SWINDON Robins returned to the summit of the Elite League table by eclipsing the King’s Lynn Stars and securing a fifth victory in a row tonight.

Forced to ride at reserve, Justin Sedgmen responded by inspiring the Robins at the Abbey Stadium with a stunning six-ride maximum, leaving team manager Alun Rossiter plenty to smile about.

The Stars shone early on as Niels-Kristian Iversen and Mads Korneliussen romped to a maximum in the opening heat of the night, leaving Jason Doyle and Charles Wright eating their dust, but the visitors’ Carl Wilkinson was disqualified for colliding with team-mate Lewis Rose in heat two, allowing Sedgmen and Stefan Nielsen rack up a 5-1 win of their own.

Former Robins skipper Troy Batchelor, riding for the first time this season, handed his former employers a shock in heat three as he and Robert Lambert stamped their authority all over Josh Grajczonek and Rohan Tungate but the pendulum swung back the other way in heat four as Nielsen’s superb move to overtake Kai Huckenbeck helped tie things up at 12-12.

Sedgmen grabbed a second successive heat win in the sixth, Iversen’s untouchable ride in heat seven saw the scores levelled up again in the seventh, and then, Swindon captain Doyle made amends for his heat one frustration as, supported by a storming Grajczonek, he fired the hosts to another maximum.

Nick Morris continued his unbeaten evening by scorching away from the chasing pack in heat eight and in the next race of the night, Swindon took a big stride towards victory as Sedgmen and Wright dominated former Robin Rose and Huckenbeck, who suffered his second fall of the meeting.

With the Stars’ Iversen sent out on a tactical ride in heat 10, the action was momentarily held up as Tungate’s night was ended by a nasty-looking tumble, but once the racing got back under way, Grajczonek was left to fend for himself and found himself out of the running as King’s Lynn got the job done with consummate ease, hauling themselves back into contention with a thumping 8-1 triumph.

But the momentum surged back the way of the Robins as Stars men Batchelor and Lambert found themselves bested by Doyle and an in-form Sedgmen – sent out in place of Wright – in heat 11 and Swindon’s number six followed that up by crossing the line first in heat 12 to leave King’s Lynn trailing by nine points.

The Stars’ hopes all but went up in smoke in the 13th as Doyle sauntered to victory over Iversen and Batchelor to maintain his side’s lead and then, Lambert nicked the air fence and suffered a fall in the penultimate race of the meeting, with his night ending in the back of an ambulance.

But once things got back under way, Swindon put the icing on the cake with a duo of maximums as they soared back to the highest perch.