TWO comfortable wins on Bank Holiday Monday saw the Swindon Robins take their win sequence to an extraordinary 16 – but it was not always pretty.

It was certainly an eventful 4¾ hours with the riders requiring a break as they were being blinded by the sun, a number of engine failures and falls, while an air fence was completely destroyed.

Despite the win double the Robins were not convincing and they will have to up their game to hit win number 17 with a full strength Wolverhampton coming to the Abbey on Thursday.

There is plenty of incentive; with their play-off place already secure, victory for the Robins will ensure they finish the core league season on top, giving them a choice of opponents in the play-off semi-finals.

First up at the Abbey on Monday were Leicester Lions who were tamed 50-41, although the visitors were two points up after heat four.

Four successive race wins saw Swindon go 10 clear until Danny King donned the black and white (double points) helmet, and he and race leader Josh Bates were awarded a 7-1 after Frenchman David Bellego fell on the third lap.

From that point it was fairly routine for Swindon, although Bellego was surprisingly beaten by Kyle Newman in heat 14, Tobiasz Musielak retired in heat 15, and even world championship leader Jason Doyle dropped points on the night.

Nick Morris raced to three wins, while Adam Ellis, except for a race one fall, backed up Doyle in the tough number two position.

Stand-in reserves Todd Kurtz and Mitchell Davey, the latter riding Blunsdon for the first time, did what was expected.

After quite a delay a depleted Somerset, heavily beaten at the Abbey four days earlier went down 54-35 but they were up against it from the start.

Using rider replacement for the injured Patrick Hougaard and with Cameron Heeps not available, the Rebels had to contest three heats with just one rider. Then reserve Jake Allen suffered another injury and by heat six the visitors were reduced to a four-man team.

Musielak and Bellego were again in the wars with the Pole falling in heat three and Bellego pulling up in the rerun to present Somerset with a rare heat win.

The rest of the match was fairly straightforward but Doyle endured two second places while Ellis dropped just one point in his first three races before taking third place in a rare heat 15 appearance.

Morris had four wins but is now in the middle of a schedule which sees him racing for 10 successive days.

Hopefully the engines and Morris himself will cope with it.

Swindon Robins travel to Rye House on Friday and on Monday they finish their SGB Premiership league campaign at Wolverhampton.