KENNI Larsen and Ryan Fisher both made impressive Peterborough debuts - but it was local rivals King's Lynn who took the overall honours in Good Friday's local derby at the Showground.
Larsen was fast and aggressive throughout as he top-scored for the Readypower Panthers, and Fisher recovered well from an awkward Heat 1 spill to pick up eight points from his next three rides, whilst Dakota North also showed up well at reserve.
But the home side were beset with problems elsewhere and struggled to contain a rock-solid Stars outfit superbly led by Niels-Kristian Iversen, with the visitors' entire top five failing to run an single last place between them.
The Stars took the lead on three occasions in the first half of the meeting only to be pegged back by the Panthers, whose cause wasn't helped by Patrick Hougaard, a clear winner of his first ride, crashing out of Heat 7.
Just when Panthers looked set to effect a big turnaround with back-to-back 5-1s in Heats 9 and 10, skipper Kenneth Bjerre lost out to opposite number Mads Korneliussen on the last lap of the latter race and was then beaten for third place in the run to the line by Nicolai Klindt.
The Stars edged ahead again in Heat 11 and then produced a crushing blow in the next race thanks to a 5-1 from Korneliussen and Sebastian Alden.
Bjerre's win in Heat 13 kept Panthers in the hunt, but only until Klindt shot clear to win the penultimate race with the Stars also doing enough to collect the maximum four points from the meeting.
Panthers boss Jan Staechmann said: "I don't think we had the best of luck but we came up against a very strong side and King's Lynn were the better team on the day.
"There were some positives, Kenni and Ryan especially, and we will look to bounce back quickly in what is a long season."
PETERBOROUGH 40: Kenni Larsen 11+1, Ryan Fisher 8, Dakota North 7+1, Linus Sundstrom 5+1, Kenneth Bjerre 5, Patrick Hougaard 3, Norbert Kosciuch 1.
KING'S LYNN 50: Niels-Kristian Iversen 13+1, Mads Korneliussen 11, Rory Schlein 8, Sebastian Alden 7+1, Nicolai Klindt 6+2, Simon Stead 5+1, Kozza Smith 0.