Hammers won 10 heats on their way to their first ever play-off final

Lakeside Hammers crushed the Swindon Robins 56-33 on Monday to reach their first ever Elite League play-off final.

They will face the Poole Pirates in a two-legged final after dominating the meeting at the Arena Essex Raceway.

Hammers' Andreas Jonsson top-scored with 15 points, whilst Tomasz Jedrzejak, Leigh Lanham and Edward Kennett all reached double figures.

Their joy was tempered a little by an injury to Kauko Nieminen, which could see him miss the rest of the season.

Lakeside's Tomasz Jedrzejak set the tone for the evening in the opening heat, by pushing the Robins' danger man Leigh Adams into second place.

Robins hit back in the next race to level the scores, before the Essex side banged in eight consecutive heat advantages to build up a 43-17 lead after just 10 races to secure their place in the final.

I think we did ourselves justice today and showed how good we can be and now the pressures are on to do it again next week Lakeside Hammers co-promoter Jon Cook

Hammers' co-promoter, Jon Cook, was delighted with his team's display.

"It was a special performance from all the boys, a great meeting and we can't wait now for the final.

"I think Tomasz's win in heat one set it all up for the rest of the night.

"It was an absolutely unbelievable race and an absolutely unbelievable evening followed.

"But I think we did ourselves justice today and showed how good we can be and now the pressure is on to do it again next week."

Andreas Jonsson weighed in with four wins, Leigh Lanham and Edward Kennett two each, and Tomasz Jedrzejak and Kauko Nieminen one apiece.

For the Robins, only Leigh Adams and Travis McGowan shone, sharing five wins between them, but tellingly for the visitors, four of those came after the meeting had been settled and only six points came from their other five riders.

The first leg of the Elite League play-off final against Poole will take place at the Arena Essex Raceway on Monday, 6 October, with the return leg at Wimborne Road a week later.