King’s Lynn were left frustrated again at the Adrian Flux Arena as they went down to a 46-44 defeat at the hands of local rivals Peterborough.
The MacInnes Stars threw away an early eight-point lead and in the final analysis were unable to provide enough support for skipper Nicolai Klindt and super guest Richard Lawson.
Better all-round strength won it for the Panthers, who were inspired by their Rising Star Jordan Jenkins, whilst the Stars’ hopes were hit by the mid-meeting withdrawal of guest Rory Schlein, who was still struggling with the effects of a heavy crash at Oxford last week.
Manager David Hoggart said: “I’m not going to make any excuses, we weren’t good enough and we couldn’t get out of the starts to save our lives tonight.
“Later in the meeting Richard and Nicolai did a great job in Heats 13 and 15, but really the rest of them didn’t make a decent start all night to be honest.
“Rory was clearly in pain after his first ride, and in his second ride the only way he could hold on and stay safe was to slow down a little bit, and at that point he said he couldn’t carry on and we had to get the doctor.
“We couldn’t use injury rider replacement because it didn’t happen in this meeting, which made it very difficult because obviously I would have liked to have put Thomas in at one point.
“I’m sure a lot of people who paid their money to come through the turnstiles would have wondered why we weren’t using it, but it was simply that the rules don’t allow it, which is unfortunate.”
The Stars are back in action at the Adrian Flux Arena next Thursday (August 3) when they host Ipswich, who include top duo Emil Sayfutdinov and Jason Doyle.
The Stars got off to the best possible start in a somewhat chaotic Heat 1, where Lawson led from the off whilst debutant Emil Breum worked his way through from fourth to second as Niels-Kristian Iversen fell on lap two.
Breum made a neat pass on Richie Worrall and then reserves Anders Rowe and Simon Lambert banged in another 5-1 Heat 2 to make it 10-2, but a Panthers response wasn’t too far away.
Ben Cook and Benjamin Basso squeezed out Thomas Jorgensen on the first lap of Heat 3 to reduce the arrears, and there was a shock in Heat 4 when Jenkins trapped from the inside and was joined by Vadim Tarasenko, with no way through for Klindt.
After that run of 5-1s, the next three races were all shared with the Lynn riders tucking in behind Iversen in Heat 5 and Tarasenko in the next, before Klindt edged out Basso in a tough first bend of Heat 7.
The visitors edged ahead for the first time with a 4-2 in Heat 8 thanks to former Stars rider Worrall, who held off Rowe whist Jenkins supplied third place.
And another series of shared heats followed with no stopping Tarasenko in Heat 9, whilst Lawson and Klindt won the next two with the Panthers packing the places, with Lambert just missing out to Worrall in a ding-dong scrap in Heat 11.
But there was a big blow in the next, which would ordinarily have featured Schlein, as Basso and Jenkins trapped to a 5-1 over the Lynn reserves to put their side six points up.
Lawson and Klindt hit back immediately with maximum points over Iversen and Tarasenko in Heat 13, but Jenkins was the key man again in Heat 14 as he gated with Cook, and the two somehow held on out-front despite the sterling efforts of Jorgensen who did everything but pass the Panthers duo.
That resolved matters in the visitors’ favour before Klindt and Lawson took another 5-1 in the final race to leave the Stars agonisingly just short once again.
Lynn Stars 44: Richard Lawson 13+1, Nicolai Klindt 12+1, Thomas Jorgensen 5+1, Simon Lambert 5+1, Anders Rowe 5, Emil Breum 3+2, Rory Schlein 1+1.
Peterborough Panthers 46: Benjamin Basso 9+2, Jordan Jenkins 9+2, Ben Cook 9+1, Vadim Tarasenko 8+1, Niels-Kristian Iversen 6, Richie Worrall 5+1, Ryan Kinsley 0.
