NEWPORT'S injury jinx struck again in Norfolk last night as they went down to a 20-point defeat against King's Lynn's youthful side.

The Mavericks went into the match without both Carl Wilkinson and Rob Finlow, each sidelined following crashes over the Easter weekend.

And last night Tom Brown (pictured) was forced to pull out of the match after an alarming heat ten spill.

He was comfortably in third place on the last lap when his team mate Danny Hughes who was lying second, stropped suddenly with engine problems and Brown had no chance of avoiding him.

Both riders crashed heavily and whilst they were able to walk away from the incident, Brown had suffered wrist (possibly broken) and shoulder injuries and was withdrawn from the meeting.

He immediately set off home to South Wales and was going straight to his local hospital for further treatment.

The Mavericks trailed by just eight points prior to that heat ten incident but with Brown ruled out the home side took advantage over the last few heats to finally record a 20-point win.

It's something of an old cliche but the final score really did not reflect the quality of the racing, nor indeed the wholehearted efforts of the Newport side.

The depleted Mavericks played a full part in what was a thoroughly entertaining meeting, full of close racing and which was raced in a fine spirit from start to finish.

They held the home side well in the early stages, the scores being level at 15 all a third of the way through the match with both Danny Warwick and Danny Hughes having recorded good wins at that stage.

Successive 5-1's in heats six and seven for the home side put them in command but the Mavericks were still in contention until that heat 10 crash involving Brown and Hughes. Speaking afterwards, manager John Weston said: "Considering the depleted team we started with, and that heat ten incident, I thought we did very well indeed to hold the young Knights to just an eight point lead until the final stages.

"Like ourselves at Newport, King's Lynn have a very young side and you have to say they look very useful indeed.

"Having said that, I believe that we would have won tonight had we been able to track our full strength side."

Newport scrorers: Danny Warwick 9+1, Tom Brown 7+1, Danny Hughes 7+1, Karl Mason 6+2, Simon Walker 5+1, Tim Warnes 1. LAST NIGHT'S RESULTS Elite League Knock Out Cup: Poole 45 (Tony Rickardsson 17) Wolverhampton 45 (Mikael Karlsson 11) Premier Trophy: Hull 51 (Garry Stead 11, Paul Thorp 11) Sheffield 39 (Sean Wilson 13)