REACTION: COMETS TAIL OFF AGAINST RAMPANT PIRATES

Sam Hagon showed the value of a strong reserve as he scooped the Rider of the Night award as the Pirates defeated the pre-meeting league leaders Workington by an emphatic margin of thirty two points.

Although there were solid contributions all round from the 'Wessex Marine' Pirates Hagon's paid thirteen from five starts caught the eye of meeting sponsors Trethowans and the delighted 19 year old put the difference between his last Wimborne Road meeting, that saw him struggle with a paid three return, down to 'better starts'.

"I think my starting tonight was, well, pretty good the whole night. It was pretty awful the other week but was better tonight. The track was definitely better tonight too. It held the moisture the whole night, in the last meeting it dried pretty quick. To be fair the track was similar to last time but I didn't really adapt to it then. I didn't change much either. I sort of made gates and that made it a lot easier, although it was a shame about the last one. I thought I was going through the fence in that one. I just took off towards it. I made an alright gate but I just cross-rutted as there were two sort of ruts and Claus (Vissing) got over me but I pretty much lowered the kerb and ran it in but just caught a bit of dirt in the wrong position and yeah that was very much it. Zach (Cook) left a big gap for me but then Claus went by. But luckily Zach has got good knowledge of the track and he got it back but it just threw me. I'm still happy with our scores though."

Tom Brennan topped the Poole scorers again, dropping just a single point. That was to former Pirate Troy Batchelor in heat twelve, by which time the outcome of the meeting was already guaranteed. Batchelor was the only visiting rider to chalk up a race win on his card and he also claimed the scalp of Richard Lawson in heat six before splitting Brennan and Lawson in the final race of the night.

Poole raced into a double figure lead within the space of the first four heats and although the Comets, making their first ever league visit to Wimborne Road, stemmed the tide for a brace of heats, the Pirates went through the gears dropping just one point between heats seven and eleven, before the visitors snatched their only heat advantage of the night, through Batchelor denying Brennan his maximum hopes.

The Pirates finished the meeting with 4-2 advantages in each of the remaining three heats to establish a 61-29 score for the second time this campaign.

They also learned that their KO Cup semi-final opponents will be the winner of the quarter final tie between Scunthorpe (36) and Berwick (54), the second leg of which is scheduled for Friday (17th May)

Scorers:
POOLE 61 ,Tom Brennan 13+1 (2',3,3,2,3) ,Sam Hagon 12+1 (3,2',3,3,1) ,Richard Lawson 11+1 (2',2,3,3,1) ,Ben Cook 9+1 (3,3,2',1) ,Zach Cook 8+1 (3,0,2',3) ,Tobias Thomsen 7+2 (3,1',2',1) ,Max Perry 1 (FD,1,RS,0)
WORKINGTON 29 ,Troy Batchelor 13 (2,3,1,3,2,2) ,Tate Zischke 5 (1,2,1,1,0) ,Claus Vissing 4 (N2,R,2,2) ,Antti Vuolas 3 (1,1,0,1) ,Celina Liebmann 2 (2,0,RS,0,RS,TS,0) ,Sam McGurk 1+1 (1',0,0,RS,0,RS) ,Craig Cook 1+1 (0,1',0,0)
 

Heat details and report 

Photo Credit: Tony Hartmann