Peterborough 59 Coventry 35PETERBOROUGH extracted full revenge for their earlier KO Cup exit at the hands of the Bees with this clinical victory achieved on a difficult track.

Peterborough 59 Coventry 35

PETERBOROUGH extracted full revenge for their earlier KO Cup exit at the hands of the Bees with this clinical victory achieved on a difficult track.

The fact that it went on at all was down to the major efforts from track staff that battled the elements for most of the day, with pre match rain nearly thwarting all the hard work.

Nevertheless the rain eased off just prior to the match start time and the riders gave their all producing some quite exciting speedway on the way with the Panthers completely dominating the match from start to finish.

Henning Bager got his fifth season off with the Panthers off to a flying start in a rerun heat 1 after Frampton had been excluded for bringing down his team mate, with a race time not far off the track record, Kenneth Bjerre followed him home for an opening 5-1 and Panthers immediately doubled their advantage with a repeat performance in heat 2.

Allen and Kennett made the better starts in heat 3, but a Korneliussen swoop around the outside propelled him to the front, whilst Zabik sat on Kennetts tail for 4 laps before snatching 3rd place at the death.

An Iversen victory ensured a share of the spoils in heat 4 but Korneliussen and Zabik ensured Panthers increased their lead to 12 points with another 4-2 in five

Schlein took the first Bee tactical ride in heat six, but Kenneth Bjerre was in supreme form with Schlein only able to split the home pairing for another shared heat.

Kennett & Allen again made good starts to lead heat 7 but Iversen again took the wide path and eased past them both down the back straight, Kennett kept up the interest with a 4 lap chase but Iversen always looked comfortable and notched his second win of the night.

Allen took the expected ride replacement ride in heat 8 and led early on, but a determined challenge from Hansen saw him past and win easily in the end with Bager unable to get the better of Frampton despite pressurising him for the entire race.

Zabik produced his best race of the night with a tape's to flag victory over a hard chasing Schlein in 9 and Bjerre repeated that in 10 was Panthers opened up a 16 point lead for the first time.

Harris took the second tactical ride in heat 11 but the Bees advantage was reduced with Iversen collecting his third win on the night.

Allen produced the Bees only race win of the night with a hard fought victory over Korneliussen in 12 before Panthers killed the match off entirely with two very efficient maximums in heats 13 & 14.

Bjerre completed his maximum with another untroubled ride in heat 15, but Allen managed to hold off a pressing Iversen, after the Peterborough captain had been shut out of a hard first corner by the Bees pairing.

This was a very comprehensive and quality performance from the Panthers with only Lee Complin failing to win a race.

Everyone pitched in with quality contributions and the signs are now ominous that they are clearly going to be a force to be reckoned with, especially on home soil.

Mayor of Peterborough, Councillor Pat Nash MBE awarded the man of the match to Kenneth Bjerre for his maximum performance but it could have so easily gone to several of his team mates.

Scorers:

Peterborough: Kenneth Bjerre 14+1, Henning Bager 5, Mads Korneliussen 9, Karol Zabik 8, Niels Kristian-Iversen 12+1, Lee Complin 2+1, Kenneth Hansen 9+2.

Coventry: Chris Harris 8, R/R, Ollie Allen 11+1, Edward Kennett 2, Rory Schlein 8, Ricky Wells 0, Jordan Frampton 5+3.