Reading win, Exeter through.

Reading Racers won the match 46-44 on the night, but it was the Exeter Falcons that progressed through to the semi-finals of the competition in an entertaining night's racing at Smallmead Stadium.

The Ideal Videos Racers came from behind to beat the Falcons 46-44 in their final Premier Trophy group match, but the men from Devon did enough by picking up the aggregate and in the process leap-frog Kings Lynn into second place in the final standings, and take the final semi-final spot

It was a familiar story at the top of the Reading scorechart with Matej Zagar leading the way with 13 points, with Andrew Appleton showing some good form and often earning his points from the back on the way to his 11 (paid 12) haul.

For Exeter Czech Republic star Toni Svab was in great form scoring 14 points, and received some solid support with Mark Lemon 9 and Seemond Stephens 7 being the pick of the bunch.

Reading got off to a terrible start losing a 4-2 in the opening two heats, and then Richard Wolff and Appleton dropped a surprise 5-1 to Exeter's Svab and Ray Morton in heat 3 which put the Falcons into an early 13-5 lead.

However the Racers staged a mini revival when Zagar won heat 4 ahead of Stephens, and with Mathieu Tresarrieu passing Lee Smethills on the third lap the Reading 4-2 brought the scores back to 15-9.

Wolff and Appleton then made amends for their 5-1 reverses in heat 3, by notching up a maximum of their own in over Exeter's number one Mark Lemon in heat 5, which left the Racers trailing by just two points (19-17).

Stephens then beat Zdenek Simota and Tresarrieu in heat 6 for a shared race, but the Falcons opened up a four-point gap (23-19) courtesy of a 4-2 in heat 7 from Svab and Morton over Zagar.

Heat 8 was shared at three apiece, but Reading started to gradually get the points back when Appleton won heat 9 ahead of Stephens and Wolff got the all-important third place to give the home side a 4-2 heat advantage.

Appleton inflicted Svab's only defeat of the night by winning heat 10, and with Simota beating Morton to third place the 4-2 brought the scores level at 30-30 with five heats to go.

Reading then managed to get their noses in front for the first time as Zagar won heat 11 with Lemon in second, and with Johnson picking up the third place after Pavel Ondrasik retired on the third lap in third place, the
Racers 4-2 just edged them in front at 34-32.

Appleton passed Morton on the second lap to take the chequered flag in heat 12, and with Tresarrieu in third Reading picked up third fourth 4-2 in as many heats to go into a 38-34 lead. Zagar and Simota then made it five 4-2's
on the trot in heat 13, with Lemon splitting the home pair, which put the Smallmead men into a 42-36 lead going into the penultimate race.

Svab and Smethills were on a 5-1 in heat 14, but fortunately Wolff managed to split the Falcons pair passing Smethills on the second lap. However the Exeter 4-2 heat advantage did take the match to the final race with the Ideal Video Racers leading by just four points (44-40).

In the final race of the night at one point it looked set to end all even with a 45-45 draw as Svab and Lemon held a 5-1 over Zagar and Appleton, but after some determined riding by Reading's Slovenian he did manage to get in
between the Falcons duo and hold on for the match-winning second place and a narrow 46-44 Racers victory.

Reading now have a ten day break before they're next in action after their busy schedule this week, when on Monday 20th June the Berwick Bandits come to Smallmead.