REPORT: REDCAR BEARS 46 v POOLE PIRATES 44- BSN FINAL 1st Leg

18/10/25

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates have a little bit of chasing to do if they are to secure the league, cup and BSN series treble after a narrow two point defeat on Teesside in the first leg of the BSN Series final.

For only the second time this season the Pirates found themselves four points down after the opening heat when Charles Wright and Jake Mulford both managed to shrug off Tobias Thomsen who had made a level gate with them. Richard Lawson eventually came through in the hope of mounting a challenge but he could make no impact. Unlike William Cairns who worked hard to pass Jody Scott in heat two and the impact of that opening heat was halved immediately. Zach Cook and Lewi Kerr wasted no time in inflicting a defeat on Leon Flint, the Glasgow rider guesting in place of Erik Riss. The resulting 5-1 for the Pirates put them ahead by two points, acting as a reminder to the Bears that they would not be afforded any compassion to a side that they had beaten in the two other competitions. Anders Rowe went by Ace Pijper in heat four, just as Danny King was picking off Cairns for the first shared heat of the night. Jason Edwards made the running in heat five and just managed to hold firm long enough to starve Lawson of a victory, but Thomsen had the beating of Flint and Poole maintained their slender lead (14-16) .

Rowe was hot on the pace again in heat six, giving Wright no chance of making a serious challenge, then King fended off Cook in a fashion that Poole fans were accustomed to seeing when he was a Pirate. Kerr survived a potential banana skin as Scott momentarily got ahead of him, but making a quick recovery to regain third place, a fourth successive heat had the points equally apportioned to both sides. Jake Mulford and Ace Pijper broke the sequence as they combined for a big heat score before Jason Edwards and Flint were given a bit of an easier ride once Rowe lifted as he left the tapes. Kerr and Cook gave an early showing of a retaliatory maximum but Wright broke them up and somehow Kerr held on to the lead, bringing the deficit back to four points (32-28)

Heat eleven featured two tough battles in one. Out ahead King rode a canny raced to defend his lead over Lawson whilst Thomsen kept his wits about him under challenges from Jody Scott. With two decent gates Starke and Kerr were doing a reasonably good job of steering Poole to what would have been a match-levelling 5-1. In hindsight, perhaps Kerr should have backed off a bit from Starke to protect him but the impulse was to keep the pace up. Edwards launched his attack and got by Starke although it was a close run thing off the final turn that saw Edwards ensure he mitigated the damage. Lawson made his first decent start of the night but at the second turn both Wright and Rowe blasted through as Lawson was trying to defend against King. In the end he was content to follow Rowe home with Wright taking the win in share of the spoils. That is exactly how heat fourteen finished with Cook making a text book start, but it wasn't for want of trying on Cairns part as he tried everything to try and oust Flint. The two point deficit couldn't be closed any further despite Cook's attempts on Wright, but with Lawson comfortably clear of Edwards an eighth shared heat was recorded just two points separate the two sides at 'half-time'.

REDCAR 46
Charles Wright 2',2,2,3,3=12+1 (5)
Jake Mulford 3,1',2',0=6+2 (4)
Jason Edwards 0,3,2',2,0=7+1 (5)
Leon Flint 1,0,3,1'=5+1 (4)
Danny King 2,3,3,0=8 (4)
Jody Scott 2,0,0,2=4 (4)
Ace Pijper 0,1',3,0=4+1 (4)

POOLE 44
Richard Lawson 1,2,2,1',1'=7+2 (5)
Tobias Thomsen 0,1',0,1'=2+2 (4)
Lewis Kerr 2',1',3,3=9+2 (4)
Zach Cook 3,2,1,3,2=11 (5)
Anders Rowe 3,3,0,2=8 (4)
Paul Starke 1,0,1,1=3 (4)
William Cairns 3,0,1,0=4 (4)
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Ht 1: J.Mulford, C.Wright, R.Lawson, T.Thomsen 5-1 5-1 [54.8]
Ht 2: W.Cairns, J.Scott, P.Starke, A.Pijper 2-4 7-5 [54.8]
Ht 3: Z.Cook, L.Kerr, L.Flint, J.Edwards 1-5 8-10 [54]
Ht 4: A.Rowe, D.King, A.Pijper, W.Cairns 3-3 11-13 [54.7]
Ht 5: J.Edwards, R.Lawson, T.Thomsen, L.Flint 3-3 14-16 [55.15]
Ht 6: A.Rowe, C.Wright, J.Mulford, P.Starke 3-3 17-19 [54.5]
Ht 7: D.King, Z.Cook, L.Kerr, J.Scott 3-3 20-22 [55.4]
Ht 8: A.Pijper, J.Mulford, W.Cairns, T.Thomsen 5-1 25-23 [56.7]
Ht 9: L.Flint, J.Edwards, P.Starke, A.Rowe 5-1 30-24 [56]
Ht 10: L.Kerr, C.Wright, Z.Cook, J.Mulford 2-4 32-28 [55.1]
Ht 11: D.King, R.Lawson, T.Thomsen, J.Scott 3-3 35-31 [55.5]
Ht 12: L.Kerr, J.Edwards, P.Starke, A.Pijper 2-4 37-35 [56.7]
Ht 13: C.Wright, A.Rowe, R.Lawson, D.King 3-3 40-38 [55.7]
Ht 14: Z.Cook, J.Scott, L.Flint, W.Cairns 3-3 43-41 [56]
Ht 15: C.Wright, Z.Cook, R.Lawson, J.Edwards 3-3 46-44 [56.1]