Wolves win at Belle Vue

The home team took the three points on offer against the league's bottom club in a sparky affair featuring some top-notch racing.

But Lindgren's pursuit of Sam Ermolenko's 47 consecutive unbeaten home league rides stalled at the 31 mark.

Belle Vue's Krzysztof Kasprzak, who was quick all night and led Lindgren in heat 11 before being overhauled, finally got his man two heats later – but it was tight.

Lindgren took a couple of laps to get past his skipper Peter Karlsson before settling into the chase. He was making up ground hand over fist only to finish just short of his quarry on the run-in to the line.

The Swede got his revenge in the last race, but in acrimonious circumstances. Kasprzak brusquely shut the door on him down the back straight, but Lindgren regrouped and then made his move.

The Wolves man edged ahead on the inside run en route to the pits turn and emphasised his position with a shove that saw the Pole skitter across towards the air fence.

An enraged Kasprzak came to a halt, gesticulated at the referee's box but bizarrely stayed on track – although not on the racing line – as the remaining three riders thundered past on their next lap.

The resultant 5-1 put a little gloss on a hard-earned victory.

The Parrys International Wolves, largely sluggish from the tapes, had to collect their points the hard way. That may have been tough on them, but you wouldn't find many spectators complaining as a string of action-filled heats unfolded.

Karlsson, as so often, set the tone in heat one by nipping inside Morten Risager, before accounting for Kasprzak with the trademark wide run.

Ty Proctor, caught napping by Charlie Gjedde's inside dash three heats later, promptly returned the favour and also picked off Patrick Hougaard in heat eight.

But Proctor's application went largely unheralded because every eye was riveted to Nicolai Klindt.

The Dane, who seems to regard the throttle stop as an inconvenient encumbrance and whose flat-out runs round the Monmore boards are rapidly becoming a feature of this season, had already blasted past Hougaard and then sailed past Risager.

Adam Skornicki was irrepressible in his final two races, picking off opponents seemingly at will, with Tai Woffinden conjuring up the most unlikely of last-bend passes in heat nine to get past Gjedde.

Czech reserve Hynek Stichauer continues to struggle, although his application can't be faulted as he continues to bang in post-meeting practice laps.