PANTHERS picked up a useful away point from a narrow 44-46 defeat at local rivals King’s Lynn on Wednesday.
The Showground side came agonisingly close to completing a turnaround victory, only for home captain Mads Korneliussen to steer his side home with some vital late rides – but it was still a battling display from the visitors.
Panthers were well served by skipper Kenneth Bjerre with an impressive display on his old home track, whilst Krzysztof Buczkowski and Michael Jepsen Jensen both reeled off multiple race wins as the visitors dominated the middle stages of the meeting.
Unfortunately, they had given themselves a mountain to climb by failing to build initially on Bjerre’s Heat 1 race win, as they conceded a 5-1 and two 4-2s to go 8-16 down after four races.
Buczkowski sparked Panthers into life with a stunning move in Heat 6 to slice between Niels-Kristian Iversen and Ulrich Ostergaard on the second lap for a fine win, and Linus Sundstrom then moved Daniel Nermark aside as Panthers clawed two points back in Heat 7.
When home No.1 Niels-Kristian Iversen was relegated to third place in Heat 10 with Jepsen Jensen and Sundstrom carding a 5-1, Panthers had momentum on their side, and Jensen duly won again in Heat 12 with Norbert Kosciuch holding a vital third place to bring the scores level.
But Iversen won Heat 13 ahead of a frantic battle for second place between Bjerre and Daniel Nermark which went in favour of the Panthers man – but with Buczkowski’s winning run coming to an end, Lynn were back ahead at 40-38.
Korneliussen headed Sundstrom home in Heat 14 but Kosciuch kept Panthers in the hunt by passing Kevin Wolbert for third place, leaving Bjerre and Jensen needing a 5-1 in the last race to snatch victory.
But after a re-start to Heat 15 when Iversen was judged to have moved at the start, it was Jensen who missed out at the second time of asking, and although Bjerre notched an untroubled win, Korneliussen and Iversen saw the home side through to leave Panthers having to be content with a point.
KING’S LYNN 46: Mads Korneliussen 13, Daniel Nermark 9+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 9+1, Ulrich Ostergaard 7+2, Mateusz Szczepaniak 6+2, Kevin Wolbert 2+1, Maciej Janowski r/r.
PETERBOROUGH 44: Kenneth Bjerre 13, Linus Sundstrom 9+1, Krzysztof Buczkowski 9, Michael Jepsen Jensen 7, Norbert Kosciuch 6+2, Jason Bunyan 0, Olly Allen r/r.