The Poole No.1 Carpet Cleaning Pirates began their defence of the SGB Premiership title with an opening point from their meeting at Peterborough.
In a tight affair the Dorset side were able to keep their hosts on a tight reign throughout the meeting and even went into a two point advantage after 12 heats when Danish duo Nicolai Klindt and Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen withstood intense pressure from an 'on-the-edge' pursuit by Bradley Wilson-Dean. Sadly for the New Zealander his over zealousness led to him taking an uncomfortable fall on the final turn.
But, most unexpectedly, the new track record at the East of England Arena, Brady Kurtz ran a last place in heat 13 and with Rohan Tungate making a superlative pass on Jack Holder the home side were able to level the meeting once again.
That track record by Kurtz was accomplished in heat 6 when he breezed round the circuit in a four lap time of 57.8 seconds, shaving one-tenth of the time set by Max Fricke on April 1st this year who had lowered the previous fastest of 58.4 that had stood for nine years.
Peterborough weighed in with a valuable 5-1 when eve of season signing Aaron Summers was well backed up by Charles Wright, the pair refusing to give Richie Worrall or Busk Jakobsen a look in. That left the Pirates needing to respond with a 5-1 of their own to eek out the draw on the night and whilst both Holder and Klindt made a great effort with solid starts, former Pirate Hans Andersen ensured the home win for the Panthers by getting in between them.