REACTION: PIRATES STRONG FINISH IS CROWNING GLORY OVER THE MONARCHS

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates were able to consider it 'Mission Accomplished' after securing the league Double over both Scottish sides, but they came up against early strong resistance from the Edinburgh Monarchs before they could secure a flattering 53-37 victory.

Even that final score might have been higher had Lewi Kerr not suffered the ill-fate of a shed chain in heat fifteen whilst sitting pretty for what would have been Poole's sixth 5-1 of the meeting.

A dejected Kerr, who had previously secured two race wins to his name said "iit was a pretty slow start for us here where we have been starting strong recently , but I think the gates came to us in the end  and we got a decent win so happy days."

Skipper Zach Cook was pleased with the way the Pirates turned things around - it had taken them a full eight heats before they could get their noses in front against the resilient Monarchs - acknowledging that "everyone grouped together and turned it around in the second half and gave us a solid win here. We said after the weekend that we would put that Workington defeat behind us and move on and everyone dug deep and showed what we can really do."

The meeting scores were level after six heats and then Edinburgh edged ahead with 4-2 from their mid order pairing of Kye Thomson and Justin Sedgmen and with Michele 'Paco' Castagna unbeaten ahead of heat eight and introducing lively reserve Jonatan Grahn, who looked useful on his first visit to Wimborne Road, the Monarchs were slight favourites to extend their lead, given that Tobias Thomsen had failed to score in his opening two rides. But he and young Will Cairns showed true Pirate Pride and secured a 5-1, which sparked the revival, a further two such scores being posted in heats nine and ten to put Poole back on the front foot.
Kerr and Cairns mitigated the tactical substitute outing offered to Victor Palovaara with a 4-2 in heat twelve before picking up another 5-1 through Lawson and Rowe in heat thirteen. A 4-2 in heat fourteen put Poole sixteen points up and that was heading for twenty before that heat fifteen incident.

Scorers: POOLE 53 - Richard Lawson 13+1 (2,3,2',3,3) ,Lewis Kerr 10 (2,2,3,3,F) ,Anders Rowe 9+1 (3,2,2,2') ,Zach Cook 7+3 (1',1',2',3) ,Will Cairns 6+2 (0,2',2',1,1) ,Tobias Thomsen 6 (0,0,3,3) ,Paul Starke 2 (2,0,0,RS) 
EDINBURGH 37 - Michele 'Paco' Castagna 10 (3,3,1,1,2) ,Victor Palovaara 8+1 (1,0,3,2,1,1') ,Jonatan Grahn 6 (3,1,2,0,RS,TS) ,Kye Thomson 5 (0,3,0,2) ,Justin Sedgmen 5 (3,1,1,0) ,Michael Palm-Toft 2+1 (0,1',1,0) ,Jordy Loftus 1 (1,RS,RS,0,0)