THE SWINDON Robins flew into Wimborne Road on Monday night ready to plunder the booty from an injury-hit Poole Pirates side.
Instead, the swashbuckling Pirates maintained their unbeaten home record and sent the Swindon boys home empty-handed.
The 53-39 scoreline was Swindon's most comprehensive defeat of the Elite League season so far and, following a 46-44 loss at Eastbourne on Saturday, their first back-to-back beating.
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It will be fascinating to see how they react when last year's champions, Coventry Bees, who earned a morale-boosting 45-44 win at Wolverhampton on Monday night, arrive at the Abbey Stadium on Thursday.
It was a night when little went right for the Robins, not least when Leigh Adams touched the tapes at the start of Heat 11 when wearing the black and white double points' cap and hoping to chase down a 35-25 deficit.
Manager Rosco' Rossitor was banking on his talismanic captain hauling the side back in the tie by spearheading an 8-1. The visitors had to settle for a 5-3 after Adams, forced to start 15 metres behind his opponents just to take part, rode strongly to finish second, although never a threat to the winner Davey Watt.
With Troy Batchelor excluded after a fall in Heat 4 and limping home pointless from a good early position in Heat 13, the evening was full of might-have-beens from the league leaders.
In truth, though, the Pirates displayed tremendous character - something of a siege mentality without captain Bjarne Pedersen and two other injured riders - to run out worthy winners after some hard but fair riding.
Polish international Krzysztof Kasprzak, deputising for Pedersen, scored 10 points, while three other members of Neil Middleditch's team posted double-figure scores, most notably the brilliant Chris Holder, who notched 14.
In a present versus future' of Australian speedway, Holder even managed to get the better in Heat 15 of Leigh Adams, the man whose domestic title he claimed (in the champion's absence) earlier this year.
Despite not being happy with his starts, the ever-reliable Adams scored 15, while two wins for Seb Alden and a fair night's work from Mads Korneliussen kept the Robins in the hunt.
But there were only rare sparks from Batchelor, James Wright, Travis McGowan and Theo Pijper, when they all needed to be on their mettle to beat a pumped-up home side.
The Robins were given a ray of hope in Heat 8 with a brilliant 5-1, reducing the deficit to four (26-22). The race was majestically won by Alden with a gutsy Wright holding Adam Skornicki and Freddie Eriksson at bay, but Adams' lapse when pushing to anticipate the start in Heat 11 effectively ended Swindon's chances of sneaking a victory.
After a disappointing start in the first round in Slovenia, Leigh Adams will be looking for a much better display when the Grand Prix circus moves on to his home track of Leszno in Poland on Saturday.
Sky Sports Elite League 'A'
Poole Pirates 53 Swindon Robins 39.
Poole: Krzysztof.Kasprzak 10, Freddie Eriksson 7 (2), Chris Holder 14, Karol Zabik r/r, Davey Watt 11 (1), Craig Watson 1 (1), Adam Skornicki (capt) 10 (4).
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