Report: Poole v Edinburgh - KO Cup 1st Leg

This proved to be a challenging meeting in a number of ways with but started brightly for the Pirates as Richard Lawson carried on from his unbeaten Good Friday with a tapes to flag win, his sixth straight Pirate win this season.

His opposite number one, Josh Pickering made a bit of a meal of the first turn but recovered quickly to get amongst the points as the heat was shared. Max James on his debut Wimborne Road outing impressed, passing Sam Hagon early on and establishing a slender lead. Hagon and partner Max Perry were queuing up to try and snatch the advantage but on the last circuit, with Hagon well poised, he lost control on turn one and went down, forcing the referee to award the race as a 2-4. Poole's mid-order pairing of Zach Cook and Tom Brennan delivered a tapes to flag 5-1 in heat three to put Poole ahead for the first time in the meeting, although Edinburgh squared the meeting up again with an all-the-way victory from Justin Sedgmen, being given ground as Ben Cook was a little indifferent around the first turn.
After the first track grade of the meeting, Josh Pickering came out and established the fastest time of the season (58.47 seconds), Brennan and Zach Cook sharing the spoils. Both Pirates in heat six gave themselves work to do but Lawson and Thomsen managed their tasks adequately with Lawson passing Sedgmen at the pit turn on the first circuit, then Tobias Thomsen doing likewise on James at the same juncture a lap later, as Poole once again opened up a small lead. Heat seven witnessed a thrilling battle between Hagon and 'Paco' Castagna for the last three laps as they exchanged positions regularly. The Poole reserve appeared to have the better power on the back straight but Castagna maintained the tighter line and it was a close call at the flag, not so though for Ben Cook who had won by comfortable margin.
After further track curation both sides made changes in heat eight. Edinburgh first to make the move to bring in James in place of Connor Coles, Poole countering with Hagon favoured over Perry. But both replacements ended up grounded at the first turn, although due to a failure with the electrics the red-lights didn't come on and the race wasn't stopped until the track officials had received instructions over the radio system. An immediate interval was called to allow time to try and fix the issue, although that didn't prove possible and so it was decided that the exclusion lights would serve as the stop indicator lights in conjunction with alert track red-flag officials. When racing resumed it was in the form of a 'match race' between Dane Thomsen and Norwegian Lasse Fredriksen, Hagon having been disqualifed for his fall and Perry adjudged not under power at time of stoppage, although the youngster had seemed to only go down through taking evasive action. The race between the two Scandinavians looked set to go the way of Fredriksen, but Thomsen found some power from somewhere and delighted the fans with a steal on the line. Justin Sedgmen went down at the entry to the first turn in heat nine but the improvised race-stopping system worked well with the flags quickly out. This time there was no penalty and in the four-man rerun the two Pirates - Brennnan and Zach Cook - matched their gating prowess from the first attempt to put the biggest margin (nine points) between the sides. Lawson made it three from three (eight from eight) in terms of wins but partner Thomsen drifted positions, going from second to last allowing Edinburgh to restrain Poole from moving into a double figure lead. On another night Pickering may well have been dismissed as the two minute clock had expired before he was settled at the tapes, but he took advantage of the leniency and won stylishly, and behind him Ben Cook had to battle over Fredriksen whilst Hagon's miserable night continued, this time with a retirement. Brennan produced a tapes-to-flag victory in heat twelve and his partner, Perry, can consider himself a little unfortunate after a brave effort to try and pass his oppo, James, just came up a bit short.
Further gremlins crept into the meeting at the start of heat thirteen with the starting tapes malfunctioning, prompting a decision to complete the meeting under green light starts. The first attempt saw Ben Cook collect the first warning of the night as he left the grid whilst the green light was still illuminated. In the re-start Pickering made the fastest start and left Lawson, for the first time, having to play catch-up, a bid that failed and the Pirates had to settle on a shared heat. Connor Coles was the next to get a ticking off, as he too went early in heat fourteen and in that re-start it was his skipper, Castagna, who made the best exit off the start, and another share of the spoils kept the scores seven points apart.
Heat fifteen saw Castagna go down at the back in the first turn and gratuitously he wasn't just allowed back in the re-run but also given ample extra time to sort his equipment out, before the two minutes came on for a second time. At the expiry of those one hundred and twenty seconds, Castagna was not up to the line but the start continued. Crucially Lawson got clear to avenge for the earlier defeat by Pickering and Brennan backed up in third to close the meeting out with a Poole 4-2, and that may well be the most crucial heat advantage of the tie, that resumes at Armadale on May 3rd.
 

POOLE 49
Richard Lawson 3,3,3,2,3=14 (5)
Tobias Thomsen 0,1,3,0=4 (4)
Tom Brennan 2',2,3,3,1=11+1 (5)
Zach Cook 3,1',2',2=8+2 (4)
Ben Cook 2,3,2,1'=8+1 (4)
Sam Hagon F,1,FD,R,1'=2+1 (5)
Max Perry 2,0,RS,0=2 (3)
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EDINBURGH 40
Josh Pickering 2,3,3,3,2=13 (5)
Lasse Fredriksen 1',0,2,1=4+1 (4)
Kye Thomson 1,0,2,2=5 (4)
Michele Castagna 0,2,1',3,0=6+1 (5)
Justin Sedgmen 3,2,1,0=6 (4)
Max James 3,0,X0,0,1'=4+1 (5)
Connor Coles 1,1,RS,0=2 (3)
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Ht 1: R.Lawson, J.Pickering, L.Fredriksen, T.Thomsen 3-3 3-3 [58.6]
Ht 2: M.James, M.Perry, C.Coles, S.Hagon [fell] 2-4 5-7 [awd]
Ht 3: Z.Cook, T.Brennan, K.Thomson, M.Castagna 5-1 10-8 [59.91]
Ht 4: J.Sedgmen, B.Cook, C.Coles, M.Perry 2-4 12-12 [59.34]
Ht 5: J.Pickering, T.Brennan, Z.Cook, L.Fredriksen 3-3 15-15 [58.47]
Ht 6: R.Lawson, J.Sedgmen, T.Thomsen, M.James 4-2 19-17 [59.41]
Ht 7: B.Cook, M.Castagna, S.Hagon, K.Thomson 4-2 23-19 [59.4]
Ht 8: T.Thomsen, L.Fredriksen, M.James [exc], S.Hagon [fell exc] 3-2 26-21 [60.84]
Ht 9: T.Brennan, Z.Cook, J.Sedgmen, M.James 5-1 31-22 [59.81]
Ht 10: R.Lawson, K.Thomson, M.Castagna, T.Thomsen 3-3 34-25 [60.06]
Ht 11: J.Pickering, B.Cook, L.Fredriksen, S.Hagon [rtd] 2-4 36-29 [60.12]
Ht 12: T.Brennan, K.Thomson, M.James, M.Perry 3-3 39-32 [60.1]
Ht 13: J.Pickering, R.Lawson, B.Cook, J.Sedgmen 3-3 42-35 [59.91]
Ht 14: M.Castagna, Z.Cook, S.Hagon, C.Coles 3-3 45-38 [60.78]
Ht 15: R.Lawson, J.Pickering, T.Brennan, M.Castagna 4-2 49-40 [60.4]

SCB Referee Simon Humphrey-Kennett
EDINBURGH won toss and chose gates 1&3 | POOLE choose gates 1&3 in heat 15