BRILLIANT BOMBER MAKES MIDDLO'S NIGHT MEMORABLE

Off-track the night belonged to Neil Middleditch but on-track it was his long-time nemesis Chris Harris who stole the show with a brilliant display of racing as he stormed to a six-ride maximum that helped the Meridian Lifts Heroes prevail over the County Crest All Stars. 
 

The victorious side were reduced to six fit men after Hans Andersen suffered a horrible looking fall in heat seven which forced him to sit out the remainder of the meeting. The 'Heroes' were trailing by two points going into that seventh heat but remarkably they didn't concede a heat in the last nine races, steadily building a winning score of 51-39, with the All Stars top scorer being another popular Wimborne Road visitor, Scott Nicholls. 

An emotional Middleditch admitted he couldn't find the words to truly express his gratitude to the large number of fans that had turned out for the meeting, which included a cavalcade of some of Middlo's former riding team-mates of the seventies and eighties, and characters that he has had dealings with since taking on the Poole manager's role back in 1999, together with a special lap of honour from three former World Champions who have become heroes at Wimborne Road over the years – Mark Loram, Tony Rickardsson and Gary Havelock – the former and latter both taking on managerial roles for this meeting. 

Harris, reacting to his perfect haul performance said "Yeah that was a good one, it's a pity I couldn't do that last week" referring to the Championship League Riders title, a competition he has yet to win. "It was nice to be here to honour Middlo, the good friend that he has become over the years and I enjoyed it out there tonight. I just hope that Hans will be ok as he suffered a pretty heavy crash and I wish him all the best." 

The racing was interspersed with video messages from former Pirates Darcy Ward, Dave Watt, Bjarne Pedersen Krzysztof Cegielski and Kacper Woryna but by far the biggest surprise for Middleditch was the live appearance of Matt and Helen Ford who had been disguised as the club's mascots Magic the Mouse and Darcy Bear and presented him with a splendid piece of glassware to commemorate Middlo's special night. 

County Crest All Stars 39 ,Scott Nicholls 12 (3,2,3,2,2) ,Jack Holder 7+2 (2,3,1',0,1') ,Ben Cook 7 (3,1,1,2) ,Richard Lawson 4+1 (1',1,R,2) ,Frederik Jakobsen 4+1 (0,2',0,2) ,Paul Starke 4 (2,0,2,0) ,Kyle Newman 1 (1,0,0,0)