ALUN Rossiter launched a furious attack on referee Christina Turnbull after claiming his Swindon side were robbed of all three Elite League points in their season-opener against Birmingham last night.

On a slick track, the Robins triumphed 49-43 against Graham Drury’s men at the Abbey Stadium but the meeting was marred by no less than eight crashes and nine re-runs.

Rossiter was particularly angered by three decisions made in heats 10, 14 and 15. In the first of these, the race was restarted despite there seemingly being little wrong, while in 14 Jason Doyle was taken out by the back wheel of Danny King only to be excluded, and in 15 Ben Barker clipped Troy Batchelor but went unpunished.

Rossiter fumed afterwards: “I feel robbed.

“In the seasons I’ve done I’ve never known a meeting drag on so long and I’ve never seen so many appalling decisions.

“Christina Turnbull was absolutely shocking. It was disgraceful.

“It was the Doyle situation, heat 10 when she called it back when there was nothing wrong and then in heat 15 Barker took Batchelor’s leg away -.simple.

“There’s positives from tonight but I’m very, very frustrated. The decisions that she made were shambolic and awful.”

There was a difficult moment between two Swindon riders when Batchelor nearly put skipper Hans Andersen into the fence in heat 13, and the pair exchanged words after the race.

But Rossiter revealed the issue had been put to bed and there was no problem between the pair.

“It’s all sorted, it’s just one of those things,” he said.

“Troy had had a few bike problems and was a bit fired up to do something and he should have looked a bit earlier.

“But it’s early days, it’s just one of those gremlins and I’m not worried about it. They spoke, it’s all sorted and it’s all over.”

Swindon meet Birmingham again tonight at Perry Barr and will draft Seb Alden into their line-up tomorrow as Doyle is riding for Somerset in the Premier League.

Birmingham could welcome back ex-Robin Seb Ulamek as he is due to return from a Grand Prix qualifier in Poland.

Meanwhile, Robins co-owner Gary Patchett says the asset system in British racing has been ‘undermined’ after the Speedway Control Bureau adjudged that Swindon asset Adrian Miedzinski should only be loaned to Poole this season.

The Pole was offered terms by Swindon in the winter but instead elected to ride for the Pirates, who were found guilty of an illegal approach for the rider.

Despite the illegal approach, Poole were not forced to buy Miedzinski’s contract, leaving Patchett angered.

“This decision fundamentally undermines the asset system in this country and has set a precedent that will take speedway into very dangerous territory,” said Patchett.

“In the absence of an effective deterrent to prevent illegal approaches to riders or the obligation on errant clubs to buy those riders, the asset system is dead.”