THE absence of Australian ace Craig Watson through illness proved too big a handicap for Newport as they crashed to a heavy defeat in their Premier League match at Exeter last night.

Watson missed the meeting because of a virus and the Wasps were forced to use rider replacement with young Australian Karlis Ezergailis deputising for the injured Tony Atkins.

Exeter took full advantage to follow up their previous convincing home victories over Newport in the Premier Trophy and Knock-Out Cup.

The Falcons took maximum points from 10 of the 15 races with Newport managing only three heat winners through Mads Korneliussen and Pavel Ondrasik.

They were the only Newport riders to score points at the expense of the home side - apart from heat two where reserves Carl Wilkinson and Karl Mason gained a 3-3 behind Michael Coles after Nick Simmons blew his engine.

Team manager Neil Street took some encouragement from the form of Danish youngster Korneliussen, who took over the captaincy in the absence of Watson.

"He won the first and last heats in fast times," said Street.

"It shows what he can do when he makes the start and I was quite pleased for him.

"Unfortunately, he was the only member of the team who was really going well, which made it difficult to gain much from the rider replacement facility."

In fact, Newport obtained only three points from the four rider replacement outings covering Watson's absence.

The meeting began on a high note for Newport when Korneliussen and Ezergailis scored a 4-2 against home skipper Mark Simmonds after Mark Lemon had dropped out with ignition trouble.

That was the only heat advantage of the evening for the Wasps. Even the tactical rides for Korneliussen and Ondrasik achieved only 5-2 returns with third places for the visiting riders.

As Newport had only a two-point advantage from a 46-44 win at the Hayley Stadium in June, Exeter easily collected the aggregate bonus point.

Exeter: Mark Lemon 8+1 bonus (4 rides), Mark Simmonds 10+1 (4), Roger Lobb 13+1 (5), Seemond Stephens 11+3 (5), Graeme Gordon 9+2 (4), Nick Simmons 4+2 (4), Michael Coles 10+2 (4). Newport: Mads Korneliussen 12 (6), Karlis Ezergailis 2 (4), Pavel Ondrasik 6 (5), Kristian Lund 2 (5), Craig Watson (rider replacement), Carl Wilkinson 2 (5), Karl Mason 3+1 (5), Scott Pegler (number 8) did not ride.

l Exeter are saying farewell to the massive County ground track at the end of the season - and there will be very few tears.

Wasps rode without skipper Craig Watson, recovering from a virus, but promoter Tim Stone couldn't get a replacement, instead bringing in Karlis Ezergailis for the injured Tony Atkin and using rider replacement for Watson.

Stone said: "No-one likes Exeter - not even former Exeter riders.

"I tried heat leaders and second string riders and none of them wanted the booking.

" I spent three hours on the telephone and in a way it is understandable they don't want to ride - other than when they are scheduled visitors."

Watson was taken ill while competing in the final world qualifier for next summer's Grand Prix and saw a doctor yesterday, leaving him a doubt for tonight's meeting at the Isle of Wight.