REACTION: PIRATES INFLICT MORE MISERY ON PERRY BARR HOSTS

Poole 'Wessex  Marine' Pirates gained league ground on second-place Glasgow, following the Dorset side's emphatic win at Birmingham, whilst the Tigers were losing their one-hundred percent league record down at Oxford, just as the Pirates had done earlier in the season.
 

The magnitude of Poole's success, beating Birmingham 54-36 came as something of a surprise to many, with the new-look Richard Lawson admitting "That was a good night's work. I enjoyed that. A big score and you know, I thought it was going to be a lot tougher than it was. We all know how good Danny [King, who was guesting for the Brummies] can be and we got on top of him very quickly and, yeah, we went on from there. This is a track I like and enjoy racing here, plus it is only an hour from home for me!"

Sporting a new haircut, Lawson claimed "It has been getting a bit hot so we had a little summer clip out and it seems to be going good so far, we can now look forward to Glasgow on Friday, There are plenty of expectations on us to bring the trophy home which we should, but we will go there determined as ever, no different really, and try and win the meeting outright. We are in good form and we have a lot of confidence but we know that Glasgow will be well up for it but they do have a lot to do. There is a trophy on the end of this one so we just need to go out there, be sensible, no zeroes and we are there."

Lawson, partnered with Anders Rowe, got the Pirates off to the perfect start at Perry Barr with a 5-1 and with reserves  Adam Roynon and Kyle Newman following suit in heat two it began to look a bit one-sided. In truth, that is how it panned out, with Poole securing nine heat advantages and  sharing three heats and all seven riders recording at least one race win or paid win and across the team running just four last places, to secure a result that puts them in the driving seat for the aggregate bonus point when they host Birmingham next Wednesday.

BIRMINGHAM 36 - Troy Batchelor 10 (2,2,2,1,3) ,Danny King 7+1 (1,1,0,3,2') ,Justin Sedgmen 6 (3,0,1,2,0) ,Stefan Nielsen 5+1 (0,TS,2',3) ,Alfie Bowtell 4 (0,1,3,FD,0) ,Sam Hagon 3 (1,0,0,2) ,Paul Starke 1+1 (R,0,RS,1')
,POOLE 54  - Richard Lawson 11 (3,3,3,2) ,Ben Cook 10+2 (3,3,1',2',1) ,Steve Worrall 9+1 (2,3,3,1') ,Kyle Newman 8+2 (2',2',1,3,0) ,Zach Cook 8+1 (1,2',2,3) ,Anders Rowe 5+1 (2',1,1,1) ,Adam Roynon 3 (3,0,0,0)
Photo Paul Rose

Full report and heat details