Ipswich Witches v Poole Pirates

The Pirates overcame a shaky start at Foxhall and survived a late recovery by the Ipswich Witches before leaving Suffolk with three more league points, their second league win at this venue this season.

Brady Kurtz delivered a showman performance, unbeaten in his first four rides before being fenced in heat 13 when moved out by his own team-mate Jack Holder, and then picking up the third place in the final race of the night to support Nicolai Klindt's victory that denied the home side from salvaging anything from the meeting.

Their debutant Niels-Kristian Iversen opened with a pacy win, producing the first of two 4-2 advantages for the Witches before the Pirates began to settle down claiming respective victories from Klindt and Kurtz in the next two heats. Holder and new partner Nico Covatti levelled proceedings with a 5-1 in heat five. Kurtz had no support from new signing Thomas H Jonasson in heat six, the Swede looking a bit out of sorts, but one heat later he was producing a well-calculated winning ride with Klindt in his shadows to fire Poole into a four point lead.

Covatti's heat eight win protected that advantage and Poole looked set to further extend as Kurtz had Jonasson backing him up in heat nine. But a brave challenge from Chris Harris to try and split them resulted in Jonasson going down heavily and earning a disqualification for his troubles. Kurtz did all that was expected of him in the delayed re-start, Jonasson having to undergo a full check-over before being given the green light to continue in the meeting.

Kurtz and Klindt pushed Poole even further ahead with maximum points from heat ten before Holder steadfastly dealt with the Witches tactical substitute usage, heading home Iversen and Danny King. Heat 12 was also shared, although taking the honours this time was Harris, the first Witch to do since Jake Allen had won heat two!

Poole's eight point lead then took a bit of a knock, as too did Kurtz because of that Holder move, but the Poole number one worked hard in the re-run to overcome King to mitigate the damage to a 4-2 to the home side.

Ipswich were suddenly given a glimmer of victory on the night as Richard Lawson and Allen paired up for a 5-1 that left them needing maximum points from heat 15 to scramble the win, but Klindt was far too sharp off the gate and led Iversen all the way with Kurtz in third.

Potentially a damaging result for Ipswich's play-off aspirations but a consolidating one for the Pirates.

IPSWICH 43
Niels-Kristian Iversen,3,2,1,2,3,2=13 (6)
Rider Replacement
Chris Harris,2,1,2,3,0=8 (5)
Richard Lawson,1',0,1',3=5+2 (4)
Danny King,2,0,1',1',1=5+2 (5)
James Sarjeant,1,1',1,TS,RS=3+1 (3)
Jake Allen,1,3,1',2,0,0,2=9+1 (7)
Matt Marson=0 ()

POOLE 47
Jack Holder,0,3,3,2=8 (4)
Nico Covatti,2,0,2',3,0=7+1 (5)
Nicolai Klindt,3,2',3,2,3=13+1 (5)
Rider Replacement
Brady Kurtz,3,3,3,2',FD,1=12+1 (6)
Thomas H.Jonasson,0,0,3,FD,1',1'=5+2 (6)
Ricky Wells,2,0,0,0=2 (4)

Ht 1: Niels-Kristian Iversen, Nico Covatti, Jake Allen, Jack Holder 4-2 4-2 [55.8]
Ht 2: Jake Allen, Ricky Wells, James Sarjeant, Thomas H.Jonasson 4-2 8-4 [56.8]
Ht 3: Nicolai Klindt, Chris Harris, Richard Lawson, Nico Covatti 3-3 11-7 [56.9]
Ht 4: Brady Kurtz, Danny King, Jake Allen, Ricky Wells 3-3 14-10 [56.3]
Ht 5: Jack Holder, Nico Covatti, Chris Harris, Richard Lawson 1-5 15-15 [56.6]
Ht 6: Brady Kurtz, Niels-Kristian Iversen, James Sarjeant, Thomas H.Jonasson 3-3 18-18 [56.6]
Ht 7: Thomas H.Jonasson, Nicolai Klindt, James Sarjeant, Danny King 1-5 19-23 [57.6]
Ht 8: Nico Covatti, Jake Allen, Danny King, Ricky Wells 3-3 22-26 [56.9]
Ht 9: Brady Kurtz, Chris Harris, Richard Lawson, Thomas H.Jonasson (fell disqualified) 3-3 25-29 [56.9]
Ht 10: Nicolai Klindt, Brady Kurtz, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Jake Allen 1-5 26-34 [56.9]
Ht 11: Jack Holder, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Danny King, Nico Covatti 3-3 29-37 [57.8]
Ht 12: Chris Harris, Nicolai Klindt, Thomas H.Jonasson, Jake Allen 3-3 32-40 [57.4]
Ht 13: Niels-Kristian Iversen, Jack Holder, Danny King, Brady Kurtz (fell disqualified) 4-2 36-42 [57.3]
Ht 14: Richard Lawson, Jake Allen, Thomas H.Jonasson, Ricky Wells 5-1 41-43 [57.6]
Ht 15: Nicolai Klindt, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Brady Kurtz, Chris Harris 2-4 43-47 [.]

REFEREE Barbara Horley

GATES POOLE won toss and deferred choice to heat 15; IPSWICH chose gates 1&3 |POOLE choses gates 1&3 in heat 15

League Points: IPSWICH 0 POOLE 3