HEADING FOR NUMBER TEN

Their place in a tenth play-off final had been claimed in the most dramatic of rides from the Lazarus of play-offs Chris Harris.
 

A mid-season capture from defunct Rye House, Harris, the 2007 British GP champion had made a spectacular move on the 2017 World Champion, Jason Doyle to send Poole, who at one stage were a staggering 12 aggregate points behind Somerset, into their first Grand Final for three seasons.

Awaiting them were King's Lynn. Debut play-off finalists having disposed of Belle Vue in their third ever semi-final tie, in a season where they had topped the regular league table, giving them the choice of staging either the first or second leg. Opting for the latter it meant that, seven days after that breath-taking semi-final with the dust still settling, Poole hosted the Stars in that opening leg. 

Poole co-promoter Dan Ford remembers, "After that remarkable semi-final meeting and knowing how far we had come during the season, after all we were bottom of the league in July, we knew we had a golden chance of claiming our eighth league title under the play-off scheme. I think the expectation on the team was immense. Many felt that with that semi-final recovery our name was already on the trophy but there was still a lot of racing to go. I remember my Dad being very cautious in putting expectations on the team ahead of the first leg. Everyone knew the tie was likely to be close, after all we had been heavily beaten at the Norfolk Arena in our last away league match, although had come much closer in our first visit there earlier in the year, losing by two I believe." 

The powerful Pirates stormed into a very strong early lead on October 8th with maximum heat advantages in the first four heats being built on with a 4-2 gain from Nicolai Klindt and Kacper Woryna, that, a third of the way through the evening's action, had given the Pirates an 18 point lead.

The Stars though were not quite ready to throw the towel in and within a further four heats had brought the deficit down to just eight points, a margin that was held for a further two heats, ahead of, arguably, the pivotal moment of the tie when Lynn's linchpin Michael Palm-Toft clashed with Pirates' Frederik Jakobsen in heat 12. The consequences being the Stars' reserve suffered a broken hand that meant his season was over. The Pirates rubbed salt into the Stars' wounds by banking another 5-1 in the re-start and then adding a further two heats later, sandwiched between two shared heats.

Thus solid performances from Richie Worrall, dropping just one point in his four rides, and Nicolai Klindt (paid 13 from 5) had steered the Pirates to a 53-37 advantage, and so the Pirates held a handy sixteen point lead to defend 48 hours later.

Could the Platinum Pirates make it another Golden year? All the action from the second leg at the Norfolk Arena will be the featured meeting this coming Wednesday (June 10th) with the Premiere viewing from 7.30pm