Spielberg, Tarantino and Ritchie would have been left eating their hearts out at this small screen spectacular as Panthers brought Elite League table-toppers Poole's glorious 13-match winning streak to an end in a speedway meeting that simply had the lot.

It was edge of the seat, heart in mouth, action-packed entertainment all the way along an Alwalton roller-coaster ride as the city side rode both their luck and their hearts out to sink the Pirates.

In fact the only ingredient missing was a cliffhanger ending and that was thanks to the sparkling contributions of unlikely stars of the show Henning Bager and former Poole man Karol Zabik.

Panthers, missing the ill Danny King, built up a seemingly unassailable 12-point cushion and then promptly wilted as the title favourites roared back to within two points to leave the natives restless.

But then, with their backs to the wall and with a morale-boosting victory in danger of evaporating into another soul-searching defeat, their saviours stepped forward to deliver a penultimate race masterclass that sewed up two much-needed points.

It might not have gone right down to the wire, but Bager (who is making something of a habit of becoming a heat 14 hero, having wrapped up a fine success over Swindon seven days earlier in the same heat) and Zabik (who had a short and sour spell on the south coast at the start of the season) ensured this balmy Showground night came complete with a beautifully scripted climax.

The lanky Dane - who contributed 10+1 points - rocketed out of the traps and held court at the head of affairs while his pint-sized Polish partner got the better of his national champion, Adam Skornicki, in a wonderful battle for second spot.

Having come crashing down and suffered a dislocated elbow in his previous Alwalton expedition, Zabik could have been forgiven for taking the safe route around the inside on his return from injury, but not this lad.

He prefers to do his racing around the boards and boy, does it look good when he gets it right like he did last night while amassing paid 13 points in six rides.

"I looked for Henning but then I was going too slow," said Zabik. "So I had to go out wide and wind on the throttle to pass Skornicki and make sure we won the meeting.