Challenge meetings underway

Opening wins for Poole and Ipswich

By Graeme Bailey   Last updated: 13th March 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Challenge meetings underway

Skornicki: Great debut for Poole Fotospeedway.pl

Related links

Teams

Also see

Wednesday saw three Sky Sports Elite League sides begin their seasons with challenge meetings.

Poole Pirates opened up with a comfortable 53-37 home victory over Lakeside Hammers at Wimborne Road in the first leg of a double header.

The undoubted hero for Poole was new signing Adam Skornicki as he claimed a hugely impressive 14 point haul - dropping his only point in the last heat.

Indeed both Poole heat-leaders Bjarne Pedersen and Davey Watt struggled to find an early season set-up - but that did not matter as their young starlets Chris Holder and Karol Zabik showed their potential with double figure hauls.

The Hammers were solid if not spectacular with leading pair Andreas Jonsson and Adam Shields both coming up short with 9+1 and 8 respectively.

The return leg in Essex should be a much closer affair on Friday evening.

Ipswich win

Ipswich Witches began with an inter-league challenge as they took on King's Lynn Stars in the East Anglian Trophy.

And the Witches were far too strong for their Premier League opposition - even on away ground.

Just like with Poole the signs look good for Ipswich - with the returning Jarek Hampel helping himself to a perfect 15.

For the home side captain Tomas Topinka and Kevin Doolan - who spent last season in the Elite with Belle Vue - did their best with 11 and 12 points, but they had little answer for Ipswich.

Piotr Swiderski and Chris Louis both grabbed ten plus one, while Steve Johnston and Chris Schramm scored seven apiece.

The return leg at Ipswich is on Thursday and King's Lynn will have former world number one Jason Crump guesting to balance out the match.

Click Here for Your Free Bet