Panther’s unbeaten home record stretching back to September 2006 was smashed last night by a powerful looking Poole team.

More importantly Panthers lost Captain Hans Andersen in a terrifying heat 6 crash after he clipped the rear wheel of Poole’s Davey Watt and came down alarmingly with his bike clearing the safety fence. Luckily it appears he appears to have got away with bruising and tenderness, although he sensibly withdrew from the meeting on medical advice.

At the time of the crash Panthers were trailing by 4 points and any hopes of a Panthers comeback went with him, although in all fairness it appears unlikely that even with a fit Hans Andersen Panthers would have held onto there home record.

On a night when the team needed to all perform, the same serious questions arose as generally the Panthers struggled on a track surface that didn’t look ideal to either team.

After the break when some remedial work had been carried out some of the team looked better but by then Poole had their tails up and they kept the pressure on to win handsomely.

Panthers started well enough and provided the first two heat winners but it all went quickly downhill after that as the Poole team attacked the track and maximums in heats 4, 6 & 7 quickly put them in a commanding lead of 12 points.

Team Manager Trevor Swales gambled by putting Danny King into heat 8 as a tactical substitute but the gamble failed with King unable to find a way past the Pirates pairing.

Kenneth Bjerre was next with the black and white in heat 9, but again he was beaten by maximum man Davey Watt, although Panthers did take the heat 5-3.

Holder won his third race of the night in 10 with Risager and Wilkinson doing well to fill the minor placing’s but Poole extended their lead with another 5-1 in heat 11 as Kasprzak and Eriksson out paced King.

Bjerre managed Panthers third heat win and the first since heat 2 by taking the 12th and handing Holder his first defeat of the night, but it was Pirates to the fore in the next two as they took 4-2’s to extend there lead to 22 points going into the last heat.

Bjerre repeated his win with another great start but King after briefly holding third was caught by Holder early on and he was unable to get back on terms.

The after match post conference was somewhat lively with several disgruntled fans voicing their disapproval at both the team and management excuses as they saw them, but by any standards this was a poor performance with several supporters voicing concerns not at losing but the manner in which we seem to be capitulating on a regular basis.

Panthers now have a break before the next fixture on the 22nd May at home to Wolverhampton, it remains to be seen if the same team line’s up then.

Peterborough Muscle Finesse Panthers 35
1. Hans Andersen 3-X = 3
2. Morten Risager 1-1-2 = 4
3. Kenneth Bjerre 2-2-4-3-3 = 14
4. Claus Vissing 0-1'-1'-2 = 4+2
5. Danny King 1-1-1-1-2-0 = 6
6. Carl Wilkinson 3-0-0-1'-0-0-0 = 4+1
7. Henrik Moller R-0-0 = 0

Poole Castle Cover Pirates 57
1. Krzysztof Kasprzak 2-3-3-1-1' = 10+1
2. Freddie Eriksson 0-0-2'-0-2' = 4+2
3. Chris Holder 3-3-3-2-2 = 13
4. Karol Zabik R/R
5. Davey Watt 3-3-3-3 = 12
6. Craig Watson 2-1-2'-0-1'-3 = 9+2
7. Adam Skornicki 1'-2'-2'-3-1 = 9+3