FLASHBACK FRIDAY - A SUCCESSFUL CHALLENGE AT MONMORE

Had we been in normal times then today would have seen the Poole Pirates 2020 team being introduced to the members of the Press and putting themselves through their paces in the annual practice session, but with the campaign delayed we have decided to Flashback to 2006, when the Pirates were in track action on this very day.

20th March 2006 an early season challenge meeting against Wolverhampton saw Poole claim a comprehensive 52-43 victory at Monmore Green, a meeting that witnessed all seven Pirates secure the minimum of a paid win and across the fifteen heats only record three no-scores, quite a feat for an away side.

After sharing the first two heats, the Pirates quickly broke into their stride and were leading 20-10 when the home side nominated Peter Karlsson for a double point ride, but a second race win of the meeting from Krzysztof Kasprzak proved to be PK's only defeat of the night. Wolves clawed just two points back in that sixth heat, an ordinary shared heat score following in heat seven. 

Then Poole again piled on the pressure with a brace of 4-2 advantages combining to give the Pirates a 34-22 lead with nine heats completed. The tenth heat saw Peter Karlsson make a trademark third to first charge to share the spoils with Grzegorz Walasek and Antonio Lindback before Wolves introduced another tactical ride, this time from Billy Hamill, and one that ended in triumph, enabling Wolves to chip away at the lead despite only providing one score in the race.

So with all trump cards played by Wolves, the Pirates had established a healthy 40-31 advantage and were quite content to see the final four heats effectively equalised with a 4-2 to each side preceding two drawn heats

Scorers:
Wolverhampton 43 - P.Karlsson 16; B.Hamill 12; F.Lindgren 4+1; W.Lawson 4; K.Pecyna 3+1; M.Karlsson 3; C.Hefenbrock 1+1
Poole 52 - A.Lindback 11+1; K.Kasprzak 10+1; C.Boyce 8+2; B.Pedersen 8+1; G.Walasek 5+2; J.Davidsson 5; D.Davidsson 5