BANDITS LEAVE EMPTY HANDED AS PIRATES STRETCH LEAD

The Berwick Bandits certainly did not rob this league encounter for incident neither could they disarm Poole from banking three league points, even though they rallied late on in the meeting, starving the Pirates of race winners in a four heat spell.

But the damage had been done, as far as the meeting outcome was concerned, by the Pirates starting strongly despite losing the services of reserve Darryl Ritchings in an ugly looking heat two incident.

Skipper Zach Cook, voted Rider of the Night for his paid 14 return, one fewer than maximum man Richard Lawson, praised the efforts of the track staff, 

admitting "Yes it was a good one tonight, you know the track staff did well, they've worked hard and have been up against the weather but they've done good, we've had no dust and its been reasonably safe out there. Good luck to Darryl for a speedy recovery of course, but it ended up being a good night for the team too. Every one was making decent starts and we kept their race wins to the minimal, which is always good and so everyone can take some positives out from tonight. We've got a bit of break now before our next meeting so we'll all be ready for the next one."

Poole recorded five heat advantages in the first seven heats and other than having to go short of a rider in heat two when Ritchings took a nasty fall trying to avoid Jack Smith's stricken machine, and then Paul Starke falling on the last lap of heat four, they had points on the board in all rides, during that period. 

Berwick had to wait until heat before ex-Pirate Sam Hagon could provide them with a race winner, but then Craig Cook scored victories in his next two rides and Danyon Hume produced an excellent third from first charge in heat twelve to add his name to the race winners.

Undoubtedly, though, the race of the night was the battle of the two number ones in the opening race. Craig Cook was keeping Lawson at bay but left a half chance for the Lawson to seek out an outside line of the final lap and sensationally he surged through, rocket-like as his nickname suggests, to set-up the 4-2 heat score which effectively levelled the scores in the hunt for the aggregate bonus. It was Lawson who indeed finished the job off for the Pirates, working his way by Cook then Leon Flint in heat thirteen to guarantee Poole victory on the night and that extra bonus point.

POOLE 55 ,Richard Lawson 13+2 (3,2',3,3,2') ,Zach Cook 13+1 (3,3,1',3,3) ,Paul Starke 9+2 (3,F,2',1',0,2,1) ,Lewis Kerr 8 (3,3,2,0) ,Anders Rowe 6+2 (1,2',2,1') ,Tobias Thomsen 6 (1,3,2,0EH) ,Darryl Ritchings 0 (NS,NS,NS,NS)

BERWICK 35 ,Craig Cook 10+1 (2,1,3,3,1') ,Danyon Hume 6+1 (2,FD,1',3,0) ,Leon Flint 5 (2,1,R,2) ,Drew Kemp 5 (FD,1,2,2) ,Sam Hagon 5 (0,0,3,1,1) ,Jack Smith 3+1 (2,1',0,0) ,Dayle Wood 1+1 (1',0,TS,0)

Full heat detailshere

Photo Credit: Liam Cockwell