TONY Rickardsson reeled off another top-notch performance as Pirates beat Ipswich fairly comfortably to climb into a top-five title play-off place for the first time this season.

The Swede, who won the Nor-wegian Grand Prix in Hamar at the weekend, looked unstoppable in his first four rides as he led from tapes to chequered flag each time.

And it was only after Poole Meridian Lifts had already tied up both league points that Ric-kardsson was finally beaten by a storming ride by Witches star Scott Nicholls in the final race.

It was the first time Pirates' spearhead had been defeated by an opposition rider in four meetings at Wimborne Road.

In fact, Rickardsson had reel-ed off 23 heat wins and one second place behind team mate Tomasz Chrzanowski, before his set back against Nicholls.

The Swede's previous Wim-borne Road race defeat had been against Peter Karlsson in heat four - Rickardsson's first outing in a 45-45 draw in the Elite League Knock-Out Cup way back on April 3.

Last night, Poole's leading light scorched to the fastest time at Wimborne Road this year when he won heat four in 58.8 seconds with Nicholls pushing him all the way.

That is only 0.33 seconds adrift of Stefan Danno's four-year-old track record of 58.47 secs, a time that is under serious threat of being lowered by the Swede, seemingly on a weekly basis.

Chrzanowski, who has struggled in recent weeks, returned to his best form for Pirates as well as they hardly ever gave Ipswich a chance of returning home with any of the spoils.

The Pole weighed in with eight paid 10 from four rides after winning heat two with fellow Pirate Mariusz Staszewski behind him booking an early, but very important, 5-1 for the home side.

Chrzanowski's best ride, however, came in heat seven when he was clipped wide by Ips-wich's Craig Boyce on the first bend.

The Pole never let the contact put him off his stride though as he drove hard round the fence to overtake Boyce on the second bend and power on to accompany race winner Ric-kardsson to another Poole 5-1.

Hans Andersen completed a double figure haul of 11 that included a fine pass from the back to beat Boyce in heat 12.

But Gary Havelock suffered bad luck again when he endur-ed a broken primary chain on the last lap of heat 10 while riding superbly in second place to split Nicholls and Boyce, whose gift 5-1 pulled Ipswich's early 26-16 deficit back to only 32-28.

There was to be no repeat of the Witches' stunning 46-44 win in the corresponding fixture last year when Poole relinquished a massive 16-point advantage.

Bjarne Pedersen was paid for nine and Staszewski deserved more than paid four as only Nicholls, Jason Lyons (eight) and Boyce (eight paid nine) put up any real resistance against Pirates' charge.

Magnus Zetterstrom, on what will probably be his final home appearance for Poole this year, was out of sorts, although that was excusable considering he had learnt earlier in the day he was going to be on his way out of Wimborne Road.

Zorro's sadness in not bagging a regular Pirates team place was reflected in his riding, particularly when he allowed Havelock to coax his ailing machine home for third place in heat 10 instead of flashing by his captain as would normally have been expected.

Zetterstrom, one feels, is bound to have his day again in the skull and crossbones race jacket, even if it is not until 2003 at the earliest.

Pirates travel to Ipswich tonight (7.30pm) aiming to protect their 12-point advantage in the battle for the bonus point.

Both sides will line up with the same seven riders as last night, meaning Lyons guests for the injured Ipswich heat leader Chris Louis.

Pirates: 1 Gary Havelock, 2 Magnus Zetterstrom, 3 Hans Andersen, 4 Bjarne Pedersen, 5 Tony Rickardsson, 6 Tomasz Chrzanowski, 7 Mariusz Staszewski.

Ipswich: 1 Jason Lyons (guest), 2 Jeremy Doncaster, 3 Craig Boyce, 4 Joonas Kylmakorpi, 5 Scott Nicholls, 6 Danny Bird, Chris Slabon.

HEAT DETAILS

Pirates: 1 Gary Havelock (3-2-1-1) 7, 2 Magnus Zetterstrom (0-1*-2-0) 3+1, 3 Hans Andersen (2-2-2-3-2) 11, 4 Bjarne Pedersen (1*-1*-1*-3) 6+3, 5 Tony Rickardsson (3-3-3-3-1*) 13+1, 6 Tomasz Chrzanowski (3-2*-1-2*) 8+2, 7 Mariusz Staszewski (2*-1-0-0) 3+1. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Ipswich: 1 (guest) Jason Lyons (2-3-3-ret-0) 8, 2 Jeremy Doncaster (1*-ret-1-2) 4+1, 3 Craig Boyce (3-1-2*-2-0) 8+1, 4 Joonas Kylmakorpi (0-0-0) 0, 5 Scott Nicholls (2-0-3-3-2-3) 13, 6 Danny Bird (0-3-0-1*) 4+1, 7 Chris Slabon (1-0-1) 2. Team manager: Mike Smillie.

Referee: Barry Richardson. Ht 1: Havelock, Lyons, Doncaster, Zetterstrom, 59.9 (3-3). Ht 2: Chrzanowski, Staszewski, Slabon, Bird, 60.6 (8-4). Ht 3: Boyce, Andersen, Pedersen, Kylma-korpi, 60.8 (11-7). Ht 4: Rickardsson, Nicholls, Staszewski, Slabon, 58.8 (15-9). Ht 5: Lyons, Andersen, Pedersen, Don-caster (retired), 60.7 (18-12). Ht 6: Bird, Havelock, Zetterstrom, Nic-holls, 61.3 (21-15). Ht 7: Rickardsson, Chrzanowski, Boyce, Kylmakorpi, 60.7 (26-16). Ht 8: Lyons, Zetterstrom, Doncaster, Staszewski, 61.1 (28-20). Ht 9: Nicholls, Andersen, Pedersen, Bird, 60.4 (31-23). Ht 10: Nicholls, Boyce, Havelock, Zetterstrom, 61.1 (32-28). Ht 11: Rickardsson, Doncaster, Chrza-nowski, Lyons (retired), 60.7 (36-30). Ht 12: Andersen, Boyce, Bird, Staszew-ski, 61.5 (39-33). Ht 13: Rickardsson, Nicholls, Havelock, Lyons, 60.4 (43-35). Ht 14: Pedersen, Chrzanowski, Slabon, Kylmakorpi, 61.3 (48.36. Ht 15: Nicholls, Andersen, Rickardsson, Boyce, 60.9 (51-39).