RED HOT PIRATES HOLD ON

With the first seven heats all won by riders wearing the red helmet colours, Poole Pirates extended their unbeaten run to nine matches but saw a lead of fourteen points slashed to just a six point victory (48-42) as Edinburgh refused to throw in the towel.

Former Monarch Rory Schlein produced a rider of the night winning performance and twice took victories in that span of the first seven heats, before adding a third race win with a dominant ride in the all-stars heat thirteen. 

Finishing with a score of 12 from his five rides and recording the fastest time of the season with a heat one time of 59.15 seconds, he admitted "there was only one true racing line out there tonight but we managed to get the job done to keep the league points flowing. You look at Edinburgh and can see why they are a top four side and they have done well previously on the road this season, so to get the win was important. It doesn't really matter how you win as long as you get it in the end."

Skipper Danny King added "we kept our run going and that sets us up for the northern tour at the end of the week."

Like Schlein, King had two race wins in the first seven, but scored in just one more heat with a second place in heat 11 before running a last in the shared heat 13, which maintained Poole's lead of twelve points. A titanic battle between Josh Pickering (10) and Stefan Nielsen (4) in heat fourteen ultimately went to the impressive Monarch but with guest Zach Cook securing third place the vistors were in danger of completing their southern tour point-less, after their ten point defeat the previous night at Plymouth.

But past Pirates Richie Worrall and Sam Masters repeated their exploits of heat nine, when they banked a 5-1 over the solid Steve Worrall/Stefan Nielsen partnership, winning heat 15 by a similar score against Schlein and Worrall, to salvage the consolation point as an away team losing by six points or less.
Pushing Schlein all the way for that Rider of the Night nomination was the Pirates' rising star Danyon Hume who rode a terrific heat four to defend second place with Richie Worrall throwing everything at him. Adding a comfortable heat eight win to his tally, Hume then picked up a point in heat 12 (won by Steve Worrall) having to give way under intense pressure from Kye Thomson, but for effort there was no faulting him.

POOLE - 48: R.Schlein 12 (3,3,2,3,1), S.Worrall 10 (3,3,1,3,0), D.King 8 (3,3,2,0), D.Hume 7+1 (1,2',3,0,1), Z.Cook 5+2 (3,0,1',1'), S.Nielsen 4 (1,1,0,2), K.Bickley 2 (0,1,1)
EDINBURGH - 42: S.Masters 13+2 (2,2,2',3,2,2'), R.Worrall 10+1 (1,2,3,1',3), J.Pickering 10 (2,2,3,3), N.Greaves 4 (2,0,2,0,0), K.Thomson 4+1 (0,1',1,2), W.Lawson 1+1 (1',0,0), L.Crang 0 (0,FD,0)
 

Full Match report HERE