REACTION - PIRATES MOVE BACK TO TOP OF GROUP TABLE WITH CONVINCING HOME START TO SEASON

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates came from an early four point deficit to post a 58-32 winning score over Devonshire neighbours Plymouth, to get their home campaign off to a perfect start.

The Pirates returned to the top of the BSN Series Southern group section with the victory, enhancing their hopes of qualifying for a fourth successive season to the knockout stages of the competition.
Skipper Zach Cook impressed with a superb paid maximum, including his traditional heat fourteen victory and, for the second time this season, a 5-1 with Richard Lawson in heat fifteen. It was a performance that earned him the Rider of the Night and a reaction admitting "It was great to get the Rider of the Night at last. I was making the starts and yeah things were working on the bike and you get confidence from winning races, so yeah all good really."
Poole found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-1 in heat two but with eight maximum heat advantages of their own being posted over the course of the final eleven races they have left themselves in a very strong position for the aggregate bonus point when the two sides meet again on Saturday at the Coliseum.
Lawson only dropped one point throughout the meeting, when led home by former Pirate Nicolai Klindt who was making his return to Dorset for the first time since 2019. Klindt stood out amongst the Gladiators scoring twelve points from six rides, featuring in a very close finish to heat eleven, when after starting on a fifteen metre handicap he almost reeled Lewi Kerr at the flag.
Kerr, who had been warned for moving at the start as Klindt ploughed into the tapes confessed afterwards "I guess I sucked Nicolai in a bit there and he wasn't too happy about it in the pits, but these things happen/"

Both Kerr (10) and Anders Rowe (9+1) provided solid back up to Cook and Lawson and with Tobias Thomsen producing the first, of what many hope will be plenty throughout the course of the campaign, celebratory donut of 2025 in amongst his paid eleven (again his only point dropped to Klindt in the opener), the Pirates gave the large turnout of fans plenty to be satisfied with.

POOLE 58 - Zach Cook 14+1 (2',3,3,3,3) ,Richard Lawson 12+2 (2,3,3,2',2') ,Lewis Kerr 10 (3,1,3,3) ,Anders Rowe 9+1 (3,1,2',3) ,Tobias Thomsen 8+3 (1',2',3,2') ,Paul Starke 5+2 (1,0,2',FD,2') ,Matt Marson 0 (0,0,RS,0)
PLYMOUTH - 32 ,Nicolai Klindt 12 (3,2,3,2EH,1,1) ,Ben Trigger 6+2 (2',1',1,2,0) ,Joe Thompson 5+1 (1,2',1,1) ,Ben Barker 4 (2,1,1,0,0) ,Lasse Fredriksen 3 (3,0,FD,R,RS) ,Mitchell Cluff 1+1 (0,TS,0,1') ,Alfie Bowtell 1+1 (0,0,RS,1')

Full heat details

Photo courtesy Tony Hartmann - Nicolai Klindt the only defeats of the evening on both Richard Lawson and Tobias Thomsen