REACTION: PIRATES COOK UP TABLE TOPPING PERFORMANCE

The Wessex Marine Pirates wasted little time attaining their goal of moving back to the top of the SGB Cab Direct Championship table on Wednesday night, collecting the bonus point against Birmingham as early as heat eight, and then securing victory on the evening with four heats to spare, with Dan Ford stepping into the breach as team manager.
 

The big hitting Pirates went into the interval, taken after eleven heats, leading 44-22 having provided eight race winners in that spell and converting all those wins into heat advantages, with the Cook brothers banking three maximum heat scores, in each of their rides. Elder sibling Ben went on to complete his night with two more victories to secure a full maximum whilst Zach narrowly missed out when he ran a last place in heat fifteen.
 
Whilst Ben was obviously exuberant with his full house, 'bridesmaid' Zach explained "It was a good night but a bit disappointing to end the way it did for me. I had two starts in heat fourteen and then straight out again in heat fifteen and the clutches get a bit hot when they are doing so much so close to each other and I just suffered a burnt out clutch and it just didn’t go out of the start. Then it was probably down to a bit of over trying and I got a bit loose but managed to stay on at least, but that cost me.”
“I feel as though I have been making things a bit hard for myself over the last few weeks by not making the starts the way I had liked but it is good when things work and everyone moves out the way when you want to come through."

Zach certainly worked hard round the first turns,especially, in all his outings and his partnership with Ben have been the source of some rich pickings for the Pirates this term. Arguably the most clinical move came in heat nine when the two brothers went either side of fellow Australian Justin Sedgmen to set up their third, and the team's fifth maximum heat advantage of the night.
 
The win puts Poole two points ahead of Oxford with the Pirates heading for Edinburgh next Wednesday when there will be three points available should they manage to extend their unbeaten run to eight matches. That would leave Oxford needing to win at Glasgow to deny Poole the choice of play-off group opposition.
 
POOLE 57 ,Ben Cook 15 (3,3,3,3,3) ,Anders Rowe 9 (3,1,2,3) ,Richard Lawson 9 (3,3,2,1) ,Zach Cook 8+4 (2',2',2',2',0) ,Steve Worrall 6+1 (2,3,1',0) ,Joe Thompson 5+2 (2',0,2',1) ,Kyle Newman 5 (1,1,3,0)
BIRMINGHAM 33  Justin Sedgmen 14 (3,2,1,3,3,2) ,Troy Batchelor 9+1 (1,2,3,2,1') ,Josh Pickering 5+1 (2,1,0,2') ,Paul Starke 3 (0,1,1,1) ,Sam Hagon 1 (1,0,0,0) ,Alfie Bowtell 1 (0,0,1,FD) ,Stefan Nielsen 0 (0,0,0,TS)