TONY Rickardsson held off a concerted effort from Nicki Pedersen to ride off with the Elite League Riders' Championship on his home track at Poole last night.

The Meridian Lifts Pirates spearhead dug deep after finishing third in his opening race behind Ryan Sullivan and Peter Karlsson to reel off four straight heat wins.

Then he produced a magnificent first bend manoeuvre in the final to outwit his strongest challenger Peder-sen and go on to win the crucial last race of the meeting to pick up his second ELRC crown.

Rickardsson, who carried off the title in 1998 as an Ipswich rider, also created a piece of Poole history.

He is the first rider from the club to pick up the prestigious accolade, the main domestic individual event that has been staged every year since 1965.

But to do so he had to beat Pedersen twice, the first time off the awkward gate four in heat 20 to guarantee himself a place in the final as one of the top two finishes in the qualifiers alongside the Dane.

The second time was in the final for the first prize of a new Jawa bike worth about £2,500 with the two Aussies Jason Crump and Craig Boyce providing the other opposition for the Poole man.

In heat 20, Rickardsson made a good gate but still had to keep cool on the second bend before zipping past Pedersen and Mikael Karlsson on the back straight before going on to win the race.

The Swede, off gate one, got out of the traps brilliantly in the final as well, but Pedersen, who had chosen gate two, got out superbly as well and they were shoulder to shoulder heading for the first turn.

That's when Rickardsson pulled off the manoeuvre that won him the top prize and relegated Pedersen to second.

The Poole man, sensing the Dane might just get that little extra grip in mid-track to propel him ahead, put his back wheel on the grass as he dived into the corner.

It was something Rickardsson admitted afterwards that he had never done before at Wimborne Road.

But by keeping his front wheel on the white line he was able to dive under Pedersen, move the Dane slightly wider than the line he wanted to ride, and create the gap to spurt out into the front.

From that point, the Pirate never looked as though he would be beaten as he scorched to a comfortable win in front of a bumper 5,000 crowd inside Poole Stadium.

It left Pedersen to hold off a strong challenge from Crump for runners-up spot to better his two third-place finishes in 2001 and 2000.

Boyce, who had rolled back the years to gate like lightning to win the semi-final, had to settle for fourth, after showing his liking for a track he made his own in the mid Nineties as a Poole rider.

Rickardsson said: "It was great to win because I had started off really slow before everything got better and better and better.

"The track slickened off a bit as the meeting went on but I was able to make the gates. I didn't feel physically at my best at the start and took time to get going. But what can I say? It was just tremendous to win this event here.

"On a night like tonight, when I didn't start off too good, the crowd really got behind me and helped me.

"You always give that little bit extra when you hear that support and I think that is what helped me win tonight."

Rickardsson added: "I beat Nicki in heat 20, so I got a point over him but he still had first choice of gate for the final. I knew I had to do a great gate to beat them all and get away and luckily that's exactly what I did.

"I thought Nicki would go off gate one or three but then he picked two so I didn't know what to pick.

"I'd thought I would go off the one he didn't pick between one and three. I had also had a good start off three and seen Boycey win off it in the semi-final, so for a minute I didn't know what to do. But it all worked out well in the end.

"After my first race, my main ambition was to get in the top six. It was tough because I had two gate fours.

"Starting off gate four in your first race is the worst scenario. It was tough all night but I was pleased to get a better gate in the final and win it."

Qualifying: 1 Nicki Pedersen (3-3-3-3-2) 14, 2 Tony Rickardsson (1-3-3-3-3) 13, 3 Mikael Karlsson (3-3-2-3-1) 12, 4 Ryan Sullivan (3-2-1-3-3) 12, 5 Craig Boyce (1-2-3-2-3) 11, 6 Jason Crump (3-3-3-1-0) 10, 7 Peter Karlsson (2-2-2-2-2) 10, 8 Scott Nicholls (2-1-ret-1-3) 7, 9 Joe Screen (2-2-1-2-ret) 7, 10 Sebastian Ulamek (1-1-0-2-2) 6, 11 Mark Loram (2-0-2-0-1) 5, 12 Stuart Robson (1-ret-1-1-2) 5, 13 Gary Havelock (0-0-2-1-1) 4, 14 Dave Watt (0-1-1-0-1) 3, 15 Jason Lyons (fell-1-0-ns-ns) 1, 16 A Rossiter (0-0-0-ret-0) 0.

Heat Details Ht 1: Sullivan, P Karlsson, Rickard-sson, Lyons (fell), 58.01. Ht 2: Pedersen, Nicholls, Robson, Rossiter, 58.52. Ht 3: M Karlsson, Loram, Ulamek, Havelock, 58.41. Ht 4: Crump, Screen, Boyce, Watt, 59.97. Ht 5: Pedersen, Sullivan, Watt, Loram (fell remounted), 59.44. Ht 6: Crump, P Karlsson, Nicholls, Havelock, 59.44. Ht 7: M Karlsson, Screen, Lyons, Rossiter, 59.58. Ht 8: Rickardsson, Boyce, Ulamek, Robson (retired), 58.83. Ht 9: Boyce, M Karlsson, Sullivan, Nicholls (fell remounted, retired) 59.84. Ht 10: Pedersen, P Karlsson, Screen, Ulamek, 60.26. Ht 11: Crump, Loram, Robson, Lyons, 59.84. Ht 12: Rickardsson, Havelock, Watt, Rossiter, 59.76. Ht 13: Sullivan, Ulamek, Crump, Rossiter (retired), 59.28. Ht 14: M Karlsson, P Karlsson, Robson, Watt, 59.45. Ht 15: Pedersen, Boyce, Havelock, Lyons (fell with Pedersen on first bend, pulled out of restart, non-starter), 60.28. Ht 16: Rickardsson, Screen, Nicholls, Loram, 58.81. Ht 17: Sullivan, Robson, Havelock, Screen (retired), 60.30. Ht 18: Boyce, P Karlsson, Loram, Rossiter, 60.42. Ht 19: Nicholls, Ulamek, Watt, Lyons (non-starter), 59.86. Ht 20: Rickardsson, Pedersen, M Karlsson, Crump, 59.61. Semi-final: Boyce, Crump, M Karlsson, Sullivan, 60.29. Final: Rickardsson, Pedersen, Crump, Boyce, 59.94. Note: Leigh Adams withdrew from meeting because his wife had given birth and was replaced by Rossiter. Billy Hamill withdrew through injury and was replaced by Stuart Robson. Lee Richardson withdrew through injury and was replaced by Dave Watt.