REACTION: NEWMAN STEPS UP FOR THE PIRATES

The Pirates came from behind to win their opening fixture of the 2026 season in a meeting that was marred by a first heat injury to two-term Pirate Tobias Thomsen.

Up against his former team-mate Richard Lawson, the two riders had a coming together with Thomsen coming off the worst.

An hours delay ensued whilst the medical team stabilised the Dane with pain relief and once racing did resume, it was Lawson who learnt that he was deemed the cause of the incident and disqualified from the re-run, but Kyle Newman, the stand-in replacement for the injured Dan Gilkes, ensured Poole did not lose too much ground by splitting Danny King and Daniel Klima. 

Newman was again the sole Pirate representative in heat eight, when Cooper Rushen was adjudged to have caused Tom Spencer's second turn fall as he tried to go under him.  Newman fared even better by sharing the re-run and two heats later his third place enabled Poole to take the lead for the first time in the meeting, an advantage they maintained, doubling it to four points in heat eleven and then sharing the final four.

The 33-year-old admitted he was pleased with his overall performance "obviously it's been some time since I have been on a bike regularly so you know, to be competitive is a good platform to build from. I felt pretty good, just lack a bit of race fitness to be fair. It's just tensing up a little in the dirt and you probably saw some sort of shapes a bit of everything going on. But I think, you know, tomorrow I'll just sort of relax and calm down. Yeah, I'll look to move forward." 

The two sides are set to meet again on Saturday (4th April) for the return fixture at Plymouth. Poole will be without top scorer Zach Cook due to a Polish league fixture whilst Plymouth will have to decide on their facility for the injured Thomsen. 

Scores:

POOLE 47 -Zach Cook 11 (3,3,3,2,0) ,Richard Lawson 10+1 (XD,3,3,1',3) ,William Cairns 7+1 (3,2,0,1,0,1') ,Lewis Kerr 6+1 (XE,2,1',3) ,Kyle Newman 6 (2,0,3,1) ,Fraser Bowes 5+1 (0,1',2,2) ,Cooper Rushen 2 (1,1,XD,RS)

PLYMOUTH 43 -Danny King 13 (3,3,2,3,2) ,Daniel Klima 9+2 (1,2,2,1',2,RS,1',0) ,Ben Barker 8 (3,2,FD,3) ,Scott Nicholls 6+1 (0,2,3,0,1') ,Joe Thompson 6+1 (1,1',2,2) ,Tom Spencer 1+1 (0,RS,0,1',0,0,RS) ,Tobias Thomsen 0 (FNS,IRR,IRR,IRR)

Full Heat details and report

Photo credit: Liam Cockwell