REACTION: PIRATES RECOVER TO GAIN FIRST LEG CUP ADVANTAGE

Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates fought back from a two point deficit after seven heats of their first leg in the MAXiCab KO Cup semi-final to build a fourteen point lead to take to Glasgow on Sunday 7th September.

The Pirates turned the meeting around with a 5-1 from Tobias Thomsen and William Cairns in heat eight after Tigers' guest Fraser Bowes had been penalised by 15 metres for a tapes offence. Thomsen appeared again in a Poole 5-1 just two heats later before the Pirates produced a grandstand finish to the meeting with the maximums in the final two heats.

Extending his impressive form at Wimborne Road to just one defeat in 20 rides, Poole's number one Lawson secured yet another unbeaten performance at Wimborne Road , which included defeating Chris 'Bomber' Harris three times. He commented "Yeah I had to do it the hard way tonight. But you know when you come to these semi-finals and finals you've really got to work hard. Tonight, I hit the ground, I didn't make starts, I did make starts. It kind of had all sorts you know, but I was just glad we came through it as a team. Fair play to Zach in heat fifteen. I was checking on his whereabouts in heat fifteen and that was probably one of the best rides I have seen him do this season. When you've got both Bomber and Howarth right behind you it is not easy ."

For Lawson it was fifth unbeaten performance of the season around Wimborne Road and  he has only conceded twelve points to an opponent in his sixty five home rides in 2025! 

Poole will reflect on the final result, frustrated maybe because two of their top order riders managed just paid eight between them, but with Paul Starke and William Cairns totalling a paid fourteen return accumulatively from the reserve berths the Pirates, they were ably compensated, although will be left wondering just what the lead might have been.

Whilst the job is far from done, with fifteen heats to battle out at Ashfield on Sunday week, the Pirates have given themselves  a chance to continue their defence of the KO Cup by outpointing the Tigers  32-16 over the final eight heats of this semi-final first leg. But undoubtedly, this tie is far from over.

POOLE 52 -Richard Lawson 15 (3,3,3,3,3) ,Zach Cook 12+1 (3,1,3,3,2') ,William Cairns 7+1 (3,2,2',0) ,Tobias Thomsen 7+1 (1,1,3,2') ,Paul Starke 5+1 (1,0,2,2') ,Anders Rowe 3+2 (1',1,1',0) ,Lewis Kerr 3 (R,0,1,2)
GLASGOW 38 -Chris Harris 10 (2,3,3,2,0) ,Kyle Howarth 9+1 (3,2,2,1',1) ,Dan Thompson 8 (2,3,0,3) ,Leon Flint 4+2 (1',2',1,FD) ,Dayle Wood 4 (2,0,0,1,1) ,Fraser Bowes 2+1 (0,2',0EH,0) ,Freddy Hodder 1 (0,0,1,RS)

Full heat details and match report

Photo Credit: Tony Hartmann