Elite League APoole Pirates 52 Peterborough Panthers 41PETERBOROUGH Panthers slipped to a somewhat disappointing defeat at Poole on their first visit this year.

Elite League A

Poole Pirates 52 Peterborough Panthers 41

PETERBOROUGH Panthers slipped to a somewhat disappointing defeat at Poole on their first visit this year.

They can perhaps point to more than a fair share of falls that robbed them of a few points, especially early on, but in truth it was a lack of heat winners that saw the match slip away from them after a promising start.

Ales Dryml comfortably led heat one until falling late on but the Panthers quickly made amends with a maximum in the reserves race to go in front.

The Pirates hit straight back with a maximum of their own courtesy of Davidsson and Pedersen in heat three and took a 4-2 in heat four after Vissing had fallen early on.

Iversen made the better start in five but was caught and passed by Pedersen with the points shared and heat six was also shared as Bjerre outpaced Andersen and Screen.

Vissing managed to fall twice in a rerun heat seven, the second time while disputing the lead with Holder and his subsequent exclusion enabled the Pirates to open up a six point lead.

Vissing made amends with a superb win in heat eight and with Dryml following him home for a 5-1 the Panthers had closed the gap to just two points. However, the Pirates hit another maximum in heat nine with Bjerre relegated to the back after Davidsson had got away from the tapes with his best start of the night.

Poole then started to up the ante and it was only late passes by Korneliussen in 10 and Iversen in 11 which turned Poole maximums into Poole heat advantages, but nevertheless the second one extended the Pirates lead to 10 points.

Korneliussen was given the task of the first tactical ride but didn't get the start he wanted with the Poole pairing leading until Vissing came to grief on the third bend which necessitated a restart. Despite that Davidsson and Boxall again made the better starts and led early on, Korneliussen passed Davidsson on lap two and then went after Boxall just managing to snatch victory on the line to reduce the arrears to seven.

Holder and Andersen then pretty well wrapped it up with a comfortable 5-1 in heat 13 and although the last two heats were shared the match points went the way of the hosts, with Bjerre's only consolation of denying Holder a full maximum with victory in heat 15.

It was a similar story to a lot of other matches where Panthers heat leaders were simply unable to match the firepower of the opposition's heat leaders with just three heat wins between them from 15 starts.

Vissing was a busy man collecting paid eight from seven outings which included two race wins, but his effectiveness was tempered somewhat by the fact he managed to fall four times.

Team manager Trevor Swales said: “Ales was on course to give us a great start until his chain came off and there is no doubt in my mind that Claus was hard done by in heat seven.

“It wasn't dirty riding from Holder but it was hard and there was definitely contact that caused Claus to go down. You can keep finding bits of bad luck and decisions that don't go your way, but there are no excuses. Yet again we had problems with gating and yet again we missed a good opportunity to get away points.

“The home clash against Wolverhampton now takes on even more significance. I am looking for a convincing win.”

Poole: Anderson 10+1, Screen 4+1, Davidsson 7+1, Pedersen 11+3, Holder 14, Wilson 2, Boxhall 4.

Peterborough: Iversen 7, Dryml 4+2, Komeliussen 12, Hansen R/R, Bjerre 8, Bager 3+1, Vissing 7+1.