POST MEETING SUMMARY - PIRATES KEEP TOP SPOT FINISH HOPES ALIVE

Effectively, a meeting of two halves resulted in the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates keeping hopes of a top spot finish alive, whilst ending the Plymouth 'ProwPark' Gladiators' slim play-off aspirations.

The Pirates prevailed with a 49-41 victory at the Colisseum having scored more than half of their points across the final seven heats, outscoring the home side 28-14 in that spell.

Incredibly, those final seven heats also began with Poole's number one Richard Lawson dropping his only point of the meeting, when deployed as a tactical substitute in heat nine only to be out-witted by Dan Thompson who managed to defiantly get in between Lawson and Tom Brennan to restrict Poole to a score that only took a third of the six point deficit away.

But with Zach Cook turning his night around with a fine victory in the tenth, and Paul Starke producing an excellent ride when stand-in team manager Dan Ford opted to sit out Sam Hagon from heat eleven, Poole were level at 33-a-piece. A temporary slip back when the Thompson boys posted a 4-2 for the Gladiators, Starke again proving to be a star choice of guest for Poole as he split them superbly, proved to be just that, temporary, as the Pirates were to drop just one point from the final three heats.

Heat thirteen proved somewhat dramatic as Ben Barker ran into the back of Tom Brennan at the start of the second lap, visibly causing Brennan some discomfort, but the battling spirit of the Cardiff wild-card shone through as he took his place in the re-run and very ably led Lawson home for the 5-1 that gave Poole the lead for the very first time. Starke's previous effort earned him an extra ride at the expense of Ben Trigger and converting Zach Cook's second win of the night into a 4-2 the Pirates went into the meeting needing to avoid a 5-1 and Zach starred again, partnering Lawson to Poole's third maximum heat score of the night, thus banking all three available league points.

Scores
PLYMOUTH 41 - Dan Thompson 13 (2,2,3,2,3,1) ,Joe Thompson 11+2 (3,1',2',2,RS,1,2) ,Ben Barker 7+1 (1',3,2,1,X0,0) ,Alfie Bowtell 7+1 (2,0,3,1',1) ,Jacob Hook 2+1 (2',F,RS,0,RS,0) ,Patryk Baek 1+1 (0,1',R,RS)
POOLE 49 - Richard Lawson 14+2 (3,3,1,2',2',3) ,Tom Brennan 10 (2,2,3,3) ,Zach Cook 9+1 (1,0,3,3,2') ,Paul Starke 7+1 (R,1',TS,3,2,1) ,Ben Cook 6 (3,3,0,0) ,Ben Trigger 3+1 (1,1',1,RS) ,Sam Hagon 0 (0,0,0,RS)

Photo Credit Dan Westlake

Full Heat Details and Meeting Report