CRUMP ENDS KING'S IMPRESSIVE RUN

It took a three-times world champion to end the sequence of fifteen unbeaten home rides by the "King of Wimborne Road", but the Pirates were still far too strong for their Devonshire neighbours, as they ran out 55-35 in their penultimate regulation home league fixture.

Danny King had not been beaten around Wimborne Road by an opponent since Broc Nicol's heat 13 victory in the Pirates league fixture against Scunthorpe on August 18th, but former Pirate Jason Crump made the best of a flying start in heat seven to end the Poole skipper's proud run of form.

Collecting his second rider of the night accolade in as many meetings, King said, "I have had a good run and found some form, but 'Crumpie' was just fantastic. He was fast out there tonight and I couldn't catch him even though I gave it my best shot. I guess I knew that at some time the run would come to an end. But once again the team were great all round. I was really pleased to see Anders (Rowe, Poole's guest for the injured Stefan Nielsen) have a fantastic meeting. It was good to ride with him, we have been teammates at Ipswich, and he has really come on."

King was able to avenge for that defeat by Crump when they met for a second time in the final race of the night, a race that might well have seen the last time two Poole legends will have ridden a league fixture at Wimborne Road, as it also featured Bjarne Pedersen, who prior to the meeting was officially inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame. Whilst Pedersen has openly admitted that he is retiring at the end of the season, his 2021 Plymouth team-mate Crump has yet to decide whether he is going to extend his racing comeback but has hinted that his next challenge might not be based around speedway.

Although the Gladiators generated a mid-meeting fightback, reducing a twelve-point deficit after heat 5 to an eight-point margin after seven heats the Pirates always seemed in control and the visitors were delivered a blow when their tactical move in heat ten back-fired on them. Guest Ben Barker was drafted in to link up with the unbeaten Crump to suggest that Rory Schlein and Ben Basso would have to be on their guard if they were to get anything out of the heat. But Crump's impatience at the tapes earned him a second public warning and disqualification from the re-run. Barker's hopes of repeating his heat six triumph over Schlein were dashed when the Poole number one rode a hard but fair first turn moving Barker ever wider forcing the Cornishman to back off.

So, with that victory the Pirates remain in the driving seat at the top of the SGB Championship table with just two meetings to race, the first of which is at Scunthorpe on Friday night where a point would guarantee the Pirates a semi-final qualification for the play-offs.

POOLE 55 R.Schlein 10 (3,2,3,1,1), B.Basso 4+2 (2',0,R,2'), S.Worrall 9 (2,3,1,3), B.Cook 8+2 (1',2',3,2), D.King 13+1 (3,2,2',3,3), A.Rowe 5+1 (2',0,3,0), D.Hume 6 (3,R,3,0)

PLYMOUTH 35 B.Pedersen 5 (1,1,1,2,0), Z.Keleher 0 (0,0,0), A.Bowtell 2+1 (0,1,1'), J.Crump 11 (3,3,XE,3,2), B.Barker 8 (2,3,2,1,0), Z.Cook 6 (1,1,2,0,0,2), D.Ruml 3+2 (0,1',1',1)

Match Report and Heat details HERE