Bright night for Wolves speedway

Wolves 50 Poole 40

A double rainbow greeted fans arriving at Monmore Green and Wolves certainly found the pot of gold at its end as they defeated table toppers Poole Pirates.

The threat of the afternoon's rain returning proved unfounded, and the Monmore track staff worked hard to produce a track with more lines than Clapham Junction, resulting in a fantastic display of speedway that thrilled the large crowd on the terraces and those watching on television.

The Wolves' performance fired a clear warning shot to the dominant league leaders not to expect an easy run to the title, with all seven of the home side heavily involved and having their moments of glory.

Poole battled gamely and threatened to bite back several times, but despite the closeness of the scores throughout the home side always had their noses in front.

Fredrik Lindgren and Tai Woffinden were clearly top of the tree with repeated displays of stunning pace.

Lindgren celebrated qualifying for the 2011 Grand Prix series from the weekend's GP Challenge event in Denmark with a faultless maximum, despite being outgated on a number of occasions by the Pirates.

Some excellent cut-back passes on the second bend - certainly the night's overtaking spot - won him a five-ride full house.

Woffinden also looked set to go through the card, but couldn't quite catch Poole top scorer Darcy Ward in the final race and had to settle for third.

Wolves fans were overjoyed to see the return of Adam Skornicki following his knee surgery after his injury sustained while performing his trademark 'doughnut' celebration.

The popular Pole was quickly back into the swing of things as he held back an uncharacteristically off-form Chris Holder for third in heat five, before crowning his comeback with a superb defeat of former Grand Prix man Bjarne Pedersen in heat 12.

It was in this race that young reserve Ludvig Lindgren won the hearts of the fans.

Having bounced back from a fall in the eighth race, the Swede suffered machinery problems midway through heat 12 and his frustration was clear, but with Poole's rapid reserve Jason Doyle already retired Lindgren avoided being lapped by Skornicki and coaxed his ailing machine round for a crucial point.

Fellow reserve Matt Wethers had endured an uninspiring evening in the early heats, but covered himself in glory in heat 14.

Up to this point the Elite League's two pacesetting sides had never been separated by more than six points, but the Australian produced a stunning second bend manoeuvre to sweep past Doyle and Artur Mroczka in one move to stun the crowd and take a brilliant win.

The cheers were amplified further as Woffinden cut down onto the white line on the final lap to squeeze past Doyle and take second place for the hosts' only 5-1 of the night.

Nicolai Klindt and Ty Proctor produced typically gritty battling performances, the former impressing in a fine dice with Pedersen for second place in heat 7, while Proctor produced an amazing rodeo-style moment on the last bend of heat 6, but somehow held onto his wildly bucking machine and still crossed the line third ahead of Leon Madsen.

The Pirates had the straight-line speed but knowledge of the superb track surface's lines and pockets of grip assisted Wolves to an excellent victory, which sets them up nicely for their vital Knockout Cup clash at Coventry tomorrow.

By Tim Hamblin