PETERBOROUGH 47 POOLE 43 KENNETH Bjerre was Peterborough’s last-gasp hero – in a match that will be remembered for years.

PETERBOROUGH 47 POOLE 43

KENNETH Bjerre was Peterborough’s last-gasp hero – in a match that will be remembered for years.

The Denmark star turned on the Grand Prix style with a scintillating performance that dented title favourites Poole’s unbeaten start to the new season.

Another big crowd went away with plenty of talking points in one of the most fiercely fought contacts the East of England Showground has ever seen.

And both sets of fans were reasonable happy as the Readypower Panthers took two points for the win – and the Pirates picked up an away point.

But the meeting could have gone either way on a perfectly prepared track that saw the fastest racing in Peterborough’s 45-year history.

Niels-Kristian Iversen came within a whisker of smashing Darcy Ward’s track record even though he had to come from behind to win the opening race.

And that set the patter for the rest of the meeting with Kenneth Bjerre only .2 of a second outside Ward’s best-=ever time– when he, too, had to carve his way through to the front.

If either of Peterborough’s Danes had hit the traps it is virtually certain they would have been holders of a new track record.

Poole were consistently quicker from the start but the Panthers’ never-say-die spirit was encapsulated by a superb performance from Bjerre, Iversen, Troy Batchelor and sensational reserve Krzysztof Buczkowski.

But the quartet – who won 10 races between them – had virtually no back up.

Lewis Bridger, Ulrich �stergaard and pointless Klaus Jakobsen got only two third places between them as the lead see-sawed throughout.

Going into the final race Peterborough led by four – and it looked as if they could take three points when Bjerre and Batchelor got ahead of Chris Holder and Bjarne Pedersen.

But Batchelor made an unexpected mistake, admitting: “I took the wrong line and it cost me.”

Until then he had been almost wheel perfect, dropping his only point to Pedersen in Heat 13.

Despite not making the gate in most of his races, Bjerre, was unbeaten by an opponent four times out of five.

It was one of the Dane’s finest ever Alwalton performances with a series of thrilling passes, both inside and outside, on a night of high drama and superb racing.

PETERBOROUGH 47: Niels-Kristian Iversen 9 (3-3-3-0-), Lewis Bridger 1 (0-1-0), Ulrich �stergaard 1 (0-1-0-0), Kenneth Bjerre 13:1 (2-3-3-2:1-3), Troy Batchelor 11 (3-3-3-2-0), Klaus Jakobsen 0 (0-0-0), Krzysztof Buczkowski 12:1 (2-2:1-2-1-2-3).

POOLE 43 (Chris Holder 6:1 (1:1-0-2-1-2), Jason Doyle 8:1 (2-2-3-1:1), Davey Watt 10 (3-2-2-3), Darcy Ward 3:1 (1-1:1-0-1), Bjarne Pedersen 9:1 (1-2-2-3-1:1), Leon Madsen 3 (1-0-1-1), Artur Mroczka 4 (3-0-1-0).