REPORT:Oxford v Poole SGB Cab Direct Championship Grand Final

Poole's unbeaten run was ended by their club nemesis Oxford in the first leg of the Grand Final leaving the Pirates with a 12 point deficit to overturn in Wednesday's second leg

The Pirates had every intention of making this first leg as close as possible to give themselves every chance of being in a position to lift their second piece of silverware this month, and the game plan was well on course up until the interval, where even then only eight points separated the sides.
A spell of shared heats showered the first five heats, Poole providing two race winners - Vinnie Foord in heat two after producing a terrific move round the first turn, although he came under immense pressure on the run to the line that had half the stadium doubting whether he had held on against the rapid approaching Killeen, and then a tapes to flag win from Richard Lawson in heat five.
In between those races, Tom Brennan suffered a painful looking fall as he became the filling in a first turn heat four sandwich and fell awkwardly with his machine in close proximity, but he still managed to hold out Scott Nicholls in the re-run as the reserves contingent (Killeen for Oxford, Foord for Poole) took the first two places leaving the heatleaders to do battle at the back.
Oxford's first breakthrough came in heat six when Cameron Heeps and Sam Masters both got the drop on Tobias Thomsen and Tom Brennan, the home pairing giving the packed terraces a decent display of team riding. But, a determined Zach Cook recovered from having to shut off rather rapidly on lap 3 as Nicholls gave him a close-up of his rear wheel to make a telling pass in around the same turn 4 area on the final lap to seal Poole's opening heat advantage, a 4-2 one, as Ben Cook had earlier got by Jody Scott.
Heat eight proved unfortunate for Foord as he reared leaving the third turn and almost produced carnage as Sam Hagon was taking the line that Foord's machine was heading. Somehow Sam managed to steer around the stricken bike and rider. In the re-start, as Poole's only representative, Sam made a far better gate and was giving Heeps and Killeen plenty to think about for a shortwhile, but the two Cheetahs kicked on for another 5-1. This time it was Brennan who masterminded the response. Storming to victory whilst Thomsen was battling hard to defend his third place over Ashton Boughen
and at the same time try and hassle guest Dan Gilkes. That 4-2 brought the teams scores to within four points of each other, a satisfactory situation for the Pirates it must be said.
The Cook boys shared heat ten, one won by Masters who was on his way to an untroubled maximum, but then that kid Killeen struck again. Seizing on an opening left by Thomsen he stormed through, catching Lawson, who had been shut out initially by Nicholls. unaware that it wasn't his team-mate upsides of him. The resulting 5-1 gave Oxford an eight point lead heading into the interval, with just four heats remaining of the first leg.
Mindful that heats thirteen and fifteen so often favour Masters and Nicholls especially round Sandy Lane, Poole knew they needed something big from heat twelve and Ben Cook and Thomsen didn't disappoint, even though Jody Scott was nibbling away at Toby for a large part of the race. The inevitable outcome of heat thirteen was realised leaving little room for error in heat fourteen and Zach Cook's persistence paid off as he found a way, late though it was, by Killeen. It was crucial he did because Gilkes had just passed Thomsen and that might well have been a critical points gain for the hosts, instead it left the difference at eight points, soon to become a dozen as Zach Cook just couldn't, like so many that had gone before him, find a way of prising Masters and Nicholls apart.
So twelve it is. Poole need to score fifty-two points in the second leg and given that only one Pirate (Zach) hit double figures in this meeting, there is scope for all round improvement.

OXFORD 51
Sam Masters 12+3 (3,2',3,2',2')
Cameron Heeps 6+0 (0,3,3,0)
Ashton Boughen 1+1 (F,1',0,0)
Dan Gilkes 8+1 (3,2,2,1')
Scott Nicholls 10+1 (0,2,2',3,3)
Luke Killeen 12+1 (2,3,RS,2',3,2)
Jody Scott 2+1 (1',RS,0,RS,1)

POOLE 39
Richard Lawson 8+0 (2,3,1,1,1)
Sam Hagon 2+1 (1',0,1,RS)
Ben Cook 7+1 (1',1,2,3)
Zach Cook 9+1 (2,3,1',3,0)
Tom Brennan 4+1 (1',0,3,0)
Tobias Thomsen 4+1 (0,1,1,0,2',0)
Vinnie Foord 5+0 (3,2,FD,RS)

Ht 1: Sam Masters Richard Lawson Sam Hagon Cameron Heeps 3-3 3-3 [59.01]
Ht 2: Vinnie Foord Luke Killeen Jody Scott Tobias Thomsen 3-3 6-6 [59.74]
Ht 3: Dan Gilkes Zach Cook Ben Cook Ashton Boughen (fell) 3-3 9-9 [60.64]
Ht 4: Luke Killeen Vinnie Foord Tom Brennan Scott Nicholls 3-3 12-12 [59.77]
Ht 5: Richard Lawson Dan Gilkes Ashton Boughen Sam Hagon 3-3 15-15 [59.54]
Ht 6: Cameron Heeps Sam Masters Tobias Thomsen Tom Brennan 5-1 20-16 [59.84]
Ht 7: Zach Cook Scott Nicholls Ben Cook Jody Scott 2-4 22-20 [60.54]
Ht 8: Cameron Heeps Luke Killeen Sam Hagon Vinnie Foord (fell dq) 5-1 27-21 [60.81]
Ht 9: Tom Brennan Dan Gilkes Tobias Thomsen Ashton Boughen 2-4 29-25 [60.7]
Ht 10: Sam Masters Ben Cook Zach Cook Cameron Heeps 3-3 32-28 [60.44]
Ht 11: Luke Killeen Scott Nicholls Richard Lawson Tobias Thomsen 5-1 37-29 [60.58]
Ht 12: Ben Cook Tobias Thomsen Jody Scott Ashton Boughen 1-5 38-34 [61.83]
Ht 13: Scott Nicholls Sam Masters Richard Lawson Tom Brennan 5-1 43-35 [60.53]
Ht 14: Zach Cook Luke Killeen Dan Gilkes Tobias Thomsen 3-3 46-38 [61.43]
Ht 15: Scott Nicholls Sam Masters Richard Lawson Zach Cook 5-1 51-39 [61.3]

SGB Referee Chris Durno
POOLE won toss and chose gates 1&3 | OXFORD choose gates 1&3 in heat 15

Photo credit Anthony Burchell