Preview: Another Cup Encounter between Gladiators and Pirates

For the third season in the last four, the Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates find themselves facing a Plymouth side in the Knockout cup competition.

The Pirates have had a mixed bag of results so far this season and they go into the 2025 MAXiCab KO Cup tie at the Coliseum, Plymouth in the knowledge that they have a 100% cup record against the modern day Gladiators.

That said, promoter Dan Ford knows only too well that statistics are nothing more than that, "it doesn't really make any difference what we have done against teams in the past, it is what we are capable of doing on the night. We suffered a narrow loss down there in the BSN Series and that hurt, so a win on Saturday would not only give us an advantage moving into next Wednesday's return, but also restore the bragging rights, which we always want, especially against our local rivals."

Poole are hoping that the short break (seven days) in fixtures will have given Paul Starke sufficient time to recover from the heavy knock he took at Berwick last Saturday and will be able to take his place at reserve. Last time out at Plymouth, Anders Rowe only just missed out on a maximum in the last heat, but Poole will be looking for improvement on the respective returns from Zach Cook, who scored paid seven, Tobias Thomsen (paid 4) and the luckless Lewi Kerr (2).

Plymouth will be without their number one, former Pirate Nicolai Klindt, but have drafted another ex-Poole favourite in Cornishman Chris Harris, who is certain to be a tough opponent. Once again they will also be using Zaine Kennedy as a guest, this time in place of Joe Thompson who is seeking FIM Under 21 qualification at Glasgow. Kennedy previously covered for the absent Lasse Fredriksen who himself moves up from reserve with Mitchell Cluff dropping into the reserve berth as his official average comes into force on Saturday.

The return leg will be staged at Wimborne Road on Wednesday 28th May, 19.30hrs.

Teams
Plymouth (TM Garry May) 1 Chris Harris (Guest) 2 Alfie Bowtell 3 Zaine Kennedy (Guest) 4 Lasse Fredriksen 5 Ben Barker (Capt) 6 Mitchell Cluff 7 Ben Trigger
Poole (TM Neil Middleditch) 1 Richard Lawson 2 Tobias Thomsen 3 Anders Rowe 4 Zach Cook (Capt) 5 Lewis Kerr 6 Paul Starke 7 Darryl Ritchings