Peterborough Panthers play-off semi-final postponed and teams argue over a new date

The city club’s trip to Rye House to take on Lakeside predictably fell victim to the wet weather. In fact the only surprise was that the Hammers left it until mid-afternoon to officially call off the contest.

Lakeside then announced the meeting will now take place on Sunday (October 21), but that was quickly followed by a statement from Panthers supremo Ged Rathbone, who insisted there has been no agreement for that to happen.

He said: “No date has been agreed from our side, but we will do our utmost to get a team together and to get the meeting on as soon as we can.

“We appreciate it’s late in the season and meetings need to be completed as soon as possible, but our whole season has come down to this fixture and we owe it to our fans to go there with a team that is competitive.”

Panthers are having to rely on guests with only three of their own riders – skipper Simon Lambert, Ulrich Ostergaard and Emil Grondal – still fit for battle.

Panthers were beaten 46-44 in the home leg at Alwalton last weekend, but their fine record at the Rye House track in recent years gives them hope of overturning that narrow deficit.

Workington are now lying in wait in the final after triumphing 90-89 on aggregate against Glasgow in the other semi-final yesterday.

The Comets lost 51-38 in the first leg in Scotland yesterday afternoon but then triumphed 52-38 in the evening return at Derwent Park.

Workington are through to all three major finals in the second tier. They face Lakeside in the SGB Championship Shield and Scunthorpe in the KO Cup - Panthers went out of both of those competitions at the semi-final stage.