PIRATES REFUSE RAIN TO RUIN THEIR PARADE

The Pirates beat the weather and track conditions to move back into second place in the table with a convincing 55-34 victory over Redcar in front of a packed Wimborne Road stadium with the club sending a simple "Poole Needs Speedway" message to a specially invited delegation from the BCP Council. 
 

The result puts them on the threshold of an automatic place in the play-off semi-finals, as their occupancy of that second place is now dependent on how Glasgow fare in their final two fixtures. Two points separate the two sides, with the Scottish club to ride at Redcar (Sunday) and Plymouth (Tuesday).

A non-forecasted downpour around 6pm forced the start time of the meeting to be pushed back, and with a great effort from the track staff racing with just about an hour's delay, with many of those in attendance getting their first taste of speedway by taking advantage of the Pirates Summer Special Offer, and once racing did get under way the Pirates produced a solid performance, despite losing the services of their number one Steve Worrall, with an aggravated shoulder injury after he took a spectacular first turn fall in his second ride. 

But with Danny King, Ben Cook and Richard Lawson all unbeaten prior to their final programmed rides and ultimately all returning scores of 12+2, the Pirates were just far too strong for the Bears who were heavily reliant on former Pirate Lewis Kerr throughout. 
Lawson summarised the evening by saying "The starts were important tonight, so fortunately we were on top of that and the track rode very well. Obviously they did a lot of work on it considering how much rain came down. As it happened, there was a fine line out there that you needed to find. If you rode too tight then it was just too greasy and if you went out wide it was just sloppy, but somewhere in between, if you were on that fine line, then you could get quite a lot of traction from it, and I think that was why there were a number of decent times recorded tonight despite the conditions. We were unlucky to lose Stevie tonight but with the extra ride I was able to use his tyre and if you can get a fresh edge halfway through the meeting then it gives you a little bit of an advantage and, I would just like to say fair play to Steve's mechanic for mucking in and helping the rest of us out once Steve had to sit most of the meeting out. The extra pair of hands helps especially when you have got two rides on the bounce, so even though Steve bowed out, he still had a part to play in the team's performance. We will now have to wait and see if we have done enough."

Lawson's dropped point came at the hands of Kerr in a blistering heat thirteen, as Lawson sneaked through a gap at the first turn that was barely there, but Kerr had the better run around the second turn to end the maximum aspirations of both Lawson and Poole skipper King. For Ben Cook it was yet another fine performace and his dropped points came when Redcar debutant Kyle Newman, well known to the Poole faithful, ended his own evening with a heat fourteen race win.

POOLE 55 ,Richard Lawson 12+2 (3,2',3,3,1') ,Ben Cook 12+2 (2',3,3,1',3) ,Danny King 12+2 (3,2',2',3,2) ,Zach Cook 10 (3,3,2,0,2) ,Drew Kemp 5+1 (0,2,0,2',1) ,Steve Worrall 3 (3,FD,NS,NS) ,Nathan Ablitt 1 (0,0,RS,1)
REDCAR 34 ,Lewis Kerr 12 (2,3,0,2,3,2) ,Charles Wright 8+1 (2,1,3,1,1',0) ,Kyle Newman 6+1 (1',0,RS,TS,2,3) ,Jordan Jenkins 4+1 (2,1',F,1,NS) ,Jason Edwards 3+1 (1',1,0,1,0,0) ,Kasper Andersen 1 (0,1,0,0)

Heat details and report