REACTION: LATE COMEBACK BY BATTLING PIRATES TO GAIN SIX POINT LEAD

A late strong finish by the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates enabled them to inflict a six point defeat on the Redcar Bears in the first leg of the BSN Series semi-final with a 48-42 victory,  thanks to a brace of 5-1 heat advantages in the final two heats.
 

The first, through Zach Cook and Kyle Newman steered the Pirates into the lead for the first time as the Bears had taken the upper hand from the opening heat, with two former Pirates Danny King and Danyon Hume making the most of the inside gates they had chosen when they won the coin toss.

Steve Worrall who had a dramatic last two rides, including teaming up with Richard Lawson for the vital heat fifteen 5-1,  admitted "the coin toss was crucial tonight. The track was a lot wetter than it really needed to be and that made it so important to make the gate and get across in the early heats. If you didn't you just ended up carrying the extra weight of the dirt and looking like me", pointing to the caked on dirt adorning his race suit. 
"Unfortunately our regular track man has been ill lately and I just felt it was made too wet. But after that first grading session the track settled down nicely and we had a track that we could all ride with nobody getting covered in dust either."

Worrall was the unfortunate victim of a spectacular heat thirteen crash. On the outside of Richard Lawson and Danny King  all three riders went shoulder to shoulder heading into the third turn and it was the Poole skipper who had nowhere to go as they exited the turn and all he could do was hit the fence. His machine bounced up onto the top of the air-fence where it became stuck. 

A disgruntled Worrall added "it’s the silly rules we have in speedway that you have to exclude someone but that was just racing. I was left with a bent bike after that so I had to jump on to my second bike for heat fifteen and luckily it did the job and we managed to get that 5-1 which put us back on the path. I like Redcar, it is a track that I really enjoy racing and the rest of guys do too. Zach's been racing there quite often in the last few months but like I say it's a track we can all go well at and fingers crossed six points is enough.

Poole team manager Neil Middleditch claimed "On the track walk I said a lead of ten points would be nice but mid-meeting I thought just two would be nice. Ben (Cook) blew his bike up and Steve was happy to go out on his second bike for that final heat so you couldn't ask any more than that and he went out and did the business against two fantastic riders. But we knew it was going to be tough, Redcar are a good team but as Stevie said we have riders that can perform very well at Redcar and I think Gavin Parr their team manager thought they were going to win tonight. But those last couple of heats really turned it for us. Is six enough? Yes it can be. If we are all firing we have certainly got the team to do it, and they are going up there to do it.  It's on Havvy's (Gary Havelock) patch but I'll be on the phone to him and we will have a chat but he knows how to fire the lads up as well as I do. We are fully capable of going there and getting the job done but I feel sure the Redcar boys will be aware of that too."

Poole 48 - Richard Lawson 13 (2,3,3,2,3) ,Ben Cook 10+2 (1',3,3,2,1') ,Kyle Newman 9+2 (2,1,RS,1,1',0,2,2') ,Steve Worrall 8+1 (1,3,2,FD,2') ,Zach Cook 7+1 (0,2,1,1',3) ,Adam Roynon 1+1 (1',0,0,RS,RS) ,Sam Hagon 0 (DNR) 
Redcar 42 - Danny King 15 (3,3,2,3,3,1) ,Charles Wright 12+1 (3,2,1',3,3,0) ,Danyon Hume 7+1 (2',0,2,2,1) ,Jason Edwards 5+1 (3,0,0,RS,1',0,1) ,Connor Bailey 2 (0,2,0,0) ,Jake Mulford 1 (0,1,RS,0,RS) ,Alex Spooner 0 (DNR)
 

Photo: Haggis Hartmann