POOLE'S off-course Pirates were blasted by Belle Vue promoter John Perrin after an abject performance at the Manchester track. (Sept 15)

The defending Elite League champions looked a beaten side from the word go as they failed to get to grips with a difficult track.

But it was no real excuse because they were the second meeting in a double-header and Ipswich slid to a 50-41 defeat in an entertaining first match on Wednesday.

Said Perrin: "We apologised when we came to Poole at short notice with half a team but they came here with no team at all.

"They were abysmal and we can only think that we would have been up at the top if our season hadn't been ruined by the weather."

The Pirates supplied only one heat winner, captain Magnus Zetterstorm winning heat eight when he teamed up with Krzysztof Kasprzak for maximum points.

It was the lone high spot of the night for the Pirates as the home side had the first two men home in 11 of the 15 races.

Team manager Matt Ford couldn't even reduce the deficit by giving riders tactical races because he had no-one going well enough to take advantage of them.

He tried it with Bjarne Pedersen in heat five and Ryan Sullivan in the ninth but both finished third.

Then Zetterstrom took a tactical reserve ride in heat 14 when he started 15 metres back. But he, too, could only manage a third place and that after Kasprzak had retired from the race.

The Pirates were without the injured Antonio Lindback and operated the rider replacement in his absence.

They collected five points from his four rides, including two when Zetterstrom scored double, but even his presence would have made only marginal difference.

Matej Ferjan, who was released by Belle Vue because he could never come to terms with the tight track, again showed his dislike for by failing to score in four races.

Daniel Davidsson also had a pointless night while Grand Prix big-hitters Pedersen and Sullivan only got 11 between them from 10 rides and two of those came when their scores were doubled.

HEAT DETAILS

Belle Vue: 1 Joe Screen (3-3-3-2*) 11+1, 2 Rory Schlein (1-2*-2*-0-2*) 7+3, 3 Kenneth Bjerre (2*-3-2*-3) 10+2, 4 Tomasz Jedrzejak (rider replacement), 5 Jason Crump (3-3-3-3-3) 15, 6 Andre Compton (3-1-2*-3-2*-2*) 13+3, 7 Ronnie Correy (2*-3-1-1-3-2*) 12+2. Team manager: John Perrin.Pirates: 1 Bjarne Pedersen (2-2-1-1-1-1) 8, 2 Magnus Zetterstrom (0-1-0-3-0-2-0) 6, 3 Matej Ferjan (0-0-0-retired) 0, 4 Antonio Lindback (rider replacement), 5 Ryan Sullivan (0-1-2-0) 3, 6 Daniel Davidsson (Fell-0-0) 0; 7 Krzysztof Kasprzak (1-2-1-2*-2-0) 8+1. Team manager: Matt Ford.Referee: Jim McGregorHt 1: Screen, Pedersen, Schlein, Zetterstrom, 63.1 (4-2).Ht 2: Compton, Correy, Kasprzak, Davidsson (fell), 62.1 (9-3).Ht 3: Correy (rr), Bjerre, Zetterstrom (rr), Ferjan, 62.6 (14-4).Ht 4: Crump, Kasprzak, Compton, Sullivan, 62.1 (18-6).Ht 5: Bjerre, Schlein (rr), Pedersen (tactical rider double points), Zetterstrom, 62.4 (23-8).Ht 6: Screen, Schlein, Sullivan, Davidsson, 62.7 (28-9).Ht 7: Crump, Compton, Kasprzak (rr), Ferjan, 61.4 (33-10).Ht 8: Zetterstrom, Kasprzak, Correy, Schlein, 63.1 (34-15).Ht 9: Compton (rr), Bjerre, Sullivan (tactical rider double points), Davidsson, 62.7 (39-17).Ht 10: Screen, Schlein, Pedersen (rr), Ferjan, 62.9 (44-18).Ht 11: Crump, Compton, Pedersen, Zetterstrom, 61.8 (49-19).Ht 12: Bjerre, Kasprzak (reserve ride), Correy, Ferjan (ret), 63.5 (53-21).Ht 13: Crump, Screen, Pedersen, Sullivan, 62.0 (58-22).Ht 14: Correy (reserve ride), Compton, Zetterstrom (tactical rider double points), Kasprzak (ret), 62.9 (63-24).Ht 15: Crump, Correy, Pedersen, Zetterstrom, 62.0 (68-25).