REACTION: SKIPPER'S FULL HOUSE AS PIRATES MAKE A PIECE OF HISTORY

Poole Pirates wrote a small piece of history on Tuesday night as they became the first club to win away from home in the newly launched SGB Championship Jubilee League competition when they comprehensively defeated the injury-ravaged Plymouth Gladiators at the Coliseum.

The 51-39 Pirate triumph saw Danny King bank his first Pirate maximum of the season, and his first since September 2021, and the skipper expressed his relief at having gone through the card "It just feels great. It has been a stressful time for me at times this season but now I have got some new engines I really feel like I'm back to where I should be."

King was inspirationally good, especially as the track caused a multitude of problems during the first half of the meeting,  when the red lights became the focal point of the match. King himself couldn't avoid the problems as he was brought down in heat three when Gladiators guest Lewis Kerr attempted a second lap first turn pass.

Such were the track conditions,  Plymouth promoter Mark Phillips offered up a heartfelt apology to the crowd as he explained that "the weather conditions made things really difficult in getting the track prepared well" but magnanimously admitting "fair play to the Poole team, they attacked it better than we did", before promising to "dig the track up and re-lay it before our next meeting."

Plymouth fans were jubilant in the opening heat after Steve Worrall had been disqualified in the first of those many red light illuminations and in the re-run both Alfie Bowtell and Ben Barker passed three-lap leader Drew Kemp to give the hosts the perfect start.

But the Pirates hit back with their first maximum advantage this season from the reserves heat, again after a restart. 

Such were the delays, Richard Lawson's first appearance (heat 4) came some 45 minutes after the meeting started, and even that required a restart after Ben Morley brought down the flourishing Nathan Ablitt, who is beginning to get some reward for his concerted efforts. And yet, there were still more race stoppages to follow, which made the meeting a very stop start affair.

Poole's dominance though even saw them negate a tactical substitution by the Gladiators as the home side tried to make it a fruitless night for Steve Worrall,  but he had the last laugh, leading home Ben Barker and his own brother, Richie in heat eleven. 
Two heats later, not only had King completed his maximum (heat 12) but Worrall and Lawson had delivered the match winning 5-1, with the full four point league quota being secured when Zach Cook and Ablitt shared heat fourteen. 

The Pirates now face their penultimate SGBC league fixture on Wednesday knowing that nothing other than a victory will make their chances of securing  overall second place a possibility. They meet Scunthorpe, a side who themselves need a points return to boost their hopes of making the top six.

PLYMOUTH 39 ,Richie Worrall 11+1 (3,1,2,1',1,3) ,Lewis Kerr 9+1 (X0,2,0,2,3,2') ,Ben Barker 9+1 (2',3,2,2,0) ,Alfie Bowtell 8+1 (3,2,0,2,1') ,Ben Morley 2 (1,1,FD,0,RS,0) ,Harry McGurk 0 (0,0,TS,0,RS) ,POOLE 51 ,Danny King 12 (3,3,3,3) ,Richard Lawson 10+1 (2,2,3,2',1) ,Ben Cook 7+1 (3,1',1,1,1) ,Drew Kemp 7 (1,3,3,0) ,Steve Worrall 7 (FD,1,3,3,0) ,Zach Cook 5+1 (1,2',0,2) ,Nathan Ablitt 3+2 (2',0,RS,1')

Heat Details and Match Report