Basso shines, but weakened Peterborough Panthers slump to defeat in the A47 derby at the hands of King's Lynn Stars

Danish star Benjamin Basso rode through the pain barrier for a brilliant 13-point haul including some spectacular moves – but he was responsible for three of Panthers’ five race wins against a far more solid all-round Stars side.

Panthers were without two of their septet with Michael Palm Toft suffering further shoulder trouble on Wednesday and joining Ulrich Ostergaard back on the sidelines, and it proved too big a handicap to overcome.

Club owner Buster Chapman and his staff worked overtime to get the meeting on after heavy rain earlier in the day, and proceedings went ahead after a 40-minute delay to complete the work.

There were a series of fast times recorded as the decision to press ahead was vindicated, but unfortunately for the Panthers, the meeting was effectively lost in the first five races.

During that time the Stars recorded two 5-1s and two 4-2s, and it could have been worse but for Basso, who suffered his own shoulder injury in Denmark last week, going inside Josh Pickering for second place in Heat 1.

After a Lynn 5-1 from Richie Worrall and Nicolai Klindt in Heat 3 Panthers skipper Scott Nicholls, who had won Heat 2, broke down at the start of the next race as the Stars went ten points up.

And they extended the gap to 12 in Heat 5 with a second win for Thomas Jorgensen whilst Pickering re-passed guest Simon Lambert in a ding-dong scrap for third place.

Panthers then mounted a response with successive 4-2s in Heats 6 and 7 followed by a tremendous maximum in the next from Basso and reserve Jordan Jenkins, who came out on top in a tough first turn to defeat Jorgensen.

Basso was involved in more terrific action in Heat 10 when he reeled in and passed Worrall, with Chris Harris just missing out on following him through in a frantic three-way battle.

But with the Stars 36-30 up heading into Heat 12, the visitors virtually secured the match when Worrall and Frederik Jakobsen raced to a 5-1 over Harris, who was taking a tactical substitute ride.

An impressive Richard Lawson took King’s Lynn to the brink of victory by winning Heat 13 over Harris and Hans Andersen, and the Stars secured maximum points with a 4-2 in Heat 14 won by Klindt after a frightening crash for Andersen, who led from the start but lifted on the back straight and came down, thankfully being avoided by the following riders and escaping injury.

Lawson’s Heat 15 win put an emphatic closure on the meeting for the Stars, who were denied a final 5-1 by Harris passing Worrall for second place.

Manager Rob Lyon said: “It sums our season up really. We thought we’d have a one-to-seven, or thereabouts, but in the last 24 hours it fell apart a little bit, and as we’ve said before you can’t run rider-replacement when you haven’t got everyone firing, or at least four firing.

“So it was the same old story, but fair play to King’s Lynn, they smelt victory, they knew we were weakened, and they got the job done.

“It was a very brave performance from Benjamin, and he goes from strength to strength. He was our star man tonight, and where would we be without him?”Panthers return to action on Bank Holiday Monday (5pm) when they face Sheffield in a re-arranged fixture at the East of England Arena.

PETERBOROUGH 38: Benjamin Basso 13, Chris Harris 10, Hans Andersen 6+1, Scott Nicholls 6, Jordan Jenkins 3+1, Simon Lambert 0, Michael Palm Toft r/r

KING'S LYNN 52: Richard Lawson 13+1, Frederik Jakobsen 10, Richie Worrall 8+1, Thomas Jorgensen 8, Nicolai Klindt 7+1, Josh Pickering 5, Jason Edwards 1+1