BEATEN but by no means disgraced was stand-in team manager Tim Stone's summary of last night's heavy Premier League defeat.

Promoter Stone had spent most of the previous two days on the telephone trying to get together a team to travel to East Yorkshire and only completed the task seven hours before the tapes went up when he managed to persuade Swindon's Paul Clews to fill in for Carl Wilkinson at No 2.

"We did far better than anyone could have expected," said Stone, who managed to glean six extra points from astute use of the tactical rider rule.

"When you look at the strength of our team, with a Conference League rider at No 1 and a guest at No 2, we did remarkably well to say how well Hull have started the season. All six riders showed a lot of determination and effort."

Hull junior Michael Pickering was well out of his depth as replacement for Pavel Ondrasik and, with reserves Karl Mason and Barrie Evans only scoring three points between them, it was left to the remaining three riders to keep the Vikings reined in.

Hull, 58-38 victors at Newport last month, again set off at a lightning pace and led by 10 points after only three races.

But Watson pinned them back with victory in a Craven Park season's-best equalling time of 65.9. With Mason taking advantage of a spill by Garry Stead, the Wasps earned the first of their three heat wins of the night.

The first of three entertaining duels between Watson and home No 1 Paul Thorp went in favour of the home rider.

Watson improved his tally with a tactical ride success in Heat nine that brought a 7-2 boost to the Wasps' score.

Korneliussen repeated the feat three races later in a 6-3 but the hosts had banged in two 5-1s in between and, after Thorp had controversially got the better of Watson again in Heat 13 the home lead was 22 points, swiftly stretched to 24 when Emiliano Sanchez followed in guest Chris Neath for another 5-1 to complete his paid maximum.

But Watson was furious after his heat-leaders' race defeat by Thorp and accused the veteran of dangerous riding.

"He looked over his shoulder at me and then deliberately turned left. If I had been half a bike's length closer he would have had me off," fumed the Australian.

"That fired me up and gave me more determination for the last race," said Watson who promptly went and handed Thorp his only defeat of the evening in Heat 15.

Hull: 61 - P Thorp 16+1 (6), R Brady 12+2 (6), E Kramer r/r, C Neath 9 (4), G Stead 4+1 (4), E Sanchez 12+3 (5), J Parsons 8+2 (5).

Newport: 35 - M Pickering 0 (3), P Clews 6 (5), M Korneliussen 10 (6), T Atkin r/r, C Watson 16 (5), B Evans 1 (5), K Mason 2 (6).

(Hull take aggregate bonus point 119-73)