REACTION: SIXTEEN YEAR OLD SENSATION SETS UP SIXTY STRONG PIRATES

The Poole Wessex Marine Pirates cruised to a 61-29 victory against the Ellie Rose Travel Scunthorpe Scorpions in the first leg of the MAXiCab Knockout Cup first round at Wimborne Road, with a comprehensive team effort.

But taking centre stage was a young man who, just ten days ago, became eligible to race professional speedway: Cooper Rushen. The tassels were flying high and proud as the Poole reserve celebrated only his second home meeting, and third in total with the Pirates, with a superb paid maximum.

His characteristic smile was broader than ever as he reflected on his night’s performance, comparing it to the Good Friday meeting.

‘I think I struggled a bit last week, and it’s just nice to, you know, turn things around. We changed some things today and it’s nice to see things actually work in speedway. It doesn’t happen very often, but we’re just going to keep going from here, keep going, and we’ll learn more again today and we’ll take it into next week. And yeah, there’s still a long way to go yet.

‘The track was slightly different to last week, but I enjoyed it and the dirt was there for us to play with, so we could never complain about that. I think we just got enough set-up and it worked throughout the night, and we were very fortunate with that.

‘I spoke to a couple of the boys throughout the night and they gave me some advice on what to do. I’ve only done very few laps around here, so it’s up to me. I’m learning every race, so to learn from the more experienced guys is exactly what this is all about, and it definitely helped throughout the night.’

Poole's heat leader trio of  Richard Lawson, skipper Zach Cook and Lewis Kerr all had their maximum aspirations shattered by Scunthorpe’s powerhouse rider Josh Pickering, but other than a battling eight points from Connor Mountain, the visitors had little else to trouble the rampant Pirates.

With five maximum heat scores and seven 4-2 advantages, the Pirates were only outpointed in one heat, when Pickering became the first race winner for the Scorpions as late as Heat 10. That was a heat in which Nathan Ablitt converted the score to a token Scunthorpe heat gain. Two other heats were shared, a combination of results that leaves the Pirates on the cusp of qualification, as they require just 30 points in total on Friday when they journey to North Lincolnshire for the return fixture, with both teams declaring the same line-ups as for the first leg.

POOLE 61 – Zach Cook 13 (3,3,2,2,3), Lewis Kerr 11 (3,1,3,3,1), Richard Lawson 10+1 (3,3,3,1'), Cooper Rushen 9+3 (3,2',2',2'), Fraser Bowes 8+1 (F,3,2',3), Kyle Newman 7+1 (1,2',3,1), William Cairns 3 (1,1,0,1) 
SCUNTHORPE 29 – Josh Pickering 12 (2,2,3,3,2), Connor Mountain 8 (2,2,2,2,0), Simon Lambert 6 (2,1,1,1,1,FD), Luke Harrison 1+1 (1',0,0,0), Michael Palm-Toft 1 (1,R,0,RS), Nathan Ablitt 1 (0,0,FD,1), Ryan Ingram 0 (0,0,RS,0,RS)

Full Heat Details 

Photo Credit:: Liam Cockwell