RAIN robbed Wasps of the chance to overcome a six-point deficit at Hayley Stadium yesterday against a Reading side which had already seen Cwmfelinfach-based skipper Phil Morris rushed to the Royal Gwent with a leg injury.

Morris took a tumble on the home straight on heat one as he trailed team-mate and Newport asset Andrew Appleton, and although he remounted to finish the race, he collapsed on the far straight where he received medical treatment.

After being examined in the pits by the doctor, Morris was taken to hospital. Already using the rider replacement for number-one heat leader Danny Bird, it left Reading down to five riders and at the Wasps' mercy.

By the completion of heat five, Wasps held a four-point lead with the promise of a bigger advantage to come.

After a short break to allow the rain to pass, it appeared the meeting would go ahead. However, the rain became more persistent, with the match referee having no choice but to call matters off.

"We'd have ridden a few more heats if the unfortunate accident to Phil Morris hadn't happened," said Newport promoter Tim Stone. "We don't know how he is at this moment, it's possibly a broken bone in his foot.

"We waited to try and get it on. But I don't just want to get six races on at a meeting, I want to get the whole programme on.

"If the rain had stopped, then we would have had the track lads out working with sawdust and we'd have got the meeting ahead.

"But unfortunately the weather beat us this time."

* Wasps travel to Yorkshire on Thursday to face Sheffield Tigers in a Premier League meeting. Hayley Stadium hosts a double-header on Sunday, when the Wasps host Berwick Bandits in a PL encounter at 4pm, followed by Newport Mavericks' home meeting with Swindon Sprockets.

Start 4pm, with Newport again adopting its Kids-for-a-Quid scheme.

Newport Wasps: 1 - Mads Korneliussen, 1+1(1); 2 - Rider replacement for Tony Atkin; 3 - Pavel Ondrasik, 2+1(2); 4 - Kristian Lund, 5(2); 5 - Craig Watson (c), 3(1); 6 - Carl Wilkinson, 3(1); Barrie Evans, 3(3). Reading Racers: Rider replacement for Danny Bird; 2 - Andrew Appleton, 6(2); 3 - Chris Schramm 2(2); 4 - Phil Morris (c), 0(1); 5 - Matej Zagar 2(1); 6 - Steve Braidford 2(2); 7 - Chris Mills 1+1(1).