REPORT: Poole v Oxford - MAXiCAB KO Cup Quarter Final

20/05/26

Although their celebrations were soured with the loss of Fraser Bowes after a heat seven crash, the Pirates secured their place in the MAXiCab KO Cup semi-finals with victory on the night and an aggregate triumph of 104-73

Back from injury, Fraser Bowes had his eyes on producing a good performance. After a green-light issue and a ragged start, he began his night with a pass on Sam Masters and held position despite having problems round the first bend each lap. The opening 5-1 settled Poole nicely and added more pressure on the visitors, who were already ten points behind. Charlie Southwick, making his Championship debut, didn't look out of his depth and was holding third place. However, a mistake coming out of turn four saw him cross the inner line with both wheels, so his blue light came on and a shared heat seemed set to be the verdict. But on the last lap, Dayle Wood struggled round that first bend and fell. His teammate, Senna Summers, laid his bike down but remounted to chase on. He was going to be awarded second place in a two-rider-only finish, as Cairns was unchallenged. Similar problems beset Kyle Newman in heat three on the first lap. His remount was crucial, for Mitch McDiarmid made an error coming out of turn three, causing the race to be stopped. As so often happens in such circumstances, the lone Oxford rider, guest Nick Morris, made the better start second time around and shared the heat. Former Pirate Anders Rowe was sharp out of gate four and pulled clear of Poole skipper Zach Cook to establish a comfortable lead, but comfort hardly described his time around that tricky first turn each lap. Lewis Kerr delivered a hard and determined move in heat five to get by Masters, a rider that Newman chased fervently throughout, but without success (17-12).

Bowes was flying in his second ride and roles were reversed from heat one, but it ended in grief. He took off on the final lap, ended up going out the "front door", and finished embedded in the air fence, requiring medical attention. Simultaneously, the track itself underwent treatment, with much of the dirt on the first bend being redistributed more evenly. There was plenty of time available, as Bowes, complaining of lower back pain, had to travel to hospital for a check-over. Once racing resumed after 9pm, the Pirates began to cement their semi-final place. Cook made a telling outside pass on Morris. Cairns preferred to try the inside line but couldn't make it pay, drifting to the back. Morris fell on the last turn, surrendering his second place as both McDiarmid and Cairns took the gifted points with gratitude. Wholesale changes were announced ahead of heat eight, with Poole now using IRR, Oxford already using it, and both sides wanting to switch their number sevens for their number sixes. Incoming Cairns chose to use the outside this time and led Morris a merry dance, while Newman added to the Poole cause in third. There were probably not too many people focusing on runaway leader Kerr in heat nine, as the action pivoted around Newman and Rowe. There was much applause for the Poole man prevailing, as it stretched the lead on the night to 13 points, an aggregate advantage of 23. Morris was performing as though the tie depended on this heat as he came through an all-changing first turn with his nose in front. Lawson had slipped up the inside into second, but Cairns found himself dropping back a place as McDiarmid got into a scoring position (35-24).

A determined move by Cairns on the inside of Wood in heat eleven took him into second place. Wood went down but received the disqualification, which meant Oxford could no longer catch the Pirates in this tie by any means. A ruthless Cook out of turn four had Masters almost standing up on his bike, and Masters then had to contend with Cairns nipping away at his tail. With the meeting heading for a late finish, the last thing needed was a delayed heat twelve. But needing four attempts, the one thing that could be said about it was that it gave Southwick some extra gating practice. At the first attempt, Kerr twitched too soon and received a warning. In the restart, Southwick went down at the first turn, and instantly an "all four back" was declared along with the two-minute warning, leaving the youngster little time to clear the detritus from his clutch. But with all four waiting for the green light, Wood let out his clutch and rode straight through the tapes, paving the way for Summers to replace him. It was Summers that Southwick cleverly went by at the first turn to follow home Kerr, who had to concede the win to McDiarmid. Having been outwitted by Cook earlier in the meeting, Masters became the victim of another blast from Lawson, who whistled by him down the back straight. Cook banked third unchallenged ahead of Rowe, who eventually pulled up. Morris and Newman spared no quarter in heat fourteen as they exchanged positions on the first circuit. Morris eventually won that battle, but well out ahead was Cairns, taking Poole to the 50-point mark. Cook seemed ultra-keen to make up for his dropped point to Masters after heat thirteen, and he stormed to a heat-winning ride with Lawson backing him up to give Poole a 55-34 victory on the night.

POOLE 55
Richard Lawson 3,3,2,3,2'=13+1 (5)
Fraser Bowes 2',FD,IRR,IRR=2+1 (2)
Lewis Kerr 2,3,3,2=10 (4)
Kyle Newman 1',1,1,2',1=6+2 (5)
Zach Cook 2,3,3,1,3=12 (5)
William Cairns 3,1,3,R,1,3=11 (6)
Charlie Southwick X0,0,RS,1'=1+1 (3)

OXFORD 34
Sam Masters 1,2,2,2,1=8 (5)
Rider Replacement
Mitch McDiarmid FD,0,2,1,3,0=6 (6)
Nick Morris 3,F,2,3,2=10 (5)
Anders Rowe 3,2,1,R=6 (4)
Dayle Wood 0,FD,1,RS,0,RS,FD,XE,0=1 (7)
Sennna Summers 2,RS,1',RS,0,0,RS=3+1 (4)

Ht 1: R.Lawson, F.Bowes, S.Masters, D.Wood 5-1 5-1 [60.44]
Ht 2: W.Cairns, S.Summers, C.Southwick [exc], D.Wood [fell exc] 3-2 8-3 [60.56]
Ht 3: N.Morris, L.Kerr, K.Newman, M.McDiarmid [fell exc] 3-3 11-6 [60.04]
Ht 4: A.Rowe, Z.Cook, D.Wood, C.Southwick 2-4 13-10 [60.54]
Ht 5: L.Kerr, S.Masters, K.Newman, M.McDiarmid 4-2 17-12 [60.11]
Ht 6: R.Lawson, A.Rowe, S.Summers, F.Bowes [fell exc] 3-3 20-15 [awd]
Ht 7: Z.Cook, M.McDiarmid, W.Cairns, N.Morris [fell] 4-2 24-17 [60.4]
Ht 8: W.Cairns, N.Morris, K.Newman, D.Wood 4-2 28-19 [60.67]
Ht 9: L.Kerr, K.Newman, A.Rowe, S.Summers 5-1 33-20 [60.59]
Ht 10: N.Morris, R.Lawson, M.McDiarmid, W.Cairns 2-4 35-24 [60.,32]
Ht 11: Z.Cook, S.Masters, W.Cairns, D.Wood [fell exc] 4-2 39-26 [61.04]
Ht 12: M.McDiarmid, L.Kerr, C.Southwick, S.Summers, D.Wood [tapes exc] 3-3 42-29 [61.53]
Ht 13: R.Lawson, S.Masters, Z.Cook, A.Rowe [rtd] 4-2 46-31 [60.91]
Ht 14: W.Cairns, N.Morris, K.Newman, D.Wood 4-2 50-33 [62.07]
Ht 15: Z.Cook, R.Lawson, S.Masters, M.McDiarmid 5-1 55-34 []

SGB Referee Mr Michael Breckon