REACTION: PIRATES HAVE TO DIG DEEP AGAINST DARK HORSE BANDITS

After a night where patience was tested to the full with unavoidable lengthy delays littered throughout their SGB Cab Direct Championship fixture against Berwick, Poole promoter Dan Ford was quick to praise the healthy-sized half-term crowd, for sticking through the drama, which saw Berwick be reduced to five riders by the halfway point of the affair.
 

Ford said "It was a testing and trying night all round with a number of stoppages and our thoughts are very much for the welfare of Bastian (Borke) and Lewis Kerr as their respective evenings came to abrupt ends. Pure racing incidents were the cause of their crashes with neither side willing to give an inch on what was a good racing track that received positive comments amongst all the riders. Bastian's fall was particularly nasty and we wish him a very speedy recovery.
Of course, losing two riders was always going to be something of a stretch for them but we must not take anything away from our boys who really dug deep. It is very rare to see Richard have two opening rides without a first or second place finish, but once he got to the bottom of his problems he looked the true rider we have come to admire here at Poole. With Ben (Cook) and Tom (Brennan) both coming on very strong in their last three rides and Tobias enjoying a great night's racing for the team we had good all round strength. Zach looked a totally different rider after his disappointing start to heat three and young Max battled hard and thoroughly deserved his paid four score."

"Berwick made it difficult for us early on, but I did warn against that, and I am sure many will now understand why I singled them out to be a dark horse team, but we got the job done eventually and that is all you can ask really."

The drama began as early as the first race with Lewis Kerr taking a back straight fall after tangling with his partner Danyon Hume, that left him needing to withdraw from the meeting and then there was a further delay when Richard Lawson offended at the tapes and had to go off fifteen metres. Completion of that opener took nearly half an hour and although Poole claimed the heat advantage they found themselves chasing the meeting within three more heats when Berwick struck with heat advantages from heats three and four, the latter a big 5-1 from Rory Schlein and the impressive Bastian Borke. Whilst Poole levelled up the scores again in heat five through Zach Cook and Brennan, the Bandits kicked on across the next two, the seventh race also subject to a delay when Sam Hagon and Drew Kemp both took heavy falls on the first turn, causing an early interval to allow riders, bikes and the fence to all be attended to..
Then came the turning point as Borke took a very heavy fall when trying to fight back after his compatriot, Tobias Thomsen had gone by him in heat eight. With the need for a county ambulance to attend the meeting suffered another long, but necessary interruption, whilst Borke was given the best possible attention.
Once racing was able to resume all riders knuckled down into the spirit of bringing the meeting to its natural conclusion, through a string of quick fire heats, throughout which the Pirates began to get into their stride.Rapidly turning the four point deficit into six point advantage in the short space of three heats, the Pirates then went on to secure all the spoils when Ben Cook and Richard Lawson combined for a 5-1 in heat thirteen, eventually running out 52-38 winners.
Scorers:
POOLE 52 -Tom Brennan 13+1 (2,2',3,3,3) ,Ben Cook 11+1 (1,2,3,3,2') ,Tobias Thomsen 8+1 (3,2,2',1) ,Zach Cook 7+1 (0,3,2',2) ,Richard Lawson 6+1 (1EH,R,3,2') ,Sam Hagon 5 (2,0,3,0,RS) ,Max Perry 2+2 (1',0,RS,0,1')
BERWICK 38 ,Rory Schlein 13 (2,3,3,1,2,1,1) ,Drew Kemp 11 (3,1,2,2,3,0) ,Bastian Borke 6+1 (3,2',1,FD,RS) ,Jye Etheridge 5+1 (1,3,0,1',R) ,Danyon Hume 2+1 (XD,0,1,1') ,Freddy Hodder 1 (0,1,0,TS,0) ,Lewis Kerr 0 (IRR,IRR,IRR,IRR)

Photo credit Tony Hartman