THE two international sides in this four team tournament produced the most consistent form on the night as they shared the lead between them throughout with Scandinavia coming out on top.

It was, Team GB who started the best, dropping just two points in the first five heats during which world champion Tony Rickardsson collected two heat wins.

The Swedes, could well have been closer had it not been for David Ruud shedding a chain at the start of heat two.

Ruud, who recently lost his Elite League team place, was determined to prove a point to the Poole management and his superb ride in heat 11 as he rode a very wide line to drive through from last to first, not only gave him a major confidence boost but it also increased the Swedes lead to two points over Team GB.

That advantage was wiped out when Antonio Lindback trailed in last, the first time he had done so in 10 races at Wimborne Road, in the pre-interval heat which was emphatically won by Leigh Adams.

With Norris in second place for Neil Middleditch's Team GB it levelled things up between the two International quartets, whilst the home side found themselves lingering eight points adrift of the two leaders. That provided stand-in team manager Matt Ford an opportunity to try his tactical skills by nominating Bjarne Pedersen as a double-points scoring joker in heat 13.

Ford hadn't banked on Craig Watson darting out of the start to register the Premier League Select's only race win of the night, and with Lindback battling hard for second place Pedersen's third place grossed just two points, whilst Sweden began to take control of the meeting.

Steve Master's Joker ride was slightly more productive as he led heat 14 for a period before Ruud's unstinting efforts paid dividends with his second win of the night and a deserved winner of the Daily Echo Rider of The Night award.

With an advantage of five points over Team GB, the Swedes made the most of the opportunity to seal victory as Magnus Zetterstrom claimed his hat-trick of heat wins.

Zetterstrom's bike was back in action in the final heat of the night as Tony Rickardsson suffered 'magic box' failure as he left the pit gate and was quick to accept the loan of a machine for his showdown with Pirate team-mate and Grand Prix rival Leigh Adams.

Both the Pirates came from behind to pass Joe Screen around the pit-turn but Adams had the pace, and the know-how to deny Rickardsson a third win in favour of a third of his own. His only defeat came at the hands of Dean Barker in heat four when the Eastbourne rider took full advantage of a rare drift by Adams round the pits turn which lost him crucial ground.

HEAT DETAILS

Scores

Poole 21: 1 Leigh Adams 2,3,3,3=11, 2 Craig Boyce 0,0,0,0=0, 3 Bjarne Pedersen 2,1,2,1+1,= 6+1, 4 Daniel Nermark 1,1,Fx,1 = 3.

Team GB 26: 5 Joe Screen 3,0,2,1=6, 6 David Norris 3,2,2,2=9, 7 Dean Barker 3,2,3,0,=8, 8 Andrew Appleton 2,0,1,0=3.

Sweden 33: 9 Tony Rickardsson 3,3,1,2=9, 10 Magnus Zetterstrom 0,3,3,3=9, 11 David Ruud R,2,3,3=8, 12 Antonio Lindback 2,3,0,2=7.

PL Select 19: 13 Adrian Rymel 1,1,2,0=4, 14 Mark Lemon R,1,0,1=2, 15 Steve Masters 1,2,1,2+2=6+2, 16 Craig Watson 1,R,1,3=5.

Heat Details

Ht 1: 58.5 Screen, Lindback, Nermark, Lemon (retd) 1-3-2-0 Ht 2: 59.7 Norris, Pedersen, Shields, Ruud (retd) 3-6-2-1 Ht 3: 57.7 Rickardsson, Appleton, Masters, Boyce 3-8-5-2 Ht 4: 59.7 Barker, Adams, Watson, Zetterstron 5-11-5-3 Ht 5: 57.6 Rickardsson, Norris, Nermark, Watson (retd) 6-13-8-3 Ht 6: 59.2 Zetterstrom, Masters, Pedersen, Screen 7-13-11-5 Ht 7: 59.2 Lindback, Barker, Rymel, Boyce 7-15-14-6 Ht 8: 58.9 Adams, Ruud, Lemon, Appleton 10-15-16-7 Ht 9: 60.3 Zetterstrom, Rymel, Appleton, Nermark (fell exc) 10-16-19-9 Ht 10: 60.1 Barker, Pedersen, Rickardsson, Lemon 12-19-20-9 Ht 11: 59.9 Ruud, Screen, Watson, Boyce 12-21-23-10 Ht 12: 59.3 Adams, Norris, Master, Lindback 15-23-23-11 Ht 13: 59.1 Watson, Lindback, Pedersen (joker), Appleton 17-23-25-14 Ht 14: 59.0 Ruud, Masters(joker), Nermark, Barker 18-23-28-18 Ht 15: 15. 59.1 Zetterstrom, Norris, Lemon, Boyce 18-25-31-19 Ht 16: 16 59.40 Adams, Rickardsson, Screen, Rymel 21-26-33-19