REACTION: SUPERHEAT HISTORY AT WIMBORNE ROAD AS PIRATES RETAIN UNBEATEN TAG

Wimborne Road hosted its very first Super Heat to determine the winners of the Poole Wessex Marine Pirates first play-off group fixture of 2023 after being held to a 45-45 draw over the regular fifteen heats. 
 

Under the scoring convention introduced this season, no meeting can finish in a draw, so when the scores are level after fifteen heats a one-off Super Heat is staged with the scoring of 4-3-2-0 to guarantee a winner, and in that very race against the Scunthorpe Scorpions, Richard Lawson and Steve Worrall managed to finish either side of top performer Ryan Douglas, a veteran of a six ride maximum earlier in the season, to give the Pirates an all-important second point, whilst Scunthorpe earn a single point from the result.

Having twice lowered Douglas' colours, Poole's number one Richard Lawson admitted afterwards "It was a very tough meeting tonight we all tried really hard, we nearly threw that away going to in heat fifteen but we came through it and really we know that we will now have to go to Scunthorpe and win like we did before. It is certainly looking like the winner of that meeting will be topping the table, but that is not to write Edinburgh off of course. We all like the track there at Scunthorpe and whilst we haven't got the lead that we wanted to take we can still claim that we are unbeaten at home. We are the Pirates and we have come from worse. But first we need to focus on our meeting next week. I think we will have the track a little bit different for that one. It wasn't altogether to our liking tonight but that is no excuse, it is the same for all fourteen riders, but we got a bit caught out. We won't be complacent next week that's for sure as Edinburgh could come and surprise us but we will use this win tonight to carry through some momentum."

The Pirates suffered an early meeting scare when Ben Cook took a heavy fall in heat three and whilst he was able to battle on for the remainder of the meeting, including winning the re-run of the very heat in which he was 'beaten up' he is reported to be feeling very 'second hand' admitting "I wish I was feeling a lot better. I took a big hit to the back and the side and it is pretty painful right now so we'll just have to see how it goes" Echoing the thoughts of Lawson, Cook added "it was tough out there tonight and all the boys wanted a few more points each but that was all we could do tonight so we will just have to take it from here."
Poole did establish a six point advantage after coming from behind and in doing so presented Scunthorpe team manager Rob Godfrey with the chance to introduce Ryan Douglas as a tactical substitute, a move that in the pre-meeting warm up he had told Poole promoter Dan Ford that he wouldn't have to be using his top man for an extra ride as they wouldn't be behind. Whilst Douglas' tactical substitute ride in heat nine was countered by Richard Lawson inflicting the Australian's first Wimborne Road defeat in nine starts, the Scorpion's number one was back to winning ways in heat ten when he and skipper Simon Lambert claimed a valuable 4-2 over Steve Worrall and Kyle Newman, to reduce the deficit to four points. That margin was cleared when Drew Kemp and Jake Allen claimed maximum points in heat fourteen, a race that was preceded by much debate over Kemp's eligibility. With heat fifteen then being shared, thanks to another Douglas win that piece of history was etched into the journals with that 6-3 advantage super heat.

POOLE 45+6 Richard Lawson 10+2 (2,2',3,2,1'), Steve Worrall 11+1 (3,3,2,1',2) ,Ben Cook 8 (3,1,1,3) ,Anders Rowe 6+1 (1',3,2,0) ,Kyle Newman 5+1 (2,1,1',0,1) ,Zach Cook 5+1 (2',0,3,0) ,Joe Thompson 0 (0,0,RS,0)

SCUNTHORPE 45+3 ,Ryan Douglas 17 (3,3,2,3,3,3) ,Drew Kemp 13+2 (3,2,RS,3,2,1',2') ,Jake Allen 7+1 (1,2,1',3,0) ,Simon Lambert 3+1 (0,2',0,1) ,Michael Palm-Toft 2+1 (1',1,0,RS) ,Connor Mountain 2 (0,0,TS,2) ,Nathan Ablitt 1 (1,XE,0,RS,0,RS)
Super Heat: R.Lawson 4 R.Douglas 3 S.Worrall 2 D.Kemp 0