REACTION: COOKS STEER PIRATES INTO CUP FINAL

Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates gained payback on the side that denied them Knockout Cup success last season, by eliminating Scunthorpe at the semi-final stage of this year's competition.

Nursing a large first leg advantage the Pirates had no desire to sit back on that lead and eventually ran out winners on the night by 50-40, a result that denied the Scorpions a 100% home record this term.
Apart from a handicapped ride in heat three, imposed for touching the tapes, skipper Ben Cook had a solid night unbeaten by an opponent in the four races he started off scratch and he commented afterwards "it was a bit of a silly one in my first heat when I touched the tapes but after that it was back to normal proceedings so yes, it was good for the boys as we showed what we can do here and we can get a win here. We just need to do it when it really matters in the next few weeks but everything is going good at the minute. It's quite a good racetrack here to be honest, a little bit rough but other than it was okay out there. Like I said this is a good sign as we go into the business end of the season. We visualised this as a normal meeting. We didn't want to think about only going out there and getting the thirty points that we needed to get through, we wanted to win the meeting and it is good that we were able to do that. Not everything went to our plans but to get the result shows we can do it and like I said we need to do it when it really matters."

With his brother Zach weighing in with eleven the Cook boys steered the Pirates ship to calm waters with a place in the final confirmed as early as heat nine and the second leg victory secured when Zach and guest Paul Starke avoided a race defeat in heat fourteen. It was the first home defeat for the Scunthorpe side since 22nd September 2023 when Poole beat them in the league play-offs semi-final.

Poole will now face the only side to have beaten them at home this year when they meet Oxford in the KO Cup final, after the Thames Valley side drew at Redcar to win their semi-final by 95-85.

Scorers
SCUNTHORPE 40 ,Jake Allen 9+2 (2',1',2,2,2) ,Kyle Howarth 9+1 (3,1,3,1,1') ,Simon Lambert 8+1 (3,2,1',2) ,Connor Mountain 6 (1,3,2,0) ,Michael Palm-Toft 5 (3,0,2,0) ,Ace Pijper 2 (2,R,0,0) ,Nathan Ablitt 1+1 (1',0,0,0)
POOLE 50 ,Ben Cook 11+1 (0EH,2',3,3,3) ,Zach Cook 11 (1,3,3,1,3,0) ,Tom Brennan 10 (2,2,3,3) ,Richard Lawson 9+1 (2,3,2,2') ,Tobias Thomsen 5+1 (0,3,0,1',0,1) ,Paul Starke 4+2 (R,1',1,1',1)

Full Heat details and meeting report