CUP REACTION: DANNY FEELS DIALLED-IN

Poole skipper Danny King returned his best home score of the season, with a paid 11 performance as Poole turned the heat up on cup opponents Plymouth in the second leg.

As his side celebrated a 110-79 aggregate victory, King admitted, "it feels as though I am getting dialled in now. There just hasn't really been enough track time to be honest but we are now about to get pretty busy with plenty of time on the bike and I am really looking forward to it. The team has bonded so well and I think we can really kick things on now."

King dropped his only point on the night to Gladiators' guest Craig Cook (in for former Pirate Jason Crump who was injured on Tuesday night at Plymouth, ironically when he crashed against Cook!) in heat 11, but levelled the personal count up when the two riders met two heats later. Poole number one, Rory Schlein, beaten by Cook in heat one but then went through the card unbeaten, rode a clever turn to run Cook wide enough to allow King to run up the inside to trigger a run of three maximum heat scores by the home side as Poole broke through the 60-point barrier.

Steve Worrall was a third Pirate beaten just the once. Former Poole favourite Bjarne Pedersen making a trademark start in heat nine to allow the visitors to celebrate only their second race winner at that stage of the meeting. Pedersen's win broke the sequence of 5-1's achieved by the Worrall/Stefan Nielsen partnership, as the pair continue to provide a solid middle partnership to the team. Nielsen himself, only dropped that point in heat nine whilst reserve Ben Cook completed the set of near-maximum men, himself missing out to his British namesake at the same stage as King's defeat.

The 61-29 result was Poole's biggest win since they matched that score against King's Lynn in August 2018 and their biggest Knockout cup victory since they demolished a Swindon side 62-28 in Wiltshire back in June 2011.

The Pirates have earnt a quarter final tie against Sussex rivals Eastbourne, the Eagles having defeated Kent by 98-81 in their corresponding tie.
 

Wednesday's scorers: 

 Poole  61 (110)  Plymouth  29 (70)
POOLE  - 61: R.Schlein  14 (2,3,3,3,3), S.Worrall  13+1 (3,3,2,3,2'), B.Cook  10+1 (3,2',2,3), D.King  9+2 (3,3,1',2'), S.Nielsen  7+4 (2',2',1',2'), D.Hume  6 (1,1,3,1), K.Bickley (Guest) 2 (0,1,R,1)
PLYMOUTH  - 29: C.Cook (Guest) 8 (3,1,3,1), B.Pedersen 7 (2,2,3,0), Z.Cook 6 (1,0,2,2,1), A.Bowtell 4+1 (2,0,1',F,1), D.Ruml 3 (1,0,2,0,0), Z.Keleher  1 (0,1,0,F), J.Smith  0 (F,R,0)
Match Report