Kid of Steele

Carmarthenshire teenager Oliver Steele made his first appearance as a young apprentice after Newport's second home pre-season friendly against Dudley Tigers.

15-year old Steele will spend the year in the Exiles Academy side and will become the first Welshman to ride in a Newport race jacket when he takes to the track in the Academy's first meeting of the season.

Riding in the Silver Shield portion of the meeting, his debut gave a much needed buzz to the atmosphere around Spytty Stadium after the deflation that came from a 5-1 defeat in heat 15 of the main meeting that leaves the Exiles still looking for their first ever victory.

Steele turned that buzz into excitement too, as he qualified from his opening Silver Shield ride, beating two more experienced riders in Iain Meadows and 24-year old Dudley Tigers asset, Lee Gilzean.

His performance helped show the fruits of a positive future that were much needed following a speedway lesson earlier on in the week when the Exiles suffered a 67-23 reverse at top-flight Wimbledon Werewolves.

However, things would have been even more positive had the Exiles main team got that much needed first win as well. Continuing to experiment with options at reserve, Newport again went in about three points under-strength on the averages but after 12 heats looked well on the way to delivering a first victory with a 39-33 lead.

Two 4-2's to Dudley meant that it went down to an exciting Heat 15 with the Exiles needing just a 3-3 to secure a win, but skipper Ben Tullett and Andrzej Lesiak could not deliver, losing a 5-1 and the match 44-46 as a result.