Ford hails comeback kings for keeping cup dream alive

Danny Ford hailed yet another Lazarus-esque comeback from his No1 Carpet Cleaning Poole Pirates as they kept alive their Supporters’ Cup hopes last night.

Just as they had done earlier this month in the league at Belle Vue, the Pirates fell well behind early on in their must-win clash against King’s Lynn at the Adrian Flux Arena.

Ford looked on as the Stars racked up a 12-point advantage by heat six in Norfolk, GP new boy Robert Lambert (12) and Michael Palm Toft (13+1) in scintillating form for the home side.

And with his septet 10 points down with five races to go, Ford was again left praying for a miracle with the Pirates needing all four away points to stay in the hunt for an unlikely cup final place.

Miracles, it seems, do happen.

First, Jack Holder and Richie Worrall teamed up for a heat 11 5-1 over Ty Proctor and Kasper Andersen, before Lambert squeezed in between Brady Kurtz and Nicolai Klindt in the next race to limit the damage to a Pirates 4-2.

Then Holder and Josh Grajczonek then saw off Thomas Jorgensen and Proctor in heat 13 to level the scores 39-39.

Lambert and Palm Toft had no answer as Klindt and Kurtz put the Pirates four points in front in the supporter-nominated heat 14, before Holder and Grajczonek completed the sensational comeback with a third successive 5-1 in heat 15.

Ford said: “I thought the 45-45 draw after being 16 points down at Belle Vue was some comeback, but this topped that.

“We certainly do make life difficult for ourselves, but to overturn a 12-point deficit against the likes of Robert Lambert and Michael Palm Toft in that form was something really special.

“Having Brady, Nicolai and Neil Middleditch back in the pits after they missed the Ipswich meeting on Thursday had a huge impact, not just in terms of those two riders’ scores, but also the team spirit.

“We’ve given ourselves a real chance of progressing in the competition now when it looked so unlikely halfway through this meeting. 

“But we’ll need a big performance at home to King’s Lynn in our final group meeting on June 13 as they have beaten us once already this year on our own track.”

In-form Kurtz finished with paid 14, while Holder’s three successive heat wins saw the Australian spearhead bank 12 points.

Captain Grajczonek, meanwhile, continued his form with paid 11 and Klindt chipped in with eight.

Read the full report here.

Picture: Ian Burt