Despite being without the injured Cory Gathercole, the Wightlink Islanders produced a stunning display at Smallbrook Stadium last night to defeat second in the table Edinburgh by a massive 28 point margin in front of their biggest crowd of the season so far.

The Scottish side arrived on the island fresh from a 48-41 victory at Reading on Sunday and determined to record their fifth away win of the season, a win that would have seen them replace Somerset at the top of the Premier League table.

But the Wightlink Islanders were in no mood whatsoever to surrender their unbeaten home record and totally dominated the match from start to finish.

Leading by example skipper Jason Bunyan romped to six straight wins out of six, which saw him awarded the annual Maud While Memorial Trophy by meeting sponsors Michael Richardson & Co of Shanklin.

And Paul Fry, who at 43 years of age is riding as well as he ever has in his career that stretches back to his debut season in 1984, was undefeated too by an Edinburgh rider in each of his six outings recording three wins and following home team-mates Bunyan (twice) and Glen Phillips in his other three races to secure maximum 5-1 heat wins in those particular heats.

Those two were the undoubted stars of the show but all the Wightlink Islanders played their part as they romped to a massive 60-32 victory to send their fans home happy in the knowledge that the two league points gained keeps the Island side very much in contention for the end-of-season playoffs that will involve the top four clubs in the final league standings.

Bunyan signified his side's intentions from the outset by storming to victory in the opening heat and with young Aussie James Holder claiming third place the home side recorded a 4-2 heat advantage to immediately put the Wightlink Islanders into the lead and the visiting Scottish side simply had no answer to the home side's all-round firepower from that point onwards.

They provided the winners in all bar two of the fifteen heats, Edinburgh's only successes coming in heat 4 when Matthew Wethers headed home Kryzsztof Stojanowski and James Holder and seven races later when their young Swede Thomas Jonasson produced a fine ride to thread his way through from third place to head home Stojanowski and Andrew Bargh.

Speaking afterwards, home team manager David Croucher was fulsome in his praise for his side although he had some sympathy for the visitors saying, "the way all our team rode tonight I don't think any side in the land would have beaten us.

"Trust me when I say that Edinburgh are a very good side indeed and I was genuinely concerned prior to the meeting that they might well push us all the way.

"But skipper Bunyan told me I shouldn't worry as he and the lads were determined to beat them despite the fact that we were without Cory and as everybody saw, the team produced a performance that was simply awesome."

MATCH DETAILS:

Final Score: Wightlink Islanders 60 Edinburgh Monarchs 32
(Premier League)

IOW scorers (in riding order - No. of rides in brackets): Jason Bunyan 18 (6), Corey Gathercole - rider replacement, Glen Phillips 8 (4), Paul Fry 15+3 (6), Krzysztof Stojanowski 8+2 (5), Andrew Bargh 4 (4), James Holder 7+1 (5).

Edinburgh scorers (in riding order - No. of rides in brackets): Carl Stonehewer 6 (5) Thomas Jonasson 5 (4), Andrew Tully 4+1 (4), Ryan Fisher 9 (5), Matthew Wethers 5+1 (4), Derek Sneddon 3 (4), Aaron Summers 0 (4)

ISLANDERS LOOK TO FOIL THE BANDITS NEXT...

Next opponents for the Wightlink Islanders are the Berwick Bandits who'll be looking to steal the league points at Smallbrook next Tuesday in a match that gets underway at the usual time of 7.30p.m.They're led by the Czech Republic's World Cup star Adrian Rymel and he'll be backed up by his compatriot Michael Makovsky, Finland's Tero Aarnio, Hungarian Norbert Magosi and Brits Tony Atkin, Scott Smith and Paul Clews.

Looking at their line up, it promises to be yet another evening of high speed action, thrills and spills at Smallbrook Stadium - the place of pace!

For ALL the latest news, photos, results, statistics and everything you need to know about the Wightlink Islanders and upcoming events at Smallbrook, go to: www.islandspeedway.co.uk