REACTION: PIRATES MADE TO WORK BEFORE MOVING SECOND

A hard-earned victory over basement side Stellar Edinburgh Monarchs allowed the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates to move into second place in the SGB Championship table, as they ran out 50-40 victors at Wimborne Road on Wednesday night.

There was little to choose between the two sides despite the Pirates reeling off three consecutive 4-2 advantages to open up with, as a string of shared heats kept the visitors always in striking distance.
That strike was made a little harder for the Scottish side as their number one, Josh Pickering, such a naturally good scorer, struggled to put any points on the card in his first two rides. That was in contrast to their number five, Justin Sedgmen, who looked imperious as he went unbeaten in his programmed rides, missing out on a maximum by Poole's own point machine Richard Lawson, who was mightily relieved to collect only his second race win on a tough night.
"I finally got him (Sedgmen). He was riding so well, fair play to him, he had so much speed and was riding good lines so I, er, said to Tom (Brennan) whatever happens we can not let him get a maximum. No-one comes here and gets maximums. He rode me pretty hard and I hope you guys [the crowd] enjoyed it as much as I did. We've got a ten point lead to take there in the return and if you had offered me a ten point lead at the interval I would have taken that as they made things hard for us. So, we went there with a nine point lead, I think it was, in the cup, and we defended that and we can ride Edinburgh well so hopefully we can bring something back."
Poole had kept last places off their account for the first six heats, although they were a little fortunate in heat four when Monarchs' number seven Connor Coles suffered machine problems on the final lap letting in Poole's guest, Max Perry, in for a heat share, and so it came as a bit of surprise when Sam Hagon was the first Pirate to fail to score in a heat, when he ran a last place in heat seven.
Back from injury Tobias Thomsen then took a very heavy fall, from which, remarkably, he was able to walk away from, in heat eight, but Hagon came to the fore in the re-run to produce a stunning victory. The Monarchs then banked their only heat advantage of the night, but that took the tactical efforts of an improving Josh Pickering to pair up with Sedgmen in heat nine, although Ben Cook gallantly mitigated the damage by splitting his fellow compatriots.
It was the Poole skipper who masterminded the Pirates' next heat advantage, with Max Perry having picked himself up from a nasty looking fall on the home straight after being pushed wide by Max James, having the crowd cheering loudly, in the re-run, as he tried to find a line under Lasse Fredriksen on the opening lap. But that restored a six point lead and with a brace of 4-2 advantages to close out the entertaining meeting with the double-figure point deficit, did not do the battling Monarchs justice.
Scorers:
POOLE 50 - Richard Lawson 12 (3,2,2,2,3) ,Tom Brennan 10+1 (2,3,3,1',1) ,Zach Cook 8 (3,2,0,3) ,Ben Cook 7+1 (1,1',2,3) ,Sam Hagon 7 (3,0,3,0,1) ,Tobias Thomsen 3+2 (1,1',FD,1') ,Max Perry 3+1 (1,1',RS,1)
EDINBURGH 40 - Justin Sedgmen 14 (3,3,3,3,2) ,Michele Castagna 9 (2,2,3,2,0) ,Kye Thomson 8+1 (2,3,2,1') ,Connor Coles 3+1 (2,0,1',0) ,Lasse Fredriksen 3+1 (0,1',0,2) ,Josh Pickering 3 (0,0,1,2,0) ,Max James 0 (0,0,TS,X0)