DESPITE a battling show in the mid-to-latter stages, Swindon went down to a 21-point defeat at the hands of Peterborough in the clash with their closest rivals for a Play-Off spot.
NOTE: Under the league scoring system, Peterborough gained 3 points and Swindon received 0.
Simon Stead headed the Swindon scoring with 12 points, his tally enhanced by a 6-point return from a tactical outing in heat nine.
Meanwhile, Mads Korneliussen was the only other Robin to reach double-figures, courtesy of a well-acquired 11-point haul.
On a track made heavy by a pre-meeting downpour, the home duo of Kenneth Bjerre and Krzysztof Buczkowski sped to a 5-1 in the opening heat, with Leigh Adams passing team-mate Cory Gathercole for third spot following an uncharacteristically slow getaway from the tapes.
It looked like it was going to be a long night for the Robins as a further brace of maximum advantages followed for the rampant Panthers, giving the homesters a 15-3 lead.
The Peterborough riders again rocketed from the gate in heat four but, whilst former Robin Troy Batchelor cantered home to the flag, his partner Norbert Kościuch trundled around in last place after making a mistake and letting Stead and the returning Thomas H. Jonasson through for Swindon’s first share of the points.
Ronnie Russell nominated Adams for a tactical ride in heat five, but the Robins’ skipper was blocked by Niels-Kristian Iversen on the first bend. After that the Dane caught up and passed colleague Rory Schlein, as the two combined for another Panthers’ ‘fiver’.
The diminutive Bjerre won the next race from the gate, whilst Stead and Buczkowski engaged in a scrap for second place, which the Swindon representative finally grabbed on the dash to the finish line.
A tapes exclusion followed for Cory Gathercole, before the re-run of heat seven saw Batchelor post his second successive win ahead of the brave Korneliussen, who had twisted his knee when he fell on the second bend in the initial running of the race.
The determined Korneliussen then utilized the experience gained from his term on loan with the Panthers in the previous season to win heat eight, whilst both Buczkowski and Kościuch edged out Jonasson to share the points.
Steady, taking a tactical ride, produced a superb cut-back to pass the faster-starting Iversen in heat nine, before sprinting to the flag and reducing Peterborough’s big lead to 37-20.
Korneliussen made a jet-propelled start in heat ten and went on to inflict a rare East of England Showground defeat on the usually dominant Bjerre, as the Robins posted a third race victory in succession.
Heat eleven required three attempts before it was completed, as the rain began to fall again. In the end, Batchelor made it three wins out of three ahead of ever-pressing compatriot Adams.
And then, having failed to score from his four previous outings, Gathercole produced a barnstorming ride to pass both Kościuch and Rory Schlein on the second lap of heat twelve for a jaw-dropping success.
Although Bjerre made a rapid start in heat thirteen, it was Adams who charged past to lead on the back straight. Batchelor then went by his team-mate, before Stead relegated the Panthers’ No. 1 to last place on the second lap.
