POOLE Pirates' opening Elite League broadside comprehensively missed its target last night.

The bookies' title favourites had every chance of turning over Wolves to get their campaign up and running at the first attempt.

They comprehensively out-gated a brittle-looking home side struggling in the lower order.

But another moderate performance from Bjarne Pedersen, the injury-enforced absence of Wolves asset and likely trump card Adam Skornicki and a mechanical nightmare for Karol Zabik saw the Castle Cover Pirates succumb to an 18-point defeat.

Yet Poole were right in this match and trailing by just six points after 11 gripping heats on a racy Monmore strip.

But the next two races proved the turning point. The lively Davey Watt and feisty Freddie Eriksson may well have fancied their chances against a sub-par Niels K Iversen and flat Nicolai Klindt.

But Iversen made a decent gate and would have been as astonished as the Monmore crowd to find his fellow Dane throwing up great plumes of shale off gate four as he roared round the boards to join him at the front.

Iversen then shepherded Klindt to the line, defying everything that the Poole pair could throw at him.

Still, when one door closes, another moves slightly ajar and the 10-point margin at least enabled Pirates team boss Neil Middleditch to pass the double-point black and white helmet to Chris Holder next time out.

Holder, too, was off gate four. Holder, too, wound on the throttle only to be denied by a cute blocking move from Howe which stifled his run.

The Australian's misfortune was compounded by engine failure and fate chose to rub some ignominious salt in the wounds as Holder coasted to the kerb with just enough momentum to clip it and turn a slow motion somersault onto the centre green.

If that was a bad dream, Zabik's evening was the stuff of nightmares. His first two rides netted a total aggregate of about 30 metres as his machinery twice expired on the start line.

Heat eight was an improvement - the Pole was in the mix on the first corner but ground to a halt when exiting bend two. Could it get worse? Why, yes. The luckless Zabik could not even reach the tapes in heat 10.

Poole did have their bright spots - the Aussie attack of a sparkling Holder and the dashing Davey Watt constantly carried the attack to the home side.

And Freddie Eriksson was dynamic throughout, racking up big points and unlucky to collect an exclusion in heat 14 when he clashed with Kenneth Hansen.

The Dane finished in the air fence - demolishing one of the posts - and was taken to hospital for a precautionary check on a hip injury.

It was left to Watt to salvage some pride by denting David Howe's maximum hopes in the very last race, though even he could not stop home number one Freddie Lindgren finishing unbeaten.

Poole will look for revenge tomorrow against the Parrys International Wolves - and Zabik will look for functioning machinery.