The title of this meeting report say’s it all really.
Most Panthers fans that made their way along the showery road networks to Berkshire for this re-arranged meeting with the Reading Bulldogs turned up more in hope than expectation. The beauty of following your team away however is that every now and again you know your team will come up with something special. This was one of those special nights as Panthers ran out 51-39 winners to claim their first bonus point of the season into the bargain.
Peterborough Panthers were simply too much for the country’s in form team in the first few weeks of the new season as they gated sharply, raced hard and shut the door when they had to. This performance illustrated one thing, that after the odd early season teething problems, Peterborough Panthers means business in a big way from now on in 2006.
Hans Andersen once again stamped his authority on proceedings form the off with a win in heat 1 in the fastest time of the night, indeed the only time to break the sixty second mark at 59.68. That one was a shared affair before Ulrich Ostergaard streaked away to claim heat two from the highflying Polish reserve Janusz Kolodziej. Richard Hall took the vital 3rd place as Panthers went 2 points up.
The highly profitable partnership of Iversen and Jensen claimed the first of 5 Panthers 5-1’s on the night with a maximum in heat 3 over one-time Panthers target and GP star Matej Zagar. The Bulldogs immediately hit back with a 5-1 of the own a race later however as Ryan Sullivan once again looked out of sorts on away shale.
When Reading banged in consecutive 5-1’s in heats 8 and 9 you could be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t going to be Panthers night as they trailed 30-24 after heat 9. The knockout blows came between heats 10 and 12 as Panthers forced the tie wide open with three consecutive 5-1 maximums, which surely hasn’t been achieved in an awful long time for a Panthers team away from home. The Jensen/Iversen partnership continued to shine in heat 10, before Ulrich Ostergaard linked up firstly with Hans Andersen and then with Jesper B Jensen. Ulrich was flying and so were the Panthers as Jim Lynch and his Bulldogs were left reeling by such powerful gating and a doggedness to defend the lead they had built up. Reading 33 Panthers 39.
Heat 13 was crucial and Andersen didn’t disappoint with another example of top gating to take the win and the 3-3 over Hancock and Gjedde. Niels Kristian Iversen sealed the win on the night but amazingly after such a poor performance against Reading at the East of England Showground (41-52 on 30th March) Panthers were still in the hunt for the bonus. Andersen and Jensen fought like their lives depended on it to get to the front and as Andersen took up the outside line, Jensen showed some superb track craft and white line riding to keep Greg Hancock at bay for 4 laps.
All in all an excellent performance from the Panthers to reward the travelling support. You just have this feeling that if Ryan Sullivan clicks away from home and Jonas is allowed to grow in confidence then someone is going to suffer quite badly at the hands of this 2006 team.
Oxford are next up for Panthers at the East of England Showground in their live Sky Sports televised meeting next Tuesday 25th April at 8pm.
Wednesday 19th April Sky Sports Elite League A
READING BULLDOGS 39 PETERBOROUGH PANTHERS 51
READING 39 Agg: 91 1 Charlie Gjedde 1' 1' 1 1' = 4+3 2 Travis McGowan 2 2 3 0 R = 7 3 Andy Smith 0 1' 2' 0 = 3+2 4 Matej Zagar 1 2 3 0 = 6 5 Greg Hancock 3 3 1 2 1 = 10 6 Chris Mills 0 0 0 = 0 7 Janusz Kolodziej 2 2' 2' 1 2 = 9+2
PETERBOROUGH 51 Agg: 92 1 Hans Andersen 3 3 3 3 3 = 15 2 Jonas Raun 0 0 0 = 0 3 Jesper Jensen 2' 2 3 3 2' = 12+2 4 Niels K Iversen 3 1' 2' 3 = 9+2 5 Ryan Sullivan 0 3 1 0 = 4 6 Richard Hall 1 0 0 = 1 7 Ulrich Ostergaard 3 1 1 2' 2' 1 = 10+2
