LEIGH Adams beat Tony Rickardsson twice on his return to Wimborne Road but RIAS Pirates still passed their first test of the new season with flying colours.

The man from Mildura may have swapped teams over the winter, moving from Poole to his parent club Swindon.

But he remains a class act around the Wimborne Road track as he showed when he outgated Pirates' Rickardsson twice to triumph in heats four and 13.

Rickardsson got his own back in the final race when he followed team-mate Jason Lyons home for a 5-1 over Charlie Gjedde and Adams, who finished last.

And that put the icing on the cake for Poole, who had hit back hard from a 21-15 deficit to romp to what in the end was a fairly comfortable victory.

Fast-gating Swindon stormed into their lead after producing five of the opening six heat winners.

At that stage it looked as though they might go on and pull off a shock away triumph.

Then Antonio Lindback pressurised Oliver Allen into a mistake in heat seven to grab the vital third place and Poole, with Rickardsson beating Steve Johnston to the chequered flag, notched a 4-2 that began their comeback.

Allen had slipped past Lindback on the outside as they came off the second bend into third.

But the naturalised Swede chased Allen down hard and the Englishman eventually fell off his machine as they powered down the finish straight at the end of the third lap.

That gifted Lindback one point, and he got three more when he outgated Swindon's Krzysztof Kasprzak in the next race.

With Bjarne Pedersen third in front of David Ruud, another Pirates 4-2 meant they only trailed 25-23.

Adams, trailing in third down the back straight, powered inside Magnus Zetterstrom on the fourth bend before squeezing in front of Davey Watt on the last lap to record a spectacular win in heat nine and protect Swindon's slim advantage.

But Lyons rode hard outside Johnston in heat 10 to join leader Pedersen in Poole's first 5-1 of the night which also gave them the lead for the first time 31-29.

Rickardsson brilliantly passed Gjedde and Ruud to triumph in heat 11 before Zetterstrom team-rode superbly with race winner Daniel Davidsson in the next race to propel Pirates 39-33 in front.

Lindback produced a tapes-to-flag victory in heat 14 which, along with Watt's third place, secured Poole's win.