REACTION: PIRATES PROGRESS AFTER PRODUCTIVE PILGRIMAGE TO PLYMOUTH

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates sealed their place in the BSN Series semi-finals by not only securing the thirty three race points they needed to ensure they topped the Southern Group, but came away with a fine four point victory (47-43) under their belts, a delightful outcome for team manager Neil Middleditch.
 

"Yes that was a job well done" admitted a smiling Middlo whilst his charges were out on their victory parade, acknowledging a good number of their travelling fans. "It was all good wasn't it. A bit eventful with one thing or another but there are always fireworks between Plymouth and Poole, which is good for the interest of the crowd, but we got the job done and that was the main thing."

"We came here wanting to win. Yes, we knew we would be through if we hit thirty three but you have to go out with the mindset of wanting to win and you can't take things easy on this track. Small tracks are very hard to ride, you have to ride them harder than the big tracks, but we applied ourselves well. We wanted to win and we got it. "We saw some good stuff from Tobias tonight. First time at the track and he was a bit tentative the first time out but then he really got going and was really attacking it, and that is how you ride Plymouth. Poor Ben had his bike wrecked in that heat thirteen incident which was a big shame because he was having a real good night and then it was a silly accident, when he lost it like he did, (looping out of the start) and these bikes don't tend to bounce very well, and when they do bounce they bend as well!"

Captain Cook had dropped just one point in his first three rides and then took a nasty looking fall as he came off the back of his rearing machine as he left the tapes at the start of heat thirteen. Ironically, the race was being stopped at the time, because there had been prior movement at the start, and so he, and Ben Barker who also took a heavy plunge into the air barrier on the first turn, were welcomed back for the re-run.

Although the Poole skipper jumped on his brother's bike he arrived at the tapes with no time remaining and thus earned a time-allowance disqualification. Deputising for him was the ever-improving Tobias Thomsen and a ruthless move coming out the first bend secured a paid win behind Richard Lawson that put the Pirates ahead on the night for the first time. With two shared heats to finish with, the Dorset side protected that advantage and join Edinburgh, Workington and Scunthorpe in the semi-final knockout stages.

PLYMOUTH 43 Dan Thompson 13 (2,3,2,2,2,2) ,Ben Barker 12+1 (2,3,3,2,1,1') ,Joe Thompson 8+1 (3,1,1',0,RS,0,3) ,Alfie Bowtell 6+2 (1',1',2,2,0) ,Jacob Hook 4+2 (1,1,1',1',RS) ,Jason Garrod 0 (0,0,RS,R) POOLE 47 ,Richard Lawson 14 (3,2,3,3,3) ,Tobias Thomsen 8+2 (2,0,N2,3,2',1') ,Ben Cook 8 (2,3,3,N2) ,Zach Cook 7 (3,2,1,1) ,Tom Brennan 6 (1,0,3,2,R) ,Sam Hagon 4+1 (0,1',3,0) ,Max Perry 0 (0,0,0,0,RS)