It was not a Good Friday for King's Lynn Stars as they left Lakeside's Arena Essex Raceway with a 12-point defeat, writes Marc Gent.

The performance was a stark contrast from when the teams met at the Adrian Flux Arena on Wednesday in a meeting which Lynn won 58-34. Despite opening the meeting with a 4-2 heat win from Niels-Kristian Iversen and Robert Lambert, the Stars found it tough from the gate and further race advantages were hard to come by with over half the heats being shared.

Lakeside's Grand Prix star Andreas Jonsson and fellow heat leader Richard Lawson put the Stars eight points behind at the halfway stage. And by heat 13 that gap had opened up to 10 points.

Going into the last race, captain Rory Schlein and guest for Nicklas Porsing, Kevin Doolan, had given Lynn a chance of taking something from the meeting with a 4-2 advantage to reduce the deficit back to eight. That wasn't to be however as the home pair of Lawson and Jonsson eased to maximum points to give the Stars, and stand-in manager Dale Allitt, their first defeat of the season.

Allitt said: 'We are all very disappointed with the result. I think the track conditions, although they are the same for both sides, caught us out early on. We managed to maintain the difference between the sides but we just couldn't find a heat advantage.

'Rory and Kevin did dig deep to get a heat advantage in heat 14 which gave ourselves a chance to get something and I believe we should have. The 5-1 for them in the final race gave them a flattering win.

'We need to look forward to Wednesday at home against Belle Vue. I know the boys are disappointed with the result but we will build ourselves back up to bounce back next time around.'

Lakeside: Richard Lawson 14+1 (5), Edward Kennett 10 (4), Andreas Jonsson 9+1 (5), Kim Nilsson 8 (4), Steve Boxall (G) 5+1 (4), Adam Ellis 3 (4), Mikkel Bech 2+1 (4)

Lynn: Niels-Kristian Iversen 10 (5), Rory Schlein 8+1 (5), Lewis Kerr 7+2 (5), Robert Lambert 5+2 (4), Kevin Doolan 5 (4), Ashley Morris 2+2 (3), Kenneth Bjerre 2 (4)