PIRATES' slender chances of attaining a coveted top-two Elite League place finally slipped away as they fell to a powerful Peterborough outfit on Monday night.

Poole Castle Cover put up a great fight, but they couldn't get over the loss of world champion Jason Crump mid-way through the meeting through injury.

Crump, who had won his opening two races in style, aggravated a knee injury during his first ride, when he grabbed a 5-1 with Craig Boyce in heat three over Daniel King and Lukas Dryml.

The Australian, who had an operation to fix a broken left kneecap only three weeks ago, had his knee drained of fluid after it had played up at Wimborne Road.

But the knee flared up again when he knocked it on the third corner in his first race.

Crump bravely went out and won his second race despite being out-gated by Kenneth Bjerre in heat seven.

He scorched round the outside of the Panther on the fourth bend before blasting on in scintillating fashion to take the chequered flag.

With Boyce taking third place in front of Peterborough new boy Christian Hefenbrock Pirates were only 24-18 behind at that stage, and just 68-64 adrift on aggregate.

Crump's knee, however, began swelling up badly and he had to call it a day.

Poole never gave up, but Piotr Swiderski pipped Troy Batchelor to first place on the line in race eight as they received another big blow.

Jason Doyle stormed outside Swiderski and King on the second bend to go on and snatch a brilliant heat nine win.

With Pirates conceding another 5-1 in heat 10, however, and Bjarne Pedersen enduring a rare low-key night, the Dorset club were well down on scoring power.

Pedersen, who said last week that he had felt fatigued after taking part in 25 meetings in August, led race 11 as a tactical rider for the first lap.

But Poole's night was summed up when Bjerre dived past on the second bend of the second circuit.

Batchelor got a fighting third place as Pirates got a 5-3, but apart from two wins from the Crump-Boyce partnership in the first half of the meeting, it was the Dorset club's only other race advantage.

Both the result on the night, and the bonus, were decided with three races remaining, but Poole were far from disgraced.

Hans Andersen was Peterborough's star man, notching an impressive 18-point maximum as he made it 21 successive race wins in Panthers colours, and Poole had no one to match him following Crump's early departure.

Boyce, who scorched to a lightning heat 14 triumph, impressed for Pirates against the odds, with Batchelor, Doyle and Steve Boxall, who surprised Bjerre and Swiderski by winning heat four, also catching the eye at times.