REACTION: MAGNIFICENT SEVEN FROM DARRYL

Reserve Darryl Ritchings scored a match-winning magnificent seven points, celebrating his first outright win as a Pirate in the process, as the Wessex Marine Pirates secured their place in the semi finals of the MaxiCab Knockout Cup.

He may consider himself extremely unlucky not to collect a rider of the night award, but admitted afterwards "This makes all the early mornings worth it and yeah, I'm delighted with my performance tonight  and I'm buzzing."
When praised for helping get Poole into the next stage of the competition, dejectedly he said "Yeah I'm delighted but I don't think I will be in the team for that one." referencing the fact that he is presently in as a temporary signing to cover for the age-ineligible William Cairns. No doubt though, this performance will have done his future career prospects no harm whatsoever.  

Having to haul back a first leg deficit of eight points, the Pirates needed nine heats before they were able to get their noses in front on aggregate in the tie, by which time Ritchings had already stolen the hearts of the Poole faithful. Not least with his defiant ride in heat four after skipper Zach Cook had been disqualified. At the time of Cook's fall the Plymouth pairing of Ben Barker and Mitchell Cluff were on an early 5-1, but in the re-run Ritchings managed to get out in front from the tapes. He was overhauled by Barker but stubbornly kept Cluff at bay to mitigate the heat damage.

Few were to recognise just how significant that second place was to prove as the meeting went down to the wire. On that ride alone Ritchings was a candidate for a rider of the night accolade and he strengthened that claim with his first victory in heat eight, which left just two points in Plymouth's favour as far as the aggregate scores were concerned. The award ultimately went to Anders Rowe who dropped just a single point to an opponent - Gladiators number one Nicolai Klindt in heat five. But Rowe made up for that disappointment by charging by the Dane in heat 15 to guarantee the Pirates would be semi-finalists.

Even Rowe admitted he was a little fortunate to get the nomination, "In heat fifteen I thought I had really thrown it away there. I thought I was going over,. Over the top of Nicolai or going over the dog track. Yeah, it was good but t's not about me its about the whole  team and a big shout out to Darryl Ritchings. He was really, really good tonight and yeah it will have grown his confidence."

Once the Pirates managed to get into a ten point lead on the night they quickly extended it to fourteen but a 5-1 from Klindt and Alfie Bowtell in heat eleven kept the tie alive, but the Pirates hit back and within a further two heats were sixteen points to the good on the night (8 on aggregate), spurred on by Cook's best ride of the meeting to win heat thirteen with Richard Lawson in tow.

But Ben Trigger and Joe Thompson set Poole fans' nerves on edge when they fired in a 5-1 in heat fourteen, giving the Gladiators the chance of forcing a super heat decider if they could pull of a 5-1 through Klindt and Ben Barker; Rowe and third  placed Lawson delivered in that final heat.

The race of the night though was undoubtedly heat six when two great moves from Tobias and Richard Lawson looked set to end in a Poole 5-1 but on the final lap Ben Barker ripped round the boards and surged past the pair of them to share the heat.

Scorers: POOLE 52 (93) ,Anders Rowe 13+1 (3,1',3,3,3) ,Richard Lawson 11+1 (3,2,3,2',1) ,Lewis Kerr 7+2 (2',2,2',1) ,Darryl Ritchings 7+1 (1',2,3,1,0) ,Zach Cook 6 (FD,2,1,3) ,Tobias Thomsen 5+2 (1,1',1,2') ,Paul Starke 3+1 (2,1',0,RS) PLYMOUTH 38 (87) Nicolai Klindt 10 (2,3,3,R,2) ,Ben Barker 8 (3,3,1,1,0) ,Joe Thompson 6+1 (0,3,1,2') ,Ben Trigger 5 (0,RS,0,2,3) ,Mitchell Cluff 4 (3,1,RS,FD,0,0) ,Lasse Fredriksen 3 (1,F,0,2) ,Alfie Bowtell 2+1 (0,0,RS,2')

Photo credit Tony Hartmann

For full match report and heat details click here