PIRATES' top gun Jason Crump admitted his anguish after he was forced to withdraw from tonight's Elite League Riders' Championship at King's Lynn.

Crump took a knock to his recently repaired left kneecap while riding for Swedish club Vetlanda at Hammarby on Tuesday evening.

The world champion raced through the pain barrier last night, bagging a 14 paid 15-point maximum to help Poole record a vital 50-43 triumph over Swindon at Wimborne Road.

His withdrawal hands Pirates' King's Lynn asset Troy Batchelor, who celebrated his 20th birthday yesterday, a late present, as he replaces his team-mate in the field.

But it means Crump will not have the chance to defend the Elite League Riders' title he claimed at Poole last year.

The Aussie, who also won the event in 1999 and 2001, said: "The ELRC is always a meeting I have done well in.

"So it's disappointing that I won't get the chance to defend the title.

"But at this stage of the season, I would rather save my big performances for the Pirates.

"And hopefully, Bjarne or Troy can bring the trophy back to Wimborne Road."

Despite not crashing at the Stockholm track, a bumpy racing surface put pay to Crump's glued kneecap.

The swelling was so severe that the Australian national champion was offered the chance to pull out of last night's Robins clash by Poole track doctor Nigel Sharp.

This was never an option, though, for the dedicated Crump.

He added: "I didn't fall off in Sweden but the track was a little bit rough and I knocked the knee going into one of the bends.

"It swelled up overnight and the doctor at Poole had a look at it while I was there.

"As soon as he saw the swelling, he wouldn't have hesitated to pull me out of the meeting, if I had asked him to.

"But the bottom line was this was a huge match and I was never going to ask to sit it out.

"I'll be going up to see my specialist in London today, though, to have it fully checked over."

ELRC line-up: 1 F Lindgren (Wolves), 2 T Batchelor (Pirates), 3 C Harris (Coventry), 4 D Watt (Eastbourne), 5 J Screen (Belle Vue), 6 N-K Iversen (Peterborough), 7 R Schlein (Coventry), 8 L Adams (Swindon), 9 K Kasprzak (Lakeside), 10 B Pedersen (Poole), 11 N Pedersen (Eastbourne), 12 C Louis (Ipswich), 13 H Andersen (Peterborough), 14 S Nicholls (Coventry), 15 L Richardson (Swindon), 16 T McGowan (Reading).