'Doubters silenced' as brilliant Pirates shock Witches

Danny Ford watched his patched-up No1 Carpet Cleaning Poole Pirates side shock Ipswich, before insisting: We proved the doubters wrong.

The Pirates secured an unlikely triumph at Foxhall against the high-flying Witches, running out 48-42 winners on a track where the hosts were previously unbeaten in 2019.

Ford’s men went in front after a heat three 4-2 from Nicolai Klindt and Josh Grajczonek and never looked back.

That despite missing Brady Kurtz, Richie Worrall, Nico Covatti and Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen through injury and illness.

The three remaining 2019 Pirates, Klindt, Grajczonek and Jack Holder, scored 33 of the Pirates’ 48 points between them, while guests Ricky Wells (10) and Kevin Doolan (5+2) chipped in with key scores at key moments.

The announcement of the Pirates line-up for the trip to Suffolk, though, was met with pockets of disdain on some social media channels – something that hadn’t gone un-noticed by Ford.

The Poole co-promoter said: “It was disappointing to see some of the comments after we announced the team for this meeting.

“For me, bar the performance on Monday against King’s Lynn, the remaining boys and guests have all stepped up when we need them to over the past few weeks.

“We were on a run of five straight victories before Monday and two of those wins came after we lost Nico and Richie to injury.

“For me, we proved a lot of people wrong by going to Ipswich, who were unbeaten at home, with that team and turning them over in the way we did.”

The Pirates are next in action on Thursday at Wimborne Road, when the Witches will be looking to put right their first home defeat of the campaign.

Ford is hopeful that both Covatti and Kurtz will be able to return from injury.

Read the full report from Foxhall here.

Picture: Taylor Lanning.