MACIEJ Janowski starred as Pirates fought back to earn a point at Elite League leaders King’s Lynn tonight.

Trailing by eight heading into heat 15, Poole restricted the Stars to a 47-43 win thanks to Janowski and Pirates skipper Darcy Ward, who delivered a 5-1 maximum.

The meeting began 45 minutes later than scheduled due to a torrential downpour, but once it did, Ward picked up where he left off against Coventry in winning the opener.

Ben Hopwood and Shamek Pawlicki fell in heats two and three allowing the hosts – on a run of seven victories on the trot - to take an 11-7 lead.

Up stepped Josh Grajczonek to triumph but he received little support from the retiring Hopwood, before guest Tai Woffinden spearheaded a King’s Lynn 5-1.

Heat six was shared as Rory Schlein got the better of Ward, before Poole grabbed their first heat advantage courtesy of Kyle Newman and Vaclav Milik.

The Stars upped the ante. Another 4-2 headed by teenager Robert Lambert ground down the visitors’ resistance further and although Poole profited from guest Darren Mallett’s exclusion in heat nine, Lewis Kerr stormed home from the gate on the re-run.

An off-colour Niels-Kristian Iversen was excluded in the next outing and Pawlicki and Janowski subsequently cut to six points the gap between the teams.

Ward and Milik then stunned Schlein and Woffinden with a maximum but the hosts immediately returned the favour.

Former Stars favourite Janowski got his second win in a row in heat 13 after keeping out Woffinden, but Ward trailed behind Iversen and the heat was shared.

Newman became the third Pirates rider to be excluded in the penultimate race as King’s Lynn secured a 4-2, but Ward and Janowski’s heroics in the final showdown ensured Pirates took a point back to Dorset.

RIDERS' SCORES AND HEAT DETAILS

Stars 47: 1 Niels-Kristian Iversen (1*-2*-fx-1*) 4+3, 2 Nicklas Porsing (2-2-2-2*) 8+1, 3 Rory Schlein (3-3-1-1-1) 9, 4 Robert Lambert (1*-0-3-3) 7+1, 5 Tai Woffinden, guest (1-3-0-2-0) 6, 6 Lewis Kerr (3-2-3-3-1) 12, 7 Darren Mallett, guest (1-0-fx) 1. Team manager: Rob Lyon

Pirates 43: 1 Darcy Ward (3-2-3-0-2*) 10+1, 2 Josh Grajczonek (0-3-0-1) 4, 3 Shamek Pawlicki (fx-1-2-1) 4, 4 Vaclav Milik (0-1-2*-2) 5+1, 5 Maciej Janowski (2-1*-3-3-3) 12+1, 6 Kyle Newman (2-3-2-0-fx) 7, 7 Ben Hopwood (fx-r-1*) 1+1. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Ht 1: Ward, Porsing, Iversen, Grajczonek, 59.46 (3-3)

Ht 2 (re-run x2): Kerr, Newman, Mallett, Hopwood (fell/dsq), 61.51 (7-5

Ht 3 (re-run): Schlein, Janowski, Woffinden, Pawlicki (fell/dsq), 59.16 (11-7)

Ht 4: Grajczonek, Kerr, Lambert, Hopwood (retired), 61.52 (14-10)

Ht 5: Woffinden, Iversen, Pawlicki, Milik, 58.80 (19-11)

Ht 6: Schlein, Ward, Janowski, Lambert, 59.52 (22-14)

Ht 7: Newman, Porsing, Milik, Mallett, 60.70 (24-18)

Ht 8: Lambert, Pawlicki, Schlein, Grajczonek, 59.97 (28-20)

Ht 9 (re-run): Kerr, Newman, Hopwood, Mallett (fell/dsq), 61.33 (31-23)

Ht 10 (re-run): Janowski, Porsing, Pawlicki, Iversen (fell/dsq), 60.82 (33-27)

Ht 11: Ward, Milik, Schlein, Woffinden, 61.25 (34-32)

Ht 12: Kerr, Porsing, Grajczonek, Newman, 61.77 (39-33)

Ht 13: Janowski, Woffinden, Iversen, Ward, 61.00 (42-36)

Ht 14 (re-run): Lambert, Milik, Kerr, Newman (fell/dsq), 61.78 (46-38)

Ht 15: Janowski, Ward, Schlein, Woffinden, 61.51 (47-43)