Oxford Cheetahs consolidated their third position in the Cab Direct Championship with a 45-45 draw at Berwick on Saturday (August 3) night as they claimed the aggregate bonus point but fell short of a third point in a thrilling Super Heat.

The closely fought contest saw Cheetahs initially taking the lead with a 5-1 from Sam Masters and Cameron Heeps in Heat 1, before Berwick levelled the scores in Heat 3.

Cheetahs pulled ahead once again with a 5-1 with fine performances from Scott Nicholls and Luke Killeen in Heat 6.

Scott NichollsScott Nicholls (Image: Steve Edmunds)

However, Bandits struck back with three successive heat advantages from Heats 8 to 10, gaining a six-point lead.

Cheetahs’ team manager Peter Schroeck placed Nicholls into Heat 12 as a tactical substitute.

There was movement at the tapes and both Lasse Fredriksen and Scott Nicholls nudged them.

With the tapes not going up, Killeen then damaged his front mudguard as he too caught them.

It looked like Fredriksen had touched the tapes first, but it took referee Matthew Wear around 10 minutes to arrive at that conclusion, with Fredriksen excluded and Nicholls warned.

Meanwhile, Killeen also found himself excluded from the re-run for returning to the pits after the stoppage following a protest from Berwick team manager Stewart Dickson. Eventually Nicholls won the race which ended 3-3.

In Heat 13, Nicholls paired with Masters, closing the gap with a 5-1 as Masters outperformed Jye Etheridge in an early battle for second place.

The race tightened up when Jordan Jenkins kept Cheetahs in the hunt with a crucial second place in Heat 14.

Nicholls and Masters then forced the Super Heat with a 5-1 over the impressive Drew Kemp in Heat 15.

Both teams already had a point for the draw, while Cheetahs won the aggregate point by 98-82.

Bandits won an exciting Super Heat race by 5-4 under the 4-3-2-0 scoring system.

Masters said: “We’ve come away from home and taken two points, so we can’t really complain, but when you come this close to winning, it hurts a little bit, to be honest.

"Berwick are a good team at home, they always have been. But we’ve come here and taken two points away and once the dust settles, we’ll be happy with that."

Speaking about his own performance, he added: “I had a good night. I dropped just the one point. When the meeting is so tight, you think about every dropped point. But if someone offered me paid 14 around here this morning, I would have taken it."