THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN REVEALED

POOLE Pirates supporters have selected their all-time dream team to mark the club's 70th anniversary.

The Magnificent Seven polls, run as part of the Volvo Cars Poole Pirates' platinum campaign, saw supporters vote in their thousands and their super septet can now be revealed.

Ken Middleditch topped the poll in the 1940s-1960s category, while Malcolm Simmons and Craig Boyce were selected from the 1970s-1980s votes.
In the ultra competitive 1990s-2000s category, Mark Loram, Tony Rickardsson, Chris Holder and Darcy Ward completed the line-up.

Pirates boss Matt Ford said: "I can only thank our supporters for getting involved in this great campaign. Looking through the list of riders to choose from, it was an incredibly tough task to select just seven greats, but as always the fans have stepped up and I think their 'Magnificent Seven' is the perfect team."
Middleditch starred for the Pirates between 1950 and 1962 and won four league titles with the club.

Simmons, meanwhile, is one of the club's most decorated servants, becoming the first Poole rider to achieve a 10-point average in the British league during his stint between 1975 and 1980.

Boyce is the Pirates' all-time leading points scorer and rode for the club in several stints between 1988 and 2007. He finished third in the 1994 World Championship final in Vojens.

Loram became the first Pirate to win the world title when he lifted the trophy in 2000, but was quickly followed by Rickardsson a year later, who during his first stint in the skull and crossbones race jacket, collected his fourth world crown. The Swede went on to win two Elite League titles with Poole and a further two world championship golds, including the 2002 title while a Pirate.

Holder sits sixth on the Pirates' current all-time points scorers table and won his first world title in 2012. His partnership with Ward on the Wimborne Road shale saw the pair dubbed 'The Turbo Twins'. Holder won Elite League titles with the Pirates in 2008 and 2011, while Ward was part of the club's league-winning teams of 2011, 2013 and 2014.