Oxford's jubilant Steve Johnston raced to a tremendous third place in speedway's Overseas Final at a sun-baked Poole Stadium yesterday, writes Leon Hill.

Johnston made the best possible start in his first ride by beating top Brit, Martin Dugard, in one of the quickest times of the afternoon andthat set the scene for the rest of his afternoon.

A second place next time out was another close affair, but with eventual winner Sam Ermolenko in absolutely sparkling form, that was certainly no disgrace.

Johnston had another good win in his third ride but first bit of bad luck came in his fourth outing. He went to go round Scott Nicholls only for his bike to stop.

This pushed Johnston wider than he wanted to go and allowed Gary Havelock to nip up the inside and take the lead, putting Johnston, Havelock and Lyons all on ten points! Only a win would do for Johnston to keep his rostrum hoped alive and he really needed his two closest rivals to drop points.

Nicholls looked like he was going to do Johno a favour when he headed Lyons but further mechanical gremlins beset him and that gifted Lyons the three points.

Johnston had further bad luck when he drew the unfavoured outside gate in the run-off for sdecond place, with Lyons and Havelock underneath him.

A brilliant first corner saw Johno get second place, and despite trying everything heknew he could not find a way around Lyons. So he finished third overall.

The other Cheetahs rider, Mark Lemon, failed to make it around the first bend in the first heat, when he was pushed wide and turned a full 360 degrees in the deep stuff on the outside.

It was a nasty looking tumblebut recovered and grabbed a good second place in his second outing. A third place in his last ride put Lemon just beyond qualification in tenth place.