Ipswich Witches v Poole Pirates

The No.1 Carpet Cleaning Pirates stole a march on their pre-meeting co-leaders with an emphatic performance, in total contrast to their showing earlier in the week when they were last in action.

Poole persistently had the beating of their hosts, Ipswich, out of the gate, a key attribute on a night of few genuine passes, and stormed into a six point lead over the course of the first four heats. Ricky Wells, who had to pull out on Monday suffering an aggravation to his shoulder on a grippy surface in Norforlk, looked much more comfortable on the Suffolk circuit and with Jack Holder underpinned Poole's bright start with a 5-1 in heat four following up a Nicolai Klindt-led 4-2 that had broken the deadlock of the opening two shared heats.

Kevin Doolan, of past Foxhall Heath vintage, did likewise in supporting Holder to head home the in-form Cameron Heeps and Chris Harris in heat six, to suggest that the makeshift Pirates' were intent on delivering a shock result.

A tactical heat seven move from Ipswich, using Danny King,  was comfortably dealt with by the Pirates strong partnership of Nicolai Klindt and Josh Grajczonek who had both picked off the faster-from-the-traps Richard Lawson by the time the race was angling for the back-straight, so instead of reducing the deficit the home side saw it widen to a ten-point gulf. A fine tapes to flag victory by Wells maintained that healthy lead at the halfway point.

Jack Holder tried desperately hard to find a route by leader Krystian Pieszczek as the Witches claimed only their third race winner in nine heats, King making it a gain of two, holding out Doolan at the back. Josh Grajczonek was well sharp out the traps in heat ten but this time his partner, Klindt, was finding it hard going, but that was just a blip as the Dane was doing two-on-the-trot and was faultless in heat 11. 

Out again in heat 12 from three in a row, Klindt was too keen to make the start and picked up a warning. In the second attempt he performs one of the rare passes on leader King but frame problems forced him to pull up, gifting the home side a 4-2. 

The target by now was to go for the four league points, as Poole led 40-32, and to help the cause Holder made a telling last lap move on Richard Lawson to pick up third place behind Doolan as Chris Harris collected his first win of the meeting. The eight point lead retained and skipper Grajczonek kept it that way with a heat fourteen victory and it was he and Holder who were sent out for the final race. Harris had found his gating gloves and was away sharp from Holder so attentions turned to the back where King managed to make the move that denied Poole the full bounty, but content enough with bringing home an impressive three points.
 

IPSWICH 42
C.Harris 2,0,1',3,3=9+1
C.Heeps 1',1,1',2=5+2
D.King 2,3,0,1,3,1=10
K.Pieszczek 0,1,3,1'=5+1
R.Lawson 1,1,2,0=4
E.Kennett 3,0,1',2=6+1
J.Allen 0,2,1=3

POOLE 48
R.Replacement
K.Newman 0,0,R
N.Klindt 3,3,0,3,R=9
J.Grajczonek 1,2,2',3,3,0=11+1
J.Holder 3,2',3,2,1',2=13+2
K.Doolan 1',2',0,0,2=5+2
R.Wells 2,3,3,2,0=10

Ht 1:  J.Holder  (RR),  C.Harris,  C.Heeps,  K.Newman 3-3  3-3 |55.6]
Ht 2:  E.Kennett,  R.Wells,  K.Doolan,  J.Allen 3-3  6-6 [56.6]
Ht 3:  N.Klindt,  D.King,  J.Grajczonek,  K.Pieszczek 2-4  8-10 [58.9]
Ht 4:  R.Wells,  J.Holder,  R.Lawson,  E.Kennett 1-5  9-15 [56.6]
Ht 5:  D.King,  J.Grajczonek  (RR),  K.Pieszczek,  K.Newman 4-2  13-17 [56.4]
Ht 6:  J.Holder,  K.Doolan,  C.Heeps,  C.Harris 1-5  14-22 [56.9]
Ht 7:  N.Klindt,  J.Grajczonek,  R.Lawson,  D.King  (TS) 1-5  15-27 [56.5]
Ht 8:  R.Wells,  J.Allen,  C.Heeps,  K.Doolan (RS) 3-3 18-30 [57]
Ht 9:  K.Pieszczek,  J.Holder,  D.King,  K.Doolan 4-2  22-32 [56.7]
Ht 10:  J.Grajczonek,  C.Heeps,  C.Harris,  N.Klindt 3-3  25-35 [56.8]
Ht 11:  N.Klindt  (RR),  R.Lawson,  E.Kennett,  K.Newman  (Rtd) 3-3  28-38 [56.4]
Ht 12:  D.King,  R.Wells,  J.Allen,  N.Klindt  (Rtd) 4-2  32-40 [57.5]
Ht 13:  C.Harris,  K.Doolan  (RR),  J.Holder,  R.Lawson 3-3  35-43 [57]
Ht 14:  J.Grajczonek,  E.Kennett,  K.Pieszczek,  R.Wells 3-3  38-46 [56.7]
Ht 15:  C.Harris,  J.Holder,  D.King,  J.Grajczonek 4-2  42-48 [0]

Gates: POOLE won toss and chose gates 1&3 | IPSWICH took gates 1&3 in heat 15

Referee Paul Carrington

League Points IPSWICH 0 POOLE 3