REACTION:HAVVY ENTHUSES OVER WATCHING WORLD CLASS WILL

The Poole Wessex Marine Pirates moved into a play-off berth position following their 51–39 triumph at Workington on Saturday, achieved by another solid team performance, this one headlined by a brilliant showing from William Cairns.
 

The 17-year-old won all four of his programmed rides but missed out on a personal maximum when taking the nominated heat fifteen.
Always looking for perfection, Cairns confessed,

“I’m a bit annoyed about breaking my max in heat fifteen, but you know, all the boys dug deep and yeah, we had a good win. I missed the start a little bit in that one and got kind of stuck on the kerb. I didn’t want to mess Rich [Richard Lawson] up. He was doing his thing and managed to split their pair and yeah, you know, you can’t win them all, but I would have liked that maximum. In the four races I won it wasn’t just as if I made the start in them all and just cleared off. I did it from the back a few times as well and, you know, when it is like that it is a good confidence boost.”
 

His team manager, Gary Havelock, described his performance as “phenomenal again,” adding,

“When you watch Will ride you aren’t just watching a class Championship rider but a world-class rider, and I mean world-class. He was smooth, he was fast. Just poetry in motion. It was beautiful to watch and you can be forgiven for forgetting he’s only seventeen years old. Phenomenal.
“When I asked him to do heat fifteen he kind of said he would rather sit back and take the maximum, but I said to him, yes, 12 is a maximum but it is not a proper maximum. I said to him the way you are riding you can go out there and do it again, and then he wanted it. Sadly he just got stuck on the inside and there was nothing he could do, so I feel for him, but you can’t fault the lad. But you look at the whole team performance and hitting fifty-plus away from home at a place like this is special. I can assure you I am very proud of the Pirates tonight, from one through to seven. That performance was up there alongside the Glasgow one when we won the league title last year. We had to do it against a bizarre refereeing decision when Zach was disqualified, a decision I argued with the referee was totally wrong, but you know, in the end that actually fired the lads up. Not just Zach but the rest of the team too, as they saw the injustice in his disqualification.”
 

Captain Cook had been spectacularly disqualified when Troy Batchelor went down in heat four, with Cook being nowhere near his fellow Aussie. He had made a clean pass and the race continued for nearly three quarters of a lap before the red lights were observed, with Batchelor lying on the track. Poole were leading by six going into that race, but Batchelor and Max Perry managed to inflict a 5–1 over Kyle Newman, who tried hard to split, thus reducing the deficit the Comets faced to two points. But for the next seven heats Poole were just magnificent, knowing where they wanted to be on track and getting into those positions. Victory on the night was assured when guest Luke Harrison finished on the wrong end of a Jonas Jeppesen/Drew Kemp 5–1 in heat twelve, the Comets eventually reducing the margin of loss to twelve points, with the two sides meeting again on Wednesday when racing returns to Wimborne Road at last.
WORKINGTON 39 – Jonas Jeppesen 12 (2,2,2,3,3), Tate Zischke 9 (2,0,1,3,3), Troy Batchelor 6 (3,2,1,0), Drew Kemp 5+2 (1’,1,0,2’,1), Max Perry 3+1 (0,2’,0,TS,1), Vinnie Foord 3+1 (0,1’,2,0), Mitchell Cluff 1 (1,0,0,RS)
POOLE 51 – William Cairns 12 (3,3,3,3,0), Richard Lawson 8+3 (1,2’,2’,1’,2), Zach Cook 7+1 (X0,3,2’,2), Lewis Kerr 7 (3,1,3,0), Luke Harrison 6+1 (2’,0,3,1), Cooper Rushen 6 (0,3,1,2), Kyle Newman 5 (3,1,1,XD)