POOLE 47 KING'S LYNN 43

The Pirates and Stars bravely defied the weather to complete their play-off semi-final tie and it was the Pirates that just squeezed home to reach their 5th consecutive Elite League play-off final.

With rain coming down from as early as heat 5 the riders kept appearing in quick fire fashion from the pits to eventually gain a result some 17 days after the narrow 45-44 first leg triumph for the Pirates.

Opening with a 4-2 heat advantage through guests Edward Kennett and Troy Batchelor and following that up with a battling point from Brendan Johnson to convert Kyle Newman's impressive winning heat two ride into another 4-2, the Pirates gave themselves some much needed breathing space in this tense affair. And in much the same way as the first leg, way back on September 29th, the evenness of these two sides came to the fore with a string of shared heats broken only by a valuable second place snatch by Danny King to prevent the Stars collecting a 5-1 in heat 6.
Poole clung on to their slender two point on the night lead, three overall, until Jason Garritty got the better of Kyle Newman in heat 9 with Brendan Johnson spinning out at the first turn for the Pirates. That levelled the Wimborne Road meeting and when Rory Schlein packed up in heat 10 Poole capitalised with a 4-2 from the Kennett/Batchelor pairing to keep them on course for the final. With rain still lashing down there were expectations that the meeting might be culled at that stage as a result could have been declared, but to the riders' credit the meeting continued and was to eventually go the full 15 heat distance.

A piece of speedway brilliance from the man they call Magic headlined heat 11 as he produced an excellent ride to get the better of Bjerre and Garritty and a clever piece of riding by Kyle Newman to sneak round the inside whilst Robert Lambert and Garritty were running Kennett wide kept Poole two ahead. Janowski's second win of the night put the Pirates in the driving seat as Batchelor gallantly picked up third behind Kenneth Bjerre. Despite Stars' guest Stuart Robson winning heat 14 the Pirates needed just a finisher in heat 15 to win the tie and when Schlein packed up for the second time of the night that was a mere formality for Janowski and Pawlicki as the meeting concluded with the 20th shared heat over the two legs.

POOLE 47 (92)
T. Batchelor 1,1',1,1=4+1
E. Kennett 3,2,3,0=8
P. Pawlicki 3,0,3,0,1'=7+1
D. King 3,2,0,1'=6+1
M. Janowski 0,2,3,3,2=10
B. Johnson 1,0,F=1
K. Newman 3,1',2,3,2=11+1

KING'S LYNN 43 (87)
K. Bjerre 2,1,2,2=7
R. Lambert 0,2,2,1'=5+1
C. Harris 2,3,1',2,3=11+1
S. Robson 0,0,3=3
R. Schlein 1',3,R,0,R=4+1
J. Garritty 2,3,3,1',2,0=11+1
S. Lambert 0,1',1=2+1

Ht 1 E. Kennett K. Bjerre T. Batchelor R. Lambert 4-2 (4-2) (60.22)
Ht 2 K. Newman J. Garritty B. Johnson S. Lambert 4-2 (8-4) (60.93)
Ht 3 P. Pawlicki C. Harris R. Schlein M. Janowski 3-3 (11-7) (60.25)
Ht 4 D. King R. Lambert S. Lambert B. Johnson 3-3 (14-10) (60.59)
Ht 5 C. Harris M. Janowski T. Batchelor S. Robson 3-3 (17-13) (60.32)
Ht 6 R. Schlein D. King K. Bjerre P. Pawlicki 2-4 (19-17) (60.75)
Ht 7 J. Garritty E. Kennett K. Newman S. Robson 3-3 (22-20) (62.47)
Ht 8 P. Pawlicki R. Lambert C. Harris D. King 3-3 (25-23) (62.85)
Ht 9 J. Garritty K. Newman S. Lambert B. Johnson (Fell) 2-4 (27-27) (65.06)
Ht 10 E. Kennett C. Harris T. Batchelor R. Schlein (Rtd) 4-2 (31-29) (64.22)
Ht 11 M. Janowski K. Bjerre J. Garritty P. Pawlicki 3-3 (34-32) (66.19)
Ht 12 K. Newman J. Garritty R. Lambert E. Kennett 3-3 (37-35) (66.68)
Ht 13 M. Janowski K. Bjerre T. Batchelor R. Schlein 4-2 (41-37) (65.35)
Ht 14 S. Robson K. Newman D. King J. Garritty 3-3 (44-40) (66.5)
Ht 15 C. Harris M. Janowski P. Pawlicki R. Schlein (Rtd) 3-3 (47-43) (67.06)

Referee C.Turnbull
Gates: King's Lynn won the toss and took 1&3 in heat 1. Poole chose 1&3 in heat 15

Poole win 92-87 on aggregate.

GRAND FINAL DATES

FRIDAY OCTOBER 17:
ELITE LEAGUE GRAND FINAL 1st leg: Coventry v Poole 7.30

MONDAY OCTOBER 20:
ELITE LEAGUE GRAND FINAL 2nd leg: Poole v Coventry 7.30