following gate exclusion for Taylor.

Horspath brought in their reserves for the last, with Aces taking it 7-3.

Horspath 90: Timms 17+1, Nowacki 15, Boaler 12+1, Payne 11+4, Taylor 10, Osborne 9+2, Hutt 9+1, Riley 7 Wednesfield 86: Heard 20, Mould 16+1, Smith 14+2, Jewkes 10+2, Wadhams 8, Griffiths 7, Aris 7, Johnson 4, Combination SCORERS Horspath 54: Riley 14, Johnson 13+1, Richardson 7, Horsley 7, Johnson 3, Clarke 1.

Wednesfield 83: Winwood 15, Cox 14+1, Holdcroft 12, Everiss 11+1, Kemp 10+3, Aris 6+3, Dyke 7+2