PETERBOROUGH will be left sweating on next week’s Elite League results – after going down to a 53-43 defeat at Eastbourne on Saturday.
The Readypower Panthers can still make the play-offs, but in the first instance they need Lakeside to be unsuccessful in their away matches at Poole and King’s Lynn for the race for fourth place to be kept alive.
Panthers can reach 44 points with maximum-points wins over Wolverhampton and Belle Vue at the Showground, and with Lakeside currently on 43 it is imperative that the Hammers do not score more than one point on the road this week.
The recent run of away success did come to an end at Arlington in a seemingly never-ending night of action, despite a virtuoso display from No.1. Kenneth Bjerre.
Panthers were kept waiting until well after 9pm for the meeting to start following the Eastbourne v Birmingham fixture which made up the first part of the double-header, and the first race of their match also produced extended delays.
Unfortunately, with the home side dialled-into the circuit, Panthers conceded 5-1s in each of the opening three races, Ryan Fisher touching the tapes in Heat 1 and his replacement Patrick Hougaard crashing in the re-run. There was then a first-bend tangle involving the three remaining riders before the Eagles took maximum points at the fourth time of asking – and it turned out to be Bjerre’s only defeat of the match.
Panthers, who used their former rider Henning Bager to cover for an absent Norbert Kosciuch, trailed 5-19 before grabbing a 7-2 from a tactical ride in Heat 5 as Bjerre took a big six points.
But the home side rebuilt their lead back up to 15-points with a 4-2 and 5-1 in Heats 7 and 8 before Joonas Kylmakorpi, with just two points from his first two outings, took the ninth race again on double points.
But once again Panthers were unable to build any momentum as Bjarne Pedersen and Mikkel Michelsen responded with an Eastbourne 5-1 in Heat 10, and although that was cancelled out by Bjerre and Fisher in Heat 11 Panthers were too far adrift to threaten to snatch a league point.
Two more wins for Bjerre in Heats 13 and 15, and a good effort by Krzysztof Buczkowski to take the flag in Heat 14, meant the visitors reduced the arrears in the closing stages but not by enough.
And with their final two matches taking place on September 9 and 16, all eyes will now be on Poole this Monday and then King’s Lynn on Wednesday to see if the play-off chase continues.
EASTBOURNE 53: Bjarne Pedersen 13, Mikkel Michelsen 10+2, Simon Gustafsson 9+1, Kim Nilsson 8+1, Timo Lahti 7+1, Cameron Woodward 6+2, Lukas Dryml r/r.
PETERBOROUGH 43: Kenneth Bjerre 16, Joonas Kylmakorpi 9, Krzysztof Buczkowski 7, Dakota North 4+1, Ryan Fisher 4+1, Patrick Hougaard 3, Henning Bager 0.