There was no disguising the smile on Joel Parsons' face following his third place in the British Under-21 qualifying round at Stoke last night.

And he will be looking to take that kind of form into the weekend.

Wasps are at Mildenhall tomorrow night in the Premier Trophy and on Sunday meet Rye House in a double header (tapes-up 2.30pm).

The 20-year-old Australian was allowed entry in to the competition due to having dual citizenship and the Newport rider certainly made the most of his opportunity to take the last qualifying slot for the British Under-21 final at King's Lynn on April 19 following a three rider run off after he, Jack Hargreaves and Jamie Robertson had all tied on 12 points.

"I was a bit concerned at the interval stage because I had seven points in the bag and had a couple of hard races to come," he said.

"What worked in my favour in the end was having outside gates for my last two rides. I just got a big blast around the outside and kept it all screwed on.

"I managed to pass James Cockle for second place in heat 15 and then I got three big points two races later which put me on 12 points in total.

"I figured then that I'd have a run off and I got an outside run again. Once I got my wheels in front I felt pretty sure that no-one would pass me and I'm really made up about this.

"Last year was almost a write off for me with one injury after another and that was why I couldn't ride in the Australian Under-21 series.

"Then someone suggested I ask about riding in the British rounds. To get in was something, but to actually go all the way to the final is great and I'm really looking forward to that one."

The meeting was won by Mildenhall's Jason King with a 15 point maxim with second place going to his Fen Tigers teammate James Brundle. While Parsons was going merrily on his way, Sam Hurst hit all sorts of problems. He missed his first ride all together with a clutch problem and was then excluded from heat 15 for bringing Parsons off at the first turn.

"The threads had stripped on the bolts and the whole clutch came away," said Hurst. "It happened on the parade and we just didn't have enough time to sort everything out.

"It was one of those nights really. Nothing went right. I had two bikes here, but the truth is that the second one is not up to scratch because we just can't afford to update it".

Glasgow's James Cockle threatened early on with eight points from his first three rides before two third places put him out of the running.

Another fancied runner, Newcastle's Jamie Robertson, lost out in heat seven when King found the drive to pass Jack Hargreaves but Robertson was stuck in third place.

Scorers: J King 15, J Brundle 14, J Parsons 12, J Hargreaves 12, J Robertson 12, J Cockle 10, A McKinna 9, L Priest 8, B Burchatt 7, H Cook 5. J Clement 5, G Isherwood 4, K Irving 4, S Hurst 2, S Dore 1, S Richardson 0.