Belle Vue's battle to beat the problems caused by the air travel turmoil finally ran out of steam in Thursday night's Elite League match at Swindon.

They went into the match without their two cutting-edge riders, captain Hans Andersen and top Swede Peter Karlsson.

Andersen couldn't make arrangements to get him in from Denmark and out again to Poland in time for this afternoon's European Grand Prix practice session at Leszno. Karlsson turned up for his flight from Gothenburg, only to be told it had been cancelled.

David Gordon, the Autogate Aces chief, felt his side had a chance with Karlsson riding and using the rider replacement facility to cover for Andersen. He said: "We worked so hard to put teams out for our previous two matches and managed to win them both, but this was a step too far for us.

"We beat the volcano twice with our wins against Coventry and Ipswich but it was too much to expect us to go to Swindon without our top two men.

"James Wright was terrific and we would have made a real match of it with a full side."

SWINDON: S Stead 15, L Adams 14, T Jonasson 8, M Korneliussen 6, G Zengota 6, M Risager 5, C Gathercole 3.

BELLE VUE: J Wright 13, P Hougaard 12, L Lanham 6, T Kroner 3, K Doolan 2, W Lawson 2.

FROM Two Wheels to Four, the intriguing story of Belle Vue legend Alan Wilkinson written by MEN speedway writer Richard Frost, is now on sale from the sports outlets. Tweet