HANS Andersen admitted he rode through the pain barrier to help Pirates wallop high-riding Peterborough 52-41 at home last night.

The Dane had missed Poole Castle Cover’s impressive 45-45 draw at Lakeside on Monday with a hand injury.

But he returned last night and immediately made a big impact, notching up 10 paid 11 as he dropped only one point to an opponent.

It means the Dorset club are unbeaten in four Elite League matches and have leapfrogged Belle Vue and Ipswich into seventh in the table.

Poole now face a hectic period, visiting Coventry tomorrow, Belle Vue in the Knockout Cup on Monday, Aces at Wimborne Road in the league on Wednesday and Ipswich away a week today.

Throw a Polish League meeting in for Andersen on Sunday, and a Swedish League engagement on Tuesday, and it’s a particularly busy spell for the Grand Prix rider.

Asked how his injured hand stood up to the rigours of riding during last night’s victory for Pirates, Andersen said: “It’s not my hand that’s the problem. It’s a couple of my fingers causing the problem.

“It’s not ideal, but I just have to carry on riding. I can’t sit at home forever and wait for it to heal.

“No bones are broken but the doctors can’t tell me what is wrong.

“I can’t bend my hand properly or get a proper grip on the handlebars.

“But I rode, the team won and we got three league points, which just shows what we can do when we have a full team.

“To me, it feels the good times are coming back to Poole. It looked like there were more fans here tonight, the racing is getting better and the track condition is getting better.

“Everyone here, not just the riders, seems happier.”

Andersen, who bagged two race wins and dropped his only point to a Peterborough rider when beaten into second by Kenneth Bjerre in heat six, added: “My hand is just painful when I’m riding.

“But at the end of the day, you just have to ride.

“It gets better as the meeting goes on, when the adrenaline is pumping.”

Andersen praised the performances of Poole reserves Steve Boxall and Ben Wilson, who grabbed four and two points apiece, although with luck they would both have got more.

The Dane said: “I thought they should have scored more points than they got.

“If you did three laps racing, not four, they would have scored more.

“That’s experience, they will learn from it and at least it’s nice to get points from six and seven because we weren’t getting them before.”

Looking ahead to Pirates’ league trip to Coventry tomorrow (8pm), Andersen said: “I feel we can get a win.

“It’s never easy to go to Coventry and do that, but without a doubt the absence of Rory Schlein through injury has weakened their team.

“For once, we have a full strength team and I feel we can give any team a run for their money, home or away.

“We’re such a strong team when we are a full strength, and I think we could have made the top six play-offs with this team.

“It’s just a shame they changed the rules because speedway is the only sport I know where they have done something silly like that in mid-season.”