GRAND Prix contenders Lukas Dryml and Bjarne Pedersen showed just what they could achieve in this year's World Championship as they helped inspire Pirates to a perfect start to the season.

Dryml marked his Poole Meridian Lifts debut with an impressive 12 paid 13 points showing in front of a healthy 4,000 crowd at Wimborne Road.

And Pedersen weighed in with a nine paid 11 display as Pirates never looked in any danger of losing to the Panthers.

Dryml and Pedersen came out for heat three with their side unexpectedly trailing 7-5 after Davey Watt fell on the third bend while in a comfortable second place in heat two.

They immediately proved a big hit as a pairing by outgating former Poole rider Hans Andersen and storming to a 5-1 win over the Dane.

That propelled Pirates 10-8 in front and they never looked like relinquishing the lead again on a cold night by the Dorset coast.

Peterborough's Shane Parker got to the first corner in heat five ahead of Pedersen and Dryml.

But Pedersen powered outside the Aussie on the second bend and Dryml eased past Parker coming out of the corner as they swept to another 5-1 with World number two Ryan Sullivan trailing in last.

If those two maximums hadn't already got the Poole fans on Dryml's side, then a polished third in heat nine, which fired Pirates 34-20 in front, did just that.

Pedersen was first out from the tapes and he was soon joined by Dryml, who swept past ex-Poole captain Gary Havelock on the outside of the second corner, for another 5-1.

Peterborough's Chris Harris fell and was excluded, prompting referee Barry Richardson to award the race win to Dryml, with Pedersen second.

Then Dryml got out of the tapes sharply in a re-run of heat 12 to lead Watt home for another 5-1 which meant the Czech had begun his Poole career by chalking up a 20-4 record in his opening four rides for them.

Pedersen was pipped for first place by less than a wheel's length by Andersen in heat 14 in the race of the night before he paired up again with Dryml for the last heat.

Dryml gated first again, but Sullivan, then Andersen, scorched past the Pirates new boy on the back straight, although the unexpected last-race Peterboro-ugh maximum failed to take the gloss off Poole's victory, or Dryml's star performance.

Dryml and Pedersen's perfect start was timely as the two riders - Tony Rickardsson and Leigh Adams - expected to pile up the most points for Pirates this year suffered opening night agonies.

Five-times World champion Rickardsson, the new Poole skipper, reeled off two formidable heat wins before he was relegated into second place by Sullivan in race 11.

The Swede was comfortably leading Adams on the third lap of heat 12 as Pirates appeared on the verge of forging a 48-30 advantage with another 5-1.

Then Rickardsson ran out of fuel and was passed by Adams and the Peterb-orough duo of Sullivan and Havelock, who clearly lacked full race fitness following injury.

Poole had to settle for a 3-3 in that race, just like they had had too in heat six when Adams was harshly excluded after falling as all four riders went into the first bend.

Krzysztof Kasprzak gated brilliantly to win the re-run ahead of Havelock and the Pole, a lightning trapper, also triumphed in heat eight ahead of Shane Parker, who is no slouch.

Kasprzak got six points, Rickardsson finished with eight and Adams seven. With David Ruud (four paid five) and Watt (three paid four) both showing promise, it was a good well-balanced Poole display.

Andersen, whose two heat wins and final race paid triumph meant he piled up 11 paid, impressed on his Wimborne Road return.

But with Sullivan (10) the only other Panther to weigh in with big points, it was a surprise they kept their final deficit down to only eight.

A minute's silence was held before the start of the meeting in memory of former Poole promoter Charles Knott junior, Martin King - father of Andy King, whose company Gas Appliance Superstore are former Pirates main team sponsors - and super-fan Hetty Baker, who died aged 85 and had supported Poole since their first meeting in 1948.

HEAT DETAILS

Poole: 1 Leigh Adams (3-fell exc-1-3) 7, 2 Krzysztof Kasprzak (0-3-3-0) 6, 3 Lukas Dryml (3-2*-3-3-1) 12+1, 4 Bjarne Pedersen (2*-3-2*-2-0) 9+2, 5 Tony Rickardsson (3-3-2-0) 8, 6 David Ruud (2-1-1*-0) 4+1, 7 Davey Watt (fell-1-0-2*) 3+1. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Peterborough: 1 Ryan Sullivan (2-0-3-2-3) 10, 2 Shane Parker (1*-1-2-0) 4+1, 3 Piotr Protasiewicz (0-0-2*-fell exc) 2+1, 4 Hans Andersen (1-2-3-3-2*) 11+1, 5 Gary Havelock (0-2-1-1*) 4+1, 6 Chris Harris (3-1*-fell exc-1) 5+1, 7 Kenneth Bjerre (1-2-1*-1) 5+1. Team manager: Jim Lynch.

Referee: Barry Richardson. Ht 1: Adams, Sullivan, Parker, Kasprzak, 58.78 (3-3). Ht 2: (re-run) Harris, Ruud, Bjerre, Watt (fell excluded), 60.83 (5-7). Ht 3: Dryml, Pedersen, Andersen, Protasiewicz (fell remounted), 60.80 (10-8). Ht 4: Rickardsson, Bjerre, Watt, Havelock, 59.19 (14-10). Ht 5: Pedersen, Dryml, Parker, Sullivan, 61.17 (19-11). Ht 6: (re-run) Kasprzak, Havelock, Harris, Adams (fell excluded), 60.99 (22-14). Ht 7: Rickardsson, Andersen, Ruud, Protasiewicz, 61.09 (26-16). Ht 8: Kasprzak, Parker, Bjerre, Watt, 60.73 (29-19). Ht 9: Dryml, Pedersen, Havelock, Harris (fell excluded), No time, race awarded (34-20). Ht 10: Andersen, Protasiewicz, Adams, Kasprzak, 61.03 (35-25). Ht 11: Sullivan, Rickardsson, Ruud, Parker, 61.28 (38-28). Ht 12: (re-run) Dryml, Watt, Harris, Protasiewicz (fell excluded), 62.23 (43-29). Ht 13: Adams, Sullivan, Havelock, Rickardsson, 61.46 (46-32). Ht 14: Andersen, Pedersen, Bjerre, Ruud, 62.26 (48-36). Ht 15: Sullivan, Andersen, Dryml, Pedersen, 61.09 (49-41).