RESULT: POOLE V BELLE VUE

The Pirates put a bit of a squeeze on Mark Lemon' Aces and  showed their "bounceback-ability" by returning to winning ways against the league leaders to not only gain three league points but a big confidence boost after their disappointing Bank Holiday performances.

The meeting produced some excellent racing and featured arguably the race of the season when Krzysztof Buczkowski put his dip in form behind him to stave off a double assault from Craig Cook and GP rider Matej Zagar in heat 6 which allowed the Pirates to cling on to a delicate advantage set up for them by an attacking ride from reserve Bjarne Pedersen  supported by Adam Ellis .

But the key factor in this Pirate victory was the shrewd choice of guest by Poole boss Matt Ford to cover for injured skipper Hans Andersen. Taking advantage of the 5% allowance for an absent home rider Ford was able to call upon Pirates fans' favourite Krzysztof Kasprzak and it proved to be a very 'Special KK' performance from the Pole who on Saturday will have his sights set on booking his place back in the GP series which he had ignaminously exited in 2015.

On the form he showed as he battled his way to a five ride paid maximum then he will start amongst the favourites in Vetlanda for this was Kasprzak of old. 

There was a great deal of tension in this meeting a fact borne out by some of the starts that stand-in referee Ronnie Allan had to repeatedly call back, not least heat 4 that took an age to complete. Initially halted when Brady Kurtz, trailing the Aces duo of Scott Nicholls and Joe Jacobs, fell in third the remaining three riders had to line-up no fewer than three more times before a result could be called. First Jacobs, a tapes infringer in his first outing, moved too early then Newman got the jitters , but the local lad produced an excellent ride to split the visitors when the clean start was ruled.

Holder and Kasprzak combined in heat 7 to to extend Poole's lead to 6 points and from there on in the Pirates didn’t pick up a single last place until the points were safely in the bag - Buczkowski in heat 14 trailing a last and Holder likewise in the final race of the night.

Poole did move into a double figure advantage in heat 10 when Kasprzak passed Zagar which allowed Aces boss Mark Lemon to send Craig Cook out on a double points mission which he won with a perfect start. But Holder and Ellis kept Fricke out of the points to temper that advantage and with successive 5-1's being fired in from heats 12 and 13 the Pirates were able to at last break the Aces at their third attempt this season, prompting Matt Ford to admit "It is nice to win a meeting at last this week and full credit to the lads for bouncing back from the disappointment of Monday, but we certainly had KK to thank for helping us to those three points. Yet again we are still not showing the consistency I would have hoped for but we came away with the points we needed tonight and I know that there is more to come from this team if they can sort themselves out.

Poole travel to Wolverhampton on Monday night with Scott Nicholls included in their line-up as cover for Andersen.

POOLE 52

C. Holder 3,3,2,2',0=10+1
A. Ellis 0,1,1,1'=3+1
K. Buczkowski 1,3,1,0=5
B. Kurtz FD,0,2=2
K. Kasprzak 3,2',3,3,3=14+1
B. Pedersen 2,3,3,3,1=12
K. Newman 1',2,1',2'=6+3
Belle Vue 41
M. Zagar 2,1',2,1=6+1
S. Worrall 1',2,3,0=6+1
M. Fricke 0,0,0,3=3
S. Nicholls 3,1,2,2',1'=9+2
C. Cook 2,2,6,0,2=12
R. Worrall 3,0,0,0=3
J. Jacobs =2

Ht 1 C. Holder M. Zagar S. Worrall A. Ellis 3-3 (3-3) (60.66)
Ht 2 R. Worrall B. Pedersen K. Newman J. Jacobs(tapes 15m hcap) 3-3 (6-6) (60.97)
Ht 3 K. Kasprzak C. Cook K. Buczkowski M. Fricke 4-2 (10-8) (60.5)
Ht 4 S. Nicholls K. Newman J. Jacobs B. Kurtz (Fell d/q) 2-4 (12-12) (60.97)
Ht 5 B. Pedersen S. Worrall A. Ellis R. Worrall 4-2 (16-14) (61.47)
Ht 6 K. Buczkowski C. Cook M. Zagar B. Kurtz 3-3 (19-17) (60.97)
Ht 7 C. Holder K. Kasprzak S. Nicholls M. Fricke 5-1 (24-18) (60.56)
Ht 8 S. Worrall B. Kurtz K. Newman R. Worrall 3-3 (27-21) (60.53)
Ht 9 B. Pedersen S. Nicholls A. Ellis J. Jacobs 4-2 (31-23) (61.9)
Ht 10 K. Kasprzak M. Zagar K. Buczkowski S. Worrall 4-2 (35-25) (61.16)
Ht 11 C. Cook (TR) C. Holder A. Ellis M. Fricke 3-6 (38-31) (60.19)
Ht 12 B. Pedersen K. Newman J. Jacobs R. Worrall 5-1 (43-32) (62.19)
Ht 13 K. Kasprzak C. Holder M. Zagar C. Cook 5-1 (48-33) (60.65)
Ht 14 M. Fricke S. Nicholls B. Pedersen K. Buczkowski 1-5 (49-38) (62)
Ht 15 K. Kasprzak C. Cook S. Nicholls C. Holder 3-3 (52-41) (61.34)

Referee Ronnie Allan
Gates:  Poole win toss and take 1&3. Belle Vue take 1&3 in heat 15
POOLE 3 league points Belle Vue 0 league points