FLASHBACK - HOW THE SEASON STARTED

With the 2019 season now behind us, and the wait for the Annual Conference of the British Speedway Promoters Association (BSPA) to ratify the club's bid to join the SGB Championship league, we are turning the clock back to the first match of our final year in top flight speedway.

April 8th 2019 the venue was King's Lynn for the first leg of the Elite Shield and the contest was keenly battled out with a solid team performance from the Pirates, a side that had Jack Holder back from his year with Somerset, bringing his 2018 team-mate Nico Covatti with him, whilst Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen was making his club debut with Richie Worrall, Josh Grajczonek, Brady Kurtz and Nicolai Klindt all back after their 2018 exploits.

Covatti and Busk Jakobsen fired Poole into an early lead with a 5-1 reserves heat result, the only non-shared race in the first seven. Erik Riss and Michael Palm-Toft levelled the meeting in heat eight before Kurtz and Covatti edged Poole back ahead with a 4-2, only for that to be written off when Riss and Robert Lambert banged home a 5-1 for the Stars to give them a 31-29 lead with ten heats gone.

Klindt and Covatti switched the situation around in heat 12 with a maximum whilst a Holder victory held the advantage for Poole. With Poole firing in back to back maximums to close out the first leg they headed back to Dorset with a 10-point lead and the Elite Shield looking well destined to become the new promotion's first piece of silverware.

Three nights later the Pirates were just able to prevail although the new season began at Wimborne Road with a defeat but an aggregate 94-86 Elite Shield clincher.