Poole v Edinburgh - Cup Final 2nd Leg

27/10/21

The Pirates produced a commanding second leg performance to finish the job on Edinburgh that they had started when they secured a five point first leg advantage. A 57-33 home win gave Poole a 104-75 aggregate victory to seal their first piece of silverware since being crowned Premiership champions in 2018.

Although the Monarchs drew first blood in this fixture, Sam Masters and Anders Rowe registering a heat one 4-2 advantage, it soon became evident that there was only going to be one outcome in this meeting. Drew Kemp rapidly became the visitors second race winner, as he won the battle of turn one but guest Zaine Kennedy and Ben Basso had enough advantage over backmarker Jason Edwards to avoid any challenge and shared the heat. Rory Schlein raced away in heat three but some distance behind it was a close run thing as Ben Cook homed in on Josh Pickering, but just ran out of race time. The resulting 4-2 levelled the scores on the night and it was Poole who kicked on from here.

A brilliant pass by Danny King on Richie Worrall was the feature of heat four, the Poole captain switching lines cleverly before driving up the inside to complete the move. Schlein was again in charge in heat five after seeing off Masters at the first turn. Whilst the ride wasn't the most comfortable as he continually found a few ruts, it was win number two for Schlein.

A couple of poor gates by Steve Worrall and Danyon Hume were soon forgotten when Kemp made an error that allowed both Pirates through, Worrall then setting about his brother and had the grandstand rocking when he delivered the pass that gave Poole another heat advantage. King and Kennedy made it five straight 4-2 advantages for the Pirates, after a tight first turn and Poole were suddenly 13 points clear on aggregate.

Drew Kemp replaced Edwards in heat eight, an inspired switch as it resulted in a second race win for Kemp and back in third place Rowe was holding off Basso and Poole's sequence of heat victories came to an end. Not for long though.

Ben Cook found his gating gloves and had Schlein for company as the first 5-1 of the night was recorded. Another was on the cards in the early stages of heat ten but Pickering was able to get between Worrall and Hume, but time was rapidly running out for the Monarchs to put in any form of comeback.

Masters did his bit by getting away sharp in heat eleven and holding off the hitherto unbeaten King, but behind them Kennedy was passing Rowe to share the scores. Whilst Poole just needed a finisher in each of the remaining heats to win the cup, they had no desire to waste any time as Basso and Schlein demonstrated with a 5-1 to widen Poole's aggregate lead to an unassailable 21 points.

That didn't stop the points flowing though, King and Worrall stormed to another Poole 5-1 in heat thirteen and there were no quarters being given in heat fourteen, so much so that Kennedy, Cook and Kemp all went piling into the safety fence as they were heading around the pit turn. Horrific-looking as it was, fortunately all three were able to get back to their feet, although Cook pulled out of the re-run with Basso standing in for him, whilst Kennedy was thrown out, adjudged the cause of the incident.

Lone Pirate Basso flew the flag proudly as he produced a sweet pass on Pickering , losing his steel shoe in the process. To close the meeting out Schlein completed his paid maximum, backing up Worrall as neither Masters or Pickering could get to within touching distance of the two men who have proudly shared the number one race jacket throughout the season.

POOLE 57
Steven Worrall 2,3,3,2',3 =13+1
Danyon Hume 0,1,2,1 =4
Rory Schlein 3,3,2',2',2' =12+3
Ben Cook 1,1,3,FN =5
Danny King 3,3,2,3 =11
Zaine Kennedy 2,1,1',XD =4+1
Benjamin Basso 1',1,0,3,3 =8+1
.
EDINBURGH 33
Sam Masters 3,2,3,1,1 =10
Anders Rowe 1,0,1,0 =2
Kye Thomsen 0,2,R =2
Josh Pickering 2,0,2,2,0 =6
Richie Worrall 2,2,1,0 =5
Drew Kemp 3,0,3,0,1,1' =8+1
Jason Edwards 0,0,0 =0
.
Ht.1 S.Masters,S.Worrall,A.Rowe,D.Hume,2-4 2-4 (60.75)
Ht.2 D.Kemp,Z.Kennedy,B.Basso,J.Edwards,3-3 5-7 (60.97)
Ht.3 R.Schlein,J.Pickering,B.Cook,K.Thomsen,4-2 9-9 (60.34)
Ht.4 D.King,R.Worrall,B.Basso,J.Edwards,4-2 13-11 (60.79)
Ht.5 R.Schlein,S.Masters,B.Cook,A.Rowe,4-2 17-13 (60.15)
Ht.6 S.Worrall,R.Worrall,D.Hume,D.Kemp,4-2 21-15 (61.5)
Ht.7 D.King,K.Thomsen,Z.Kennedy,J.Pickering,4-2 25-17 (60.57)
Ht.8 D.Kemp,D.Hume,A.Rowe,B.Basso,2-4 27-21 (62.25)
Ht.9 B.Cook,R.Schlein,R.Worrall,J.Edwards,5-1 32-22 (61.03)
Ht.10 S.Worrall,J.Pickering,D.Hume,D.Kemp,4-2 36-24 (61,34)
Ht.11 S.Masters,D.King,Z.Kennedy,A.Rowe,3-3 39-27 (61.72)
Ht.12 B.Basso,R.Schlein,D.Kemp,K.Thomsen (rtd),5-1 44-28 (62.04)
Ht.13 D.King,S.Worrall,S.Masters,R.Worrall,5-1 49-29 (61.41)
Ht.14 B.Basso,J.Pickering,D.Kemp,Z.Kennedy (Disqualified),3-3 52-32 (62.03)
Ht.15 S.Worrall,R.Schlein,S.Masters,J.Pickering,5-1 57-33 (61.91)
SCB Referee: Paul Carrington
EDINBURGH win toss and take gates 1&3 POOLE take gates 1&3 in heat 15
Rider of the Night: Rory Schlein