REACTION: PIRATES SECURE DRAW IN ASHFIELD CLIMAX

Poole Pirates' push for top spot continued on Friday night when they collected two more league points from an enthralling draw against the Glasgow Tigers.

Ashfield Stadium has been a difficult place for visiting sides to breach and the Pirates took this affair right to the wire despite trailing in the early stages, leaving team manager Gary Havelock admitting, "this was one of those meetings you just didn't know how it was going to end. The combination strength of our three heat leaders and an excellent night's work from our guest Dillon Ruml we gave them plenty to think about. To be honest, if someone had offered us a point from this one before we came here we would have snapped it up, but the lads did really well and got the draw which they thoroughly deserved. I was really impressed with Dillon"

Two maximum heat advantages from the Tigers reserve pairing of Broc Nicol and Connor Bailey gave Glasgow  a six point lead at the halfway stage; an excellent heat six resulting in a 4-2 in Poole's favour, being the only other race not to see honours even. 

It was something special from Richard Lawson as he saw off Justin Sedgmen at the first turn whilst guest Dillon Ruml held the king of Ashfield, Craig Cook at the back for three laps. Cook then found a way by but the American stand-in for Drew Kemp, wasn't prepared to give up and snatched third place on the line.

Lawson himself was the one doing the stealing three heats later when he denied former Pirate Ben Basso victory with a superb move and chase off the final turn. This time Ruml backed up in third place and just two points separated the sides, remaining that way after Worrall inflicted another defeat on Cook in the pre-interval heat.

After the break the Pirates came out firing. Producing back to back 5-1 advantages to open up a six point lead of their own, but heat thirteen went in favour of the home pairing, Ulrich Ostergaard and Craig Cook. 
Ruml again proved an ideal choice of guest as he saw off the challenge from his compatriot Broc Nicol and managed to split the Tigers, thus taking the meeting into heat fifteen all square.

With everything to ride for it delivered a fabulous race of speedway with Cook and Lawson slugging it out for supremacy, a battle eventually won by the Tigers number one. But with partner Ostergaard packing up, when fourth, the heat was shared, meeting drawn and Pirates clawing a league point back on their opponents.

GLASGOW 45 ,Craig Cook 10+1 (3,0,2,2',3) ,Broc Nicol 7 (3,3,0,1) ,Ben Basso 7 (2,2,2,1) ,Connor Bailey 6+2 (2',2,2',0,0) ,Danyon Hume 5+2 (1',1',0,3) ,Ulrich Ostergaard 5+1 (1',XE,1,3,R) ,Justin Sedgmen 5+1 (R,2,2,1') 
POOLE 45 ,Steve Worrall 11+1 (3,1,3,3,1') ,Richard Lawson 11 (3,3,3,0,2) ,Danny King 9 (2,3,3,1) ,Dillon Ruml 8+2 (1,1',1,1,2',2) ,Zach Cook 6+2 (1',0,3,2') ,Nathan Ablitt 0 (0,0,RS,0) ,Ben Cook 0 (0,0,0,RS)

Heat details here