Edinburgh 54, King's Lynn 41Darcy Ward grabbed Lynn a late tactical lifeline in last night's Premier Trophy final, first leg at Armadale.Rob Lyon's newly crowned champions faced a huge first leg deficit when Ward went to the tapes in heat 11 with Lynn 16 points adrift.

Edinburgh 54, King's Lynn 41

Darcy Ward grabbed Lynn a late tactical lifeline in last night's Premier Trophy final, first leg at Armadale.

Rob Lyon's newly crowned champions faced a huge first leg deficit when Ward went to the tapes in heat 11 with Lynn 16 points adrift.

But the World U21 finalist and over- worked Swedish reserve Linus Eklof conjured a momentum-shifting 8-1 raid to stun the large Monarchs' crowd.

Lyon's treble chasers squared off the next three tours before Edinburgh posted a priceless maximum in the finale. The Stars, however, will back themselves to clinch a second trophy this season in next Wednesday's Norfolk Arena second leg return.

Edinburgh lost by 16 points on their August league trip to fortress Saddlebow while Lynn came within one race win of overhauling a 17-point deficit on home shale in last season's thrilling play-off battles against their Scottish rivals.

Ward's pivotal cameo last night was all the more apt after fracturing his ankle on Lynn's league visit to the dethroned champions in July's feisty 46-45 defeat.

The boy wonder had earlier gifted Edinburgh an opening max after touching the tapes. Ward flew past Jan Graversen off 15 metres but ran out of track trying to reel in one time Stars' guest Michal Rajkowski.

Aaron Summers cruised to the reserves but Lynn dug in for the minor spots after Byron Bekker ran wide attempting to cut past Eklof.

Summers re-emerged for a bonus flag in the next when Andrew Tully was the latest culprit to shred the tapes in the nervy early stages.

Chris Schramm trapped to dictate but Summers wound it on down the back straight before Matty Wethers rocketed off the final turn to pick pocket Schramm.

Tomas Topinka opened the visitors' account but Kevin Wolbert dived into Graversen's slipstream to split the Stars.

Tully muscled his way past Eklof off the final bend of heat five to move the hosts eight clear. American ace Ryan Fisher catapulted out of turn three to glide around the fast-gating Eklof.

Rajkowski limited Emiliano Sanchez's heat eight tactical foray after Summers had hit the shale in a joust with Eklof.

Lyon continued to ring the changes in his six-man team but Graversen's reserve switch drew a blank. Edinburgh then cashed in on Schramm's second consecutive retirement to pull even further clear.

Ward exited the pits for heat 11 in the black and white helmet - trapping behind the impressive Eklof who deferred to his team mate off the final bend.

Fisher repelled Topinka in a high class heat 13 duel as the Premier League's top two traded shared heats.

But Edinburgh were awarded the finale following Ward's spill in the rear to give the Monarchs some valuable breathing space ahead of Wednesday's Saddlebow second leg showdown.

Monarchs: Fisher 14+1, Rajkowski 8+1, Tully 11+1, Wethers 7+1, Wolbert 6, Summers 8+1, Bekker 0.

Stars: Ward 8+1, Schramm 3, Sanchez 8, Topinka 9+1, Eklof 10+5, Graversen 3.