Panthers endure an eventful night in Scotland

Life is certainly never dull where Panthers are concerned.

Another away drubbing, featuring two more injuries, was followed by a post-meeting sacking and a major signing. Now that’s not quite your typical Friday night – even in the unpredictable world of speedway!

The city team suffered a fourth successive SGB Championship defeat when they were thumped by table-toppers Edinburgh after being reduced to four riders for almost half of the meeting.

Already operating the rider replacement facility for absent skipper Ulrich Ostergaard, they lost number one Jack Holder to a knee problem following a heat five spill.

The Australian ace was clouted by Monarchs man Erik Riss, but found himself excluded by blundering referee Ronnie Allan to add salt into the wounds.

And Panthers were then further depleted when Kenneth Hansen suffered a painful exit in heat eight.

The Dane, who was riding despite suffering from a fractured breastbone and rib damage after a heavy spill in Sweden eight days earlier, withdrew with a hip injury after he was hit by home rider Mitchell Davey leaving the second bend.

And that proved to be Hansen’s final act in Panthers’ colours as he was later axed by club bosses to make way for new signing Chris Harris.

Panthers only trailed by six points at that stage, but Edinburgh ruthlessly dominated the remainder of the meeting to slam in seven successive heat advantages.

The final five of those were all 5-1s as a tight meeting turned into a turkey shoot.

Bradley Wilson-Dean topscored for Panthers with 11 points gained in a full, sevenride shift in his final meeting at reserve.

Paul Starke also battled well for his nine points. Those two men were the city side’s only race-winners.

Panthers were so short of manpower they could only send one rider – Wilson-Dean – to the tapes for heat 13.