AN AFTERNOON of high drama at the Old Gun Site saw the Sittingbourne Crusaders Speedway side finish the day still searching for their first win after defeats against Buxton and Scunthorpe on Sunday.

Against the Derbyshire side, the Crusaders, who had lost new man Nick Simmons to an elbow injury earlier in the weekend, suffered a mid-meeting collapse which made defeat inevitable.

A steady and consistent performance from the Bustone outfit was too much for a depleted home side. The appropriately named Lee Derbyshire top scored for the visitors in a 55-39 win.

One positive for Sittingbourne to take was the display of skipper Chris Hunt, who dominated to win his first three races before finally losing out to his former Carmarthen team-mate Dean Felton.

Crusaders' new number one Ricky Scarboro was also impressive on his home debut.

The second opponents of the afternoon, Scunthorpe Scorpions, were looking for their first-ever Conference victory.

The match started in controversial fashion, with two Scunthorpe riders, Wayne Carter and Ashley Johnson, receiving censures for moving at the tapes. Things threatened to boil over when Johnson fell and brought down Crusaders' reserve Stefan de Groot, but the referee managed to smooth things over with private and public representations for calm.

The writing was on the wall for Sittingbourne after South African Byron Bekker partnered the other unbeaten Scunthorpe man, Carter, to the first of four 5-1s for the visitors in heat three.

It got worse for Crusaders after Darren Andrews crashed out of the proceedings and then Hunt, who had ridden so well in the match against Buxton, suffered a suspected broken collar-bone.

It ended any hope of a Kentish recovery and the home side went down 42-34.

It capped a miserable weekend for Sittingbourne, who also suffered a 66-20 defeat at Speedway Conference League leaders Weymouth on Friday night.

Sittingbourne AC Associates Crusaders scorers:

v Buxton: R. Scarboro 12; C. Hunt 11; D. Andrews 7; J. Theobald 4+1; 4; C. Downs 1; M. Baseby 0

v Scunthorpe: J. Theobald 8+1; D. Blake 8; R. Scarboro 5; A. Cross 4+2; C. Hunt 4; D. Andrews 3+2; S. de Groot 2+1

v Weymouth: Ricky Scarboro 10; Chris Hunt 6; James Theobald 4; Wayne Parker 0; Nick Simmons 0.