REACTION: PIRATES GAIN THIRD DRAW OF SEASON DESPITE KING PUNCTURE

Poole Pirates rode two slices of fortune in a dramatic heat fifteen to salvage a draw from their last away match of their 2022 SGB Championship league campaign at Berwick on Saturday night.
 

Still rueing from their failure to get some reward at Edinburgh twenty four hours earlier, the Pirates edged ahead after twelve heats but then soon found themselves staring defeat down the barrel as the Bandits reduced the lead to two points before going four clear themselves with respective heat advantages of 4-2 and 5-1 in thirteen and fourteen. 

Danny King and Richard Lawson came to tapes to face the unbeaten Chris Harris and double figure scorer Ricky Wells, needing to avoid a back-to-back 5-1 loss to guarantee a point, whilst a 5-1 in the Pirates favour would secure their seventeenth away point and third draw of the season . 

The start was called back with King being issued a warning, as referee Willie Dishington sensed early movement from the Poole skipper and as the red lights came on, Harris' first bike came to a sudden stop. Unable to fix it within the time limit the former Pirate jumped on his trusty substitute machine and soon got clear of the two Pirates. 
But, then the drama unfolded as King describes "I actually messed up a bit in the re-start as I caught Richard up too much mid-corner so had to come off the gas and I could hear Bomber coming. You know when he's coming, he is coming! So I tucked in and tried to repay the move. Obviously I did get underneath him, but his bike gave up at the same time I think. Then I got lucky myself because I got a puncture on the last bend, so it was all happening!"

With Lawson following King home the Pirates had seized the draw to keep their hopes of finishing second in the table still alive, as they now face three home meetings to complete their league programme.

BERWICK 45 ,Chris Harris 11+1 (3,2',3,3,0) ,Ricky Wells 11 (2,3,2,3,1) ,Theo Pijper 6+1 (2',3,1,0) ,Leon Flint 6 (2,2,1,1) ,Jye Etheridge 5+2 (1',1,1',2) ,Jonas Knudsen 4+1 (2,0,0,2') ,Nathan Stoneman 2+2 (1',1',0,FD) 
POOLE 45 ,Danny King 13+1 (3,3,2,3,2') ,Richard Lawson 10 (3,1,3,0,3) ,Steve Worrall 9 (1,2,1,3,2) ,Ben Cook 7 (3,0,3,0,1) ,Drew Kemp 4+2 (0,0,2',2') ,Zach Cook 2 (0,TS,1,1) ,Nathan Ablitt 0 (F,0,RS,0)

Match report and heat details