Not much went right for Oxford Cheetahs as they slumped to a heavy Elite League defeat in their final outing of the season at a chilly Showground last night.

Panthers were in a rampant mood, with Grand Prix Challenge champion Peter Karlsson zooming to a full maximum, and duly completed a four-match clean sweep over the Cowley outfit.

The visitors' efforts were undone by two retirements apiece for leading lights Todd Wiltshire and Brian Andersen.

The Dane provided three of his side's four wins on the night. He swooped round the outside of Sam Tesar and Magnus Zetterstrom early on before taking the chequered flag in heat three, and following up with an impressive victory over home skipper Ryan Sullivan in race ten, and a come-from-behind success over Tesar in heat 12. But he was let down by his machinery in his final two races of the night as Panthers recorded three successive maximums to pull well clear.

Wiltshire, having followed Sullivan home in race one and allowed Peter Karlsson to come through on the final lap of heat four, won the next race ahead of Zetterstrom and Tesar to keep the gap at six points, at 18-12.

But the Aussie, in as a tactical substitute in race eight, was left at the line which resulted in the third of six 5-1s for the home side and forced to limp out of the heat 11 action, when leading.

The pair, nonetheless, combined for two-thirds of their side's points, but there was little else to write home about as four home riders tallied double figure scores.