King's Lynn Stars victory sees them leapfrog Swindon Robins in Premiership table

Premiership

King's Lynn Stars 49 Swindon Robins 40

Erik Riss returned with a victory double as the Stars headed into a massive July by leapfrogging the injury-hit Robins tonight (Monday 1).

Peter Schroeck’s troops were a point behind the visitors before this clash, although Swindon have two meetings in hand.

Lynn wrapped up the home win with a race to spare when Adam Ellis was warned in a restarted penultimate race superbly taken by Heat 14 specialist Jorgensen after swapping places with Ellis.

Ex-Star Troy Batchelor won the nominated final heat to finish as joint meeting top scorer with home skipper Robert Lambert, who was in second and Craig Cook in third, as Lynn denied the visitors an away point.

The Poultec Stars perfectly opened up with a 5-1 from Robert Lambert and Michael Palm Toft, who edged out 2017 world champion Jason Doyle coming out of the second corner.

Drama came immediately afterwards between the visiting reserves, as the excluded Ellis Perks slid into Stefan Nielsen who flew into the bend four fence and needed ambulance treatment before being swiftly withdrawn from the meeting.

It left just the two Stars riders in the re-run, Lewis Kerr and Simon Lambert, to complete the formality of a maximum race victory and a rare 10-1 total scoreline.

Thomas Jorgensen won the third outing, with German rider Riss – back from a collarbone injury – recording third spot on his return.

Doyle was warned to stay still at the tapes of Heat 5 which saw a collision with Riss near the fence by tapes at the end of lap two. Aussie Doyle was excluded from the re-run.

R. Lambert and Palm Toft rammed home the advantage with a third Lynn 5-1 in a fast time to leave the scores 25-10 at an early interval.

By his standards Doyle, brought in as a tactical sub for Perks in Heat 9, was having a nightmare and suffered a second tapes offence, thus triggering a 15-metre penalty from referee Barbara Horley. Doyle managed to snatch third from Jorgensen while Riss outmuscled Batchelor on the fourth bend to win.

Swindon hit back with a 2-4 and 1-5 in Heats 10 and 11 (their first maximum) to give themselves a lifeline with victories from Jensen and Bellego respectively.

But an audacious pass by Riss on the final lap of Heat 12 earned a shared result to stem the recovery. Cook led the next but his bike let him down with skipper Lambert second in a 2-4.

King's Lynn: Robert Lambert 12, Michael Palm Toft 7+2, Erik Riss 8, Thomas Jorgensen 9, Craig Cook 4+1, Lewis Kerr 6+1, Simon Lambert 3.

Fastest time: Robert Lambert, Heat 6, 58.14 seconds.

Swindon: Jason Doyle 5+2, David Bellego 7, Rasmus Jensen 7, Adam Ellis 6+1, Troy Batchelor 12, Ellis Perks 3+2, Stefan Nielsen 0 (withdrawn).

Fastest time: Batchelor, Heat 4, 58.29secs.

Next for Lynn is Poole away on Thursday.