SWINDON maintained their excellent run of home form with a 52-41 victory over Elite League leaders King’s Lynn at the Abbey Stadium.

Sky Sports Elite League

Swindon Robins 52

King's Lynn 41

It was the Robins’ sixth successive victory on their own circuit, and they once again took all three points from the meeting to move back above Eastbourne and into the play-off places.

Alun Rossiter’s team dominated the heat wins as several of the visitors’ top men – notably Rory Schlein and Niels-Kristian Iversen – had quiet evenings, while Dakota North, who came in as an early-season replacement for Nicolai Klindt, was again to the fore with an impressive 12-point haul.

North won four of his five outings, his sole setback coming in Heat 10 when he inadvertently brought down Hans Andersen (guesting for the Robins' injured No.1 Peter Kildemand) as the pair were chasing the King’s Lynn riders.

Skipper Troy Batchelor was also in excellent form and he too suffered only one blip, that coming when he was moved aside by a ruthless move from Iversen in Heat 13 which also allowed Kenneth Bjerre through into third place, although Andersen was on hand to win the race.

Andersen had earlier combined with North and then Batchelor for 5-1s in Heats 1 and 5 as the Robins took control, and exciting passing moves from Batchelor and Nick Morris in their opening rides kept the winning run going.

It took until Heat 6 for the Stars to notch a race win – from Bjerre – but the visitors only really threatened a comeback with an 8-1 from Bjerre and Schlein in Heat 10 after North’s disqualification.

But the Robins hit straight back through Batchelor and Simon Gustafsson, who took a 5-1 over Iversen in Heat 11, although a series of shared races meant they had to wait to make sure of maximum points.

In Heat 15, North and Batchelor shot from the tapes to quickly see off the challenge of Bjerre and Schlein and complete a job well done by the home side.

Rossiter said: “It was an excellent performance against a tough side, and three points is exactly what we needed. I’m very happy to take maximum points from King’s Lynn.

“Dakota has been very good for the last three or four weeks now. He’s really enjoying himself, he’d always made the point that he wanted to ride here and he’s finally got here!

"I’d also like to thank Hans, he did such a professional job when you bear in mind the club he’s racing for are going for points and the play-offs too.

“The riders are loving the circuit at the moment. It’s really raceable, it did go slick tonight but at least it was smooth and we had some good racing, and now we’ll try to get a bit more bite into it on Monday when Lakeside are in town and Kildemand should be back.”

SWINDON: Dakota North 12, Troy Batchelor 10+2, Hans Andersen 8+2, Nick Morris 8, Steve Worrall 7+1, Simon Gustafsson 6, Nathan Greaves 1.

KING’S LYNN: Kenneth Bjerre 13+1, Lewis Rose 7+1, Robert Lambert 7+1, Sam Masters 5, Rory Schlein 4+2, Niels-Kristian Iversen 4, Lewis Kerr 2+2.