Big blow to Peterborough Panthers' Premiership title hopes

The Crendon Panthers appeared set to continue their recent improvement as they roared into an eight-point lead after just five races, but they were hit hard in mid-meeting by an impressive Monmore side.

Chris Harris delivered another virtuoso haul for the hosts, but he and Benjamin Basso accounted for a huge majority of Panthers’ points, whilst Wolves gave a far more solid-scoring display.

And Ryan Douglas once again showed his liking for the East of England Arena, as he was unbeaten until the final race when Harris rode a stormer to defeat the Aussie and Luke Becker.

Panthers could not have started better and opened with a 5-1 in Heat 1 with Harris passing Sam Masters to team up with Ulrich Ostergaard, whilst Basso stormed past Drew Kemp in the next and Jordan Jenkins was unlucky to suffer mechanical problems when battling with Leon Flint.

But Panthers still added two more 4-2s in the early stages, with Basso holding off the strong challenge of Nick Morris in Heat 4 and Harris coming out on top in a neck-and-neck battle with Steve Worrall in the next.

The Wolves comeback began in Heat 7 as Becker and Douglas out-trapped Hans Andersen and Basso, and Flint popped up with a win backed up by Worrall in the next to level the scores.

Panthers were unfortunate again in Heat 9 when Nicholls ground to a halt whilst on a 4-2, before Wolves inflicted the huge psychological blow of a 5-1 over Harris from Becker and Douglas in Heat 10 – and then backed it up with another maximum from Worrall and Masters in the next.

From eight points up, Panthers were suddenly eight down and they threw all their hopes into Heat 12 – but a 4-2 with Harris defeating Becker, and Basso passing Kemp for third, wasn’t really enough.

And after Heat 13 was shared with Jenkins again being sacrificed into that race, Douglas wrapped things up for Wolves with a stunning ride to pass Basso on the last lap of Heat 14.

Harris’s own overtaking exploits in Heat 15 limited the visitors to three league points rather than four, but this was no consolation in the overall scheme of the meeting and the season as a whole.

Manager Rob Lyon said: “It wasn’t what we were looking for at all, especially after a great start and being eight points up, when I thought we’d end up with a relatively comfortable win.

“But as the track dried out and got a little slicker, the gates Wolves were on in mid-meeting certainly started to work well for them with four 5-1s pretty much on the bounce.

“They held on to that and never looked back, so fair play to them, but it was tough. We did it last week and we managed to get over the line, but it was a similar pattern this week and it’s tough to win a meeting with really only three riders two weeks on the bounce.”

PETERBOROUGH 42: Chris Harris 18+1, Benjamin Basso 14, Ulrich Ostergaard 6, Scott Nicholls 3+2, Hans Andersen 1, Jordan Jenkins 0, Michael Palm Toft r/r.

WOLVERHAMPTON 48: Ryan Douglas 11+3, Luke Becker 10, Steve Worrall 7+1, Nick Morris 6+2, Sam Masters 5+1, Drew Kemp 5+1, Leon Flint 4.