REACTION: LEAGUE POINTS ON THE BOARD FROM THE BORDERS

Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates made it a near perfect mini-Northern tour by picking up a victory in their first league meeting of the season, but suffered the withdrawal of Zach Cook with a hip injury, as they beat the Berwick Bandits by a 46-44 scoreline.

The meeting went down to the wire with both sides using the tactical substitute option at some stage in the affair and the hosts needed to secure a heat 15 maximum to take the meeting into an all-deciding super heat. But Shielfield Park regular, Richard Lawson showed great character and track craft to split Bandits' guest Josh Pickering and former Pirate Rory Schlein to send the league points southwards.

A relieved but jubilant Lawson claimed "it was a bad start from very much all of us but, yeah, we pulled through. Lost Zach early and it was backs against the wall time and we came through. Everyone dug deep and there were great times from everyone so, yep ,last heat decider and it is nice when it goes that way but it was tough. There wasn't much room there in heat fifteen and there was really only one option and I took it and to be fair to Schleiny he rode me very hard but it was fair so, yeah, it takes two to make for a good race. This is a track you can ride hard on, for sure, but against the right opponent. It can be sketchy but when there is good fair racing it is good. It's fantastic to get off with a good opening league win. We all said that this would be a really difficult meeting. They are a really good side and especially here at their track so we sent out a good marker there. Dan (Ford) said it would be good to end the weekend still in the cup and with league points on the table so job done eh!"

Just as they had done the previous evening at Edinburgh, Poole started slowly and were reduced to just six men after Zach Cook ran out too wide as teammate Tom Brennan produced a last lap blast in heat three, and in hitting the air barrier, Cook's handlebars stabbed him in the hip, causing considerable discomfort. A heat later Berwick collected their third maximum heat advantage in the space of the opening four heats, before Tobias Thomsen and Lawson, the latter having allowed his partner through off the final turn, settled the nerves somewhat with a maximum of their own, which was immediately followed by a 4-2 from Sam Hagon, who put in a very impressive paid twelve return, and captain Ben Cook. Hagon then partnered Brennan to another 4-2 in heat seven but a dramatic end to a tactically fought out heat eight saw Bastian Borke blast between Tobias Thomsen and the rider he was trying to nurse home, Max Perry.

Poole then deployed their tactical substitute, Lawson being backed up by Cook before Brennan and Hagon followed suit in heat ten to edge Poole ahead by two. After Lawson and Cook further extended Poole's lead to six, Cook being defiant under intense pressure from Pickering in heat thirteen, the rare sight of a full change of line-up being announced for heat fourteen with Berwick using their tactical option and a reserve switch, whilst Poole were using the Immediate Rider Replacement (IRR) facility for Cook and drafted in Hagon as their reserve switch. Hagon nearly got by Pickering down the back straight but had to settle for a vital second place in the end, to take it into that all important heat fifteen and match winning move from Lawson.

Scorers
Berwick 44 ,Josh Pickering 12+1 (2',2,1,1,3,3) ,Bastian Borke 8+3 (2,2',2',1',1) ,Rory Schlein 7+1 (3,2,1',0,1) ,Jye Etheridge 7 (3,1,1,2) ,Danyon Hume 6 (3,0,3,0) ,Drew Kemp 2+1 (2',0,0,TS) ,Freddy Hodder 2 (0,0,2,RS) POOLE 46 ,Richard Lawson 14+1 (1,2',3,3,3,2) ,Sam Hagon 11+1 (3,3,1,TS,2',0,2) ,Tom Brennan 10 (1,3,3,3,0) ,Ben Cook 6+2 (1,1,2',2') ,Tobias Thomsen 4 (0,3,1,0,0) ,Max Perry 1 (1,0,0,RS) ,Zach Cook 0 (F,IRR,IRR,IRR)