Hellingly Lions are the National League champions after they shot down Bury Comets in yesterday's title decider at their Lower Dicker track.

The Sussex team raced to a convincing 97-79 victory to clinch one the biggest triumphs in the club's 56-year history and their first national title since they won the British Gold Cup in 1963.

Delighted skipper Martyn Hollebon, who led from the front with 19 points, said: "Everyone deserves this. It has been a fantastic team effort."

Lions were always in the driving seat in an incident-packed affair which provided a series of crashing falls and excitement for an enthusiastic crowd.

Bury, having inflicted Hellingly's only defeat of the season with a massive 108-67 win at their Manchester raceway, began the match as favourites, but they were overwhelmed by a fired-up Lions team riding at the top of their form on their own circuit.

The home side took the heat out of what had threatened to be a bitterly fought contest with a blistering start, going eight points up after only three races and leading by 11 points after five heats.

Lions had earlier lost a pre-match dispute which meant they had to kick their heels for 75 minutes while a second-team fixture was staged on the track, but they never looked like losing the real argument once the main action started.

When their lead became 13 points after just six races, it meant Bury were so far behind they could claim the favoured inside gate positions in every race, but it made no difference.

Lions led 52-36 at the halfway stage of the 18-heat match, and it was all over bar the shouting when the visitors needed four maximum heat wins in the last four races to stop the hosts' title charge.

Hellingly got off to a flying start with a 7-3 in heat one by Neil Hollebon and Jamie Cheshire, while heat two was won by Eddie Ridley, with Zac Parsons snatching third place on the last lap.

When Joe Plumstead rode a brilliant tactical race to relegate Bury's star rider, Fred Rothwell, to last place behind race winner Martyn Hollebon in the next, it meant Lions had begun with three heat wins.

The visitors were rattled, and it showed. Steve Muff was excluded for bringing down Ridley in heat five, and Paul Dyson was later thrown out of heat 12 after he sent Cheshire crashing to the track.

Martyn Hollebon and Plumstead stretched Hellingly's lead to 36-23 after heat six, and Parsons and Ridley bagged another 6-4 in a rough eighth race which saw Ridley and Bury's Ben Scranage involved in a pile-up.

Lions began the second half where they had left off with another 6-4 from Martyn Hollebon and Ridley before Rothwell and Neil Howarth managed a maximum for Bury in heat 11.

Seventeen-year-old Neil Hollebon posted his fourth win on the bounce in the next, while heat 13 saw Martyn Hollebon's only defeat in the most exciting race of the afternoon.

Bury were sitting on a 7-3 after Mark Rushby had ridden out Hollebon, but on the last lap both Hollebon and Plumstead roared past the Bury rider to give Lions a shared heat behind Scranage.

Heat 15 was another thriller. Ridley won it, but Parsons produced a brilliant last-lap pass to go in front of Rothwell. When the Bury man dived inside Parsons on the last bend, he crashed full-length on the track.

Muff fell heavily in the next, Dyson rode over Cheshire when he came down in heat 17, and Martyn Hollebon fittingly wrapped it all up with a win over Howarth, Bury's top scorer, in the finale.

Hellingly: Martyn Hollebon 19, Neil Hollebon 18, Eddie Ridley 14, Zac Parsons 12, Joe * Plumstead 11, Barrie Geer 10, Jamie Cheshire 9, Alan Boniface 4. Bonus points: Plumstead 2, Cheshire 2, Neil Hollebon 1.

Bury: Neil Howarth 16, Mark Rushby 14, Paul Dyson 14, Fred Rothwell 10, Ben Scranage 9, Scott Jarman 6, Dave Morgan 5, Steve Muff 5. Bonus points: Howarth 1, Rothwell 1.