REACTION: KEMP PROVES TO BE A BIG DRAW AS PIRATES CRUISE INTO SEMI FINALS

Poole reserve Drew Kemp made an instant impact on his first official competitive home match for the Pirates, scooping the Rider of the Night Award  in recognition of his performance on his way to a ten point haul as the Pirates cruised into the semi-finals of the Knockout Cup.

The Pirates weighed in with a 58-32 second leg triumph for an aggregate 106-74 win over the Plymouth Gladiators,  Kemp gaining two race wins and two second places in the process. 

The 19 year old was delighted to collect the award from meeting sponsors Meridian Lifts, admitting "it has been a good start to the year for me and hopefully I can keep it going. It is good to be here at Poole and the lads are all offering great support and advice. If I am honest I think that is something that I may have been lacking in the past few years . I've agreed in the past to go to teams where I thought I would not necessarily enjoy it there but felt I needed to because I thought it would help me become a better rider, but that has not always worked out. Here at Poole it is good, and it is important to me to have the experienced guys around to give me support and advice. Both Middlo and Havvy have raced speedway and they know what it is all about so I can only see coming to Poole as being a very positive thing."

Holding a six point lead from the first leg the Pirates refused to allow Plymouth to get close to them as far as the aggregate position was concerned, even though guest Chris Harris, deputising for Edward Kennett who was injured the night before, set the Gladiators on their way with an opening 4-2. 

But Kemp cruised to an easy heat two victory that had his team-mate Nathan Ablitt only just losing out in exchanges with Dan Gilkes, but picking up a valuable point, to level the meeting.

Denying the visitors any further heat advantages, the Pirates effectively put the tie to bed with a mid-meeting spell that saw them drop just one point across five heats from heat six and even though Harris collected his third race win in as many starts in heat eleven the Pirates edged themselves over the line with Kemp and Ablitt filling the minor places. 

POOLE 58 (106) ,R.Lawson 14 (3,2,3,3,3) ,S.Worrall 11+2 (2,3,3,1',2') ,D.Kemp 10 (3,3,2,2) ,Z.Cook 7+2 (0,2',3,2') ,B.Cook 6+4 (2',1',2',1') ,D.King 6+1 (2,2',XE,2) ,N.Ablitt  4+2 (1,1',1,1',0)
PLYMOUTH 32 (74) ,C.Harris 13 (3,3,3,3,1) ,H.Andersen 5 (3,1,1,0) ,M.Palm-Toft 5 (0,1,1,3,0) ,A.Bowtell 3 (1,0,0,2) ,B.Barker 3 (1,0,2,R) ,D.Gilkes 2 (2,XD,NS,0,X0,NS,0) ,H.Atkins 1+1 (0,NS,0,NS,0,1',NS)

Full meeting report here