THE Robins’ Play-Off aspirations were dealt a huge body-blow at Blunsdon, as they went down to a 2-point loss against their nearest challengers for a top four slot, Peterborough.



SWINDON
Leigh Adams (C) 2 6 3 3 2* - - 16 (1)
Thomas H. Jonasson R F R - - - - 0
Grzegorz Zengota 0 0 6 2 - - - 8
Mads Korneliussen 1 2 1 1 - - - 5
Simon Stead 1 0 3 2* 3 - - 9 (1)
Morten Risager 2 2 0 1 3 - - 8
Cory Gathercole D 0 1 0 - - - 1
Team manager: Ronnie Russell

PETERBOROUGH
Chris Harris 3 3 2 1 1 - - 10
Krzysztof Buczkowski 1 3 1 3 0 - - 8
Rory Schlein 3 2 3 1* 3 0 - 12 (1)
Niels-Kristian Iversen (C) 2* 1 2 2 D - - 7 (1)
Troy Batchelor R/R
Mathieu Trésarrieu 1 - - - - - - 1
Norbert Kościuch 3 2* 1* 2* 0 1 2 11 (3)
Team manager: Trevor Swales
Referee: Ronnie Allan

Ht 1: (Re-Run) Harris, Adams, Buczkowski, Jonasson (ret), 64.52 (2-4)
Ht 2: (Re-Run) Kościuch, Risager, Trésarrieu, Gathercole (f, disq), 66.77 (4-8)
Ht 3: Schlein, Iversen, Korneliussen, Zengota, 65.46 (5-13)
Ht 4: Buczkowski, Kościuch, Stead, Gathercole, 66.27 (6-18)
Ht 5: Harris, Korneliussen, Buczkowski, Zengota, 64.61 (8-22)
Ht 6: Adams (TR), Schlein, Kościuch, Jonasson (fell), 65.30 (14-25)
Ht 7: Schlein, Risager, Iversen, Stead, 65.71 (16-29)
Ht 8: Buczkowski, Kościuch, Gathercole, Jonasson (ret), 67.03 (17-34)
Ht 9: Zengota (TR), Iversen, Korneliussen, Kościuch, 66.30 (24-36)
Ht 10: Adams, Iversen, Schlein, Risager, 65.86 (27-39)
Ht 11: Stead, Harris, Risager, Buczkowski, 66.08 (31-41)
Ht 12: Schlein, Zengota, Kościuch, Gathercole, 66.14 (33-45)
Ht 13: Adams, Stead, Harris, 65.61 (3 riders only) (38-46)
Ht 14: (Re-Run twice) Risager, Kościuch, Korneliussen, Iversen (f, disq), 68.46 (42-48)
Ht 15: (Nominated) Stead (b), Adams (r), Harris (w), Schlein (y), 65.61 (47-49)

Programme changes:
Ht 4: R/R Buczkowski; Ht 6: TR Adams (Double points); R/R Schlein; Kościuch replaced Trésarrieu; Ht 9: TR Zengota; R/R Iversen; Kościuch replaced Trésarrieu; Ht 10: Risager replaced Jonasson; Ht 12: Kościuch replaced Trésarrieu; Ht 13: R/R No rider.

NOTE: Under the league scoring system, Swindon gained 0 points and Peterborough received 3.

Capping a frustrating night in the home camp, it was the first time the Panthers had ever won at Blunsdon in 26 attempts in all competitions.

Peterborough took the initiative through a 4-2 in heat one and were to remain in front throughout in what turned out to be an incident-packed encounter.

In reserve Norbert Kościuch, the Panthers possessed the meeting’s key rider as the Pole – making his Abbey Stadium debut – was to pile-up paid 14 points in exhilarating fashion.

And, when Mathieu Trésarrieu was ruled out of action after only one rider, the visitors had a more than capable replacement in Kościuch, who went on to take a full seven outings.

Peterborough swept into a 22-8 lead after five races but, to use an old cliché, this really did become a meeting of two halves.

Swindon’s fight-back began when Leigh Adams posted a tactical ride success in heat six and continued when Grzegorz Zengota replicated his skipper’s achievement in heat nine.

A brilliant heat eleven saw Simon Stead and Chris Harris engage in a ding-dong tussle, with the home rider shading the narrowest of decisions by the width of a wafer.

As the Robins’ resurgence continued there was controversy in heat fourteen when Kościuch and Mads Korneliussen clashed on the entry to the back straight.

The Dane subsequently limped around to complete the race, but was clearly upset as he tried in vain to alert the referee to the damage his machine had incurred.

Adams went on to tally paid 17 points at the head of Swindon’s score-chart, but the side’s excellent rearguard action regrettably amounted to too little too late, and they would rue giving away so many points in the early stages.