Arena Essex 47, Oxford 46: Despite an imperious maximum from Greg Hancock and a-paid 12 total from Jesper B Jensen, Oxford narrowly failed to overcome a rejuvenated Arena Essex outfit on their own patch last night.

Essex welcomed back their No 1 Mark Loram for his first home Elite League meeting of the season following a badly injured hand.

However, it was American ace Hancock, who gained the plaudits, completing six wins, including a tactical ride as he battled manfully to maintain his side's interest in pro- ceedings.

He set the tone with a trap to line success in a rerun race after Sergey Darkin fell.

And when Jensen held off the determined challenge of Paul Hurry two races later to complete an impressive victory, the visitors were understandably sensing a second win of the season at Purfleet.

However, an off-night for Niels Kristian Iversen proved the significant factor in the defeat with the rider unable to stamp his usual authority around the Hammers base.

He was unable to prevent a maximum in heat six, when taking a tactical ride.

And when the home side followed up with another heat advantage on the next race, with Iversen at the back, the Silver Machine trailed by ten points.

Travis McGowan produced an outstanding heat eight ride when he flew around the outside on the first turns before cutting back to pick off Darkin.

With Tomasz Bajerski also passing the Russian, the visitors collected their second heat advantage.

Hancock won two of the next three races, the second of those as a tactical ride, as McGowan collected third to reduce the deficit to 37-32.

Bajerski kept the hopes alive with an all-the-way win off the outside gate in heat 12.

Hancock flew past Loram in the early stages of heat 13.

But Oxford's hopes were finally dashed when Lanham trapped in front in the penultimate heat to settle the outcome, despite a maximum from the visitors in the finale.

Arena Essex: M Loram 11, L Lanham 7+2, G Havelock 7+1, R Povazhny 7+1, P Hurry 6+2, S Darkin 5+1, P Morris 4.

Oxford: G Hancock 21, JB Jensen 11+1, T Bajerski 6+1. T McGowan 5, NK Iversen 3, M Makovsky 0, S Andersen R/R.