KING’S Lynn suffered a 65-25 defeat against Poole on a night to forget at Wimborne Road.
The Roger Warnes Transport Stars were left severely depleted in Dorset and had no answer to the powerhouse Pirates.
The Norfolk outfit were already without No.1 Niels-Kristian Iversen and reserve Simon Lambert, with Chris Harris and Ben Morley stepping in as guests.
But they were then forced to operate rider replacement at No.2 when Kai Huckenbeck had his start permission withdrawn by the German federation leaving him at Wimborne Road but unable to ride.
The late drama left the Stars on the back foot from the outset – and Dale Allitt admitted they were well-beaten on a “tough night”.
Said Allitt: “The situation with Kai only came to light today, and we thought at one stage we may have it resolved, but there wasn’t anything we could do in the end.
“The SCB were fighting on our behalf, but we have to abide by his national federation, who withdrew his start permission.
“Kai was there but we could only use rider replacement, and that was tough on the reserves who were very busy early on.
“We don’t go anywhere to lose, so it was a very disappointing night. At the end of the day, they were much better than us tonight so we can’t have any complaints.
“It was a tough night at the office, but we’ll just have to re-focus ahead of the return fixture at home tomorrow night.”
Robert Lambert and Rory Schlein both claimed race wins early on, whilst guesting No.1 Chris Harris roared clear to take the chequered flag in heat 10.
But Chris Holder and Bjarne Pedersen both struck paid maximums for the home side as they ensured the Stars never looked like claiming a consolation point.
King’s Lynn will now be looking for a quick response as they host Poole in the return fixture at the Adrian Flux Arena on Thursday (7.30).
POOLE 65: Chris Holder 14+1, Brady Kurtz 11+3, Kyle Newman 10+1, Bjarne Pedersen 9+3, Adam Ellis 8+1, Krzysztof Buczkowski 7+1, Hans Andersen 6+2. KING’S LYNN 25: Rory Schlein 6, Robert Lambert 5+1, Chris Harris 5, Troy Batchelor 4, Lewis Rose 3, Ben Morley 2, Kai Huckenbeck R/R.
