REACTION: PIRATES LOSE OUT IN SUPER HEAT DRAMA

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates moved to the top of the CAB Direct Championship table by gaining a league point at the Oxford Stadium, although suffered the disappointment of not seeing that converted into two points, after the meeting went to a SuperHeat decider.

Dan Ford, who like many of those watching the action from the pits or the terraces was treated to an enthralling meeting, admitted "naturally we are disappointed with the final result, but however, on reflection, I think we can take some heart in the fact that we pushed Oxford so hard on their own turf. I have already said before how strong they are, particularly at home, and I think come the end of the season they will certainly be up there in the play-off positions. Everyone in attendance was treated to a fantastic back and forth fixture which is always what we want as a sport, tough tight contests, and that is certainly what we got, and I think we have put ourselves in a decent position for the return fixture at Wimborne Road and the aggregate bonus point."
The Pirates trailed in the early stages of the match, which saw them without Tobias Thomsen, who is out with a foot injury, but they refused to allow Oxford to build too big an advantage and with Sam Hagon getting well dialled into the track, the Pirates were able to utilise his knowledge of his former circuit to good purpose and when he and skipper Ben Cook struck with a heat nine maximum advantage, the Pirates had levelled the scores at 27-a piece. After the sharp pace of Sam Masters came to the fore once again, as it had all evening, in heat ten, leaving Tom Brennan and Zach Cook to settle for a shared heat, the Pirates kicked on through a brace of 4-2 advantages, Hagon involved in both, and in the first of them Richard Lawson incurred the wrath of the home support when he rode Ashton Boughen wide coming off the fourth turn in heat eleven
But the experience of Scott Nicholls, and that pace of Masters shone through in heat thirteen to square the meeting up with just two programmed heats to contest. A fall for Cameron Heeps in heat fourteen might well have proved costly for the home side as Zach Cook had been soaking up the pressure from his fellow Aussie when the incident, which resulted in his machine jettisoning across to the inside of the track and collecting the pursuing Vinnie Foord. But in the three man rerun it was Boughen who delighted the partisan home fans and took the win to maintain parity in the scores.
Masters was able to break free from the hard-chasing Lawson to set up the heat fifteen race win and as the race was running to its conclusion it seemed as if Nicholls might just edge his way by Brennan, but the Poole youngster had no respect for age and held on to send the contest into a super heat to determine the meeting winner, both sides picking up at least one league point, however.
In a repeat casting of heat fifteen there was a dramatic start to the superheat with Brennan committing himself to an inside move at turn two that resulted in contact with Masters who went down, as Lawson led. All four riders were invited back and it was Masters who this time managed to get away. With the 4-3-2-0 scoring pattern for this bonus heat in operation, the Pirates just needed to try and keep Nicholls behind them, but his move to the outside was astute enough to give him the drive to go through and join his team mate to give the Cheetahs the extra point.
Scorers
OXFORD 45 - Sam Masters 14+1 (3,3,3,2',3), Scott Nicholls 11(3,3,2,3,0), Jacob Hook 5+1 (3,1,1',0), Jordan Jenkins 4+1 (0,1',1,2), Ashton Boughen 4 (1,0,R,3), Cameron Heeps 4 (2,2,0,FD), Luke Killeen 3 (1,0,2,0)
POOLE 45 -,Sam Hagon 12 (2,2,3,3,1,1), Richard Lawson 11 (2,3,3,1,2), Tom Brennan 9+1 (1,2,2,3,1'), Ben Cook 5+2 (2,1',2',0), Zach Cook 7+2 (3,1',1',2), Vinnie Foord 1+1 (0,FD,RS,1') ,Joe Thompson 0 (0,0,0,RS)

Full heat details and Match report

Photo credit Steve Edmunds