Best score of year for Diamonds; SPEEDWAY.

Newcastle Diamonds ......................... 55 Somerset Rebels................................ 37 DESPITE missing Kenni Larsen, still overseas as his Grand Prix Qualification round had been delayed 24 hours, Diamonds raced to their best score of 2009, writes LAWRENCE HEPPELL.

The Diamonds used rider replacement for the injured Steve Boxall with Willie Lawson and Lee Complin coming in as guest bookings to great effect, with Lawson winning his first two races in great style, the second coming with the score at 19-11 before his heat six.

Lawson was up against former Grand Prix and Elite League star Steve Johnston with the guest from Berwick taking an extreme outside move round Johnston on bend two in a vital Newcastle 5-1 which moved the score to an unexpected 24-12.

The Rebels used their first tactical ride for double points in heat eight with Cory Gathercole coming out as the nominee, but slowed dramatically with apparent fuel starvation, ending up nearly half a lap behind and gifting Newcastle a 5-1 to go 32-16 up.

Their second tactical ride went to Johnston in the ninth race, and following a rerun for the fallen Tom Brown with all four riders, it was Newcastle skipper Jason King who scorched round the outside line to take the lead as the doubled-up Johnston secured second in a shared 4-4.

McKinna fell victim to a questionable refereeing decision to exclude him from heat 11 when all four riders went for the same area of track, leaving Complin to fend alone, and battled well from an awful gate to blast under Brown on the third lap only missing out on the overall win by a few feet in a 2-4 as the Rebels inched back to 42-26.

In an exact copy of the start of heat 11, the 12th saw Sedgmen going down, but all four were allowed back this time, and in this re-run King and Branny put the result out of doubt with a 4-2 to leave the score at 46-28.

Two 3-3s followed ensuring the Diamonds had recorded their best score of the season so far. The final race was another shared 3-3 as Newcastle moved up to 11th in the league.

NEWCASTLE DIAMONDS: Steve Boxall - Rider replacement, Willie Lawson (guest) 13, Jason King (Captain) 15+2, Trent Leverington 11+1, Lee Complin (guest) 7+2, Adam McKinna 3+1, Craig Branney 6+1.

SOMERSET REBELS: Emil Kramer 7+1, Simon Walker - Rider replacement, Brendan Johnson (guest) 1, Cory Gathercole 8, Steve Johnston (Captain) 12, Tom Brown 4, Justin Sedgmen 5+1..

Berwick Bandits ................................. 51 Rye House Rockets ............................ 42 THE Berwick Bandits went into Saturday's League match three riders down, but the new-look side pulled together magnificently to take a well-deserved win.

The rider replacement rule covered Italian Guglielmo Franchetti's rides, as he was away in the Czech Republic in the Grand Prix qualifying round, as was Josef Franc, for whom Carl Wilkinson of Scunthorpe was drafted in to guest.

Berwick team manager Dave Peet said: "This was a great win for us, especially as many people and fans had already written us off as three of our lads were not available." Berwick Bandits: Michal Makovsky 102+1, Guglielmo Franchetti - Rider Replacement, Paul Clews 7+2, Willie Lawson 9+2, Carl Wilkinson (guest) 13+1, Greg Blair 8+2, Adam McKinna (guest) 2.

Rye House Rockets: Jason Lyons (guest) 5, Tommy Allen 2, Chris Neath 15, Joe Haines - Rider replacement, Linus Sundstrom 10+1, Luke Bowen 1, Andrew Silver 9..