REACTION: PIRATES MOVE INTO THIRD SUCCESSIVE FINAL WITH A MATCH IN HAND

Ben Cook heaped praise on the track staff after the Wessex Marine Pirates marched on to their thirteenth play-off final following a 55-35 home win over the Edinburgh Stellar Monarchs at Wimborne Road on Wednesday night.

Apart from a third ride retirement the elder sibling to Rider of the Night Zach,  was unbeaten and proclaimed ""I got some water and mud into the spark plug after they watered the track before my third ride so it was a bit of a monkey but there's nothing you can do about that." Whilst that denied him a chance to chase down Edinburgh's leading rider Josh Pickering, Cook was quick to acknowledge the efforts of the track maintenance team. "The track was a lot better tonight. The starts were much better, just how we like them and if we can keep doing what we are doing then it could be another good finish to a season."
 
Poole were never really threatened by the side that finished sixth after the regular league fixture programme, and they were quick to take control of the meeting and seal the win that maintains their unbeaten record in their play-off group and established their eleventh successive unbeaten fixture.
 
Despite the twenty-point winning margin no Pirate was able to secure a maximum because of Pickering who banked a three victories in his six rides and 'Paco' Castagna who was a two-time winner from his seven ride programme, but the performances of the six-man Poole side was impressive with Steve Worrall (11+2) admitting "We did the hard work at Scunthorpe to put us in the driving seat and so tonight we were able to treat this as something like a dress rehearsal. No disrespect to Edinburgh, they put up a good fight, but we were able to try different things and have a play around with the track and kind of had a bit more dirt out wide. Obviously it's getting cooler and the bikes react differently so it was good for us to try these things but it could be two weeks now before we ride again here and things can change but our attentions turn now to Edinburgh on Friday. We don't need heroes. Obviously there is a time and place for those and Scunny was that place for us last week, so we can just go to Edinburgh and make sure we manage what we did here tonight and finish the job."
 
POOLE 55 ,Richard Lawson 13 (3,3,2,3,2) ,Steve Worrall 11+2 (2,3,3,2',1') ,Zach Cook 11+2 (2',2',3,2,2) ,Ben Cook 9 (3,3,R,3) ,Kyle Newman 7+2 (1,3,R,1',2',XE) ,Joe Thompson 4+2 (2',1',F,1,0,0)
EDINBURGH 35 ,Josh Pickering 14 (2,3,2,3,1,3) ,Michele Castagna 11 (0,2,3,1,2,3,0) ,Kye Thomson 3+2 (1,0,1',0,1') ,Lasse Fredriksen 3 (0,1,2,0,0) ,Dayle Wood 2+1 (0,1',1,TS) ,Bastian Borke 2 (1,0,0,1)