REACTION: COLOSSAL ENCOUNTER AT COLISEUM ENDS WITH CONSOLATION POINT ONLY

The injury jinx struck the Plymouth Gladiators again as they were reduced to just six riders once Lasse Fredrikssen sustained a suspected broken arm in his first ride, but even being a man down, the Gladiators still achieved their team manager, Garry May's goal, of defeating the Pirates three times at the Coliseum this season.

The Pirates' penultimate regular league encounter proved to be a long drawn out affair, due to two lengthy air-fence repair jobs, and  ended in sheer frustration as the hosts outscored them 17-7 in the course of the final four heats, with ten of those points being delivered in the final two races for a Plymouth side who look as though they will miss out on the play-offs.

If there was any consolation for the Pirates it was the aggregate bonus point they secured which assures them of a place in the final four, although whether they can hang on to top spot remains to be seen.

The Pirates began strongly enough when reserves Will Cairns and Paul Starke, swapping racing berths, fired home a reserve heat 5-1, Starke going on to play a part in two shared heats before getting caught out from gate four in his final ride. He commented afterwards "it was tough out there tonight, the last couple of heats went against us in the end but we battled all night. We were up most of the meeting and in my last heat I was on gate four and it was just tough from there. We had a lot of incidents tonight, a long-winded meeting but we will still keep fighting. We got the aggregate bonus point so I guess we can look at that as being the bonus to take from the meeting. The delays didn't really help, we were going very well and then we had the interruptions and that just disrupted things a bit, but it is what it is. We will go away from here tonight and then regroup in time for another tough meeting on Wednesday."

The first delay came in heat three when Lewis Kerr made a tight inside approach to turn three that unsettled Joe Thompson and in turn Fredrikssen. All three riders fell heavily, Kerr the first to get to his feet and head back to the pits, whilst the two Plymouth riders needed a closer look at by the medical team. The air fence was in a sorry state too and it took more than half an hour to restore it into a usable condition. Utilising Ben Barker, himself in the wars at Poole last Wednesday, as cover for the injured Norwegian, the Gladiators delivered a match-levelling 5-1 , It was a similar story when Richard Lawson and Tobias Thomsen pushed Poole four clear after heat five, as Barker and guest Kye Thomson responded instantly to bring back parity in the scores.  

Anders Rowe and Will Cairns banked a 4-2 advantage in nine, Kerr and Zach Cook backing that up with a heat ten 5-1. Poole had a let off when Scott Nicholls suffered bike failure in heat eleven when on an early 5-1 with tactical substitute Barker. A controversial heat twelve was on the horizon. Stopped initially when Kerr was left little room at the first turn and spun out, with the luckless Poole man disqualified. Then new signing Tom Spencer did likewise in the re-run but was invited back for another attempt, in which he lost control and was launched over the airfence and landing in the neutral zone, where he was almost instantly back on his feet, and remarkably allowed in for the fourth attempt, but not before another lengthy delay for more fence repairs. Plymouth pulled two points back once racing resumed and a Lawson win kept Poole four up with two to go. But Cook could do nothing about Thompson going by him in heat fourteen to join Alfie Bowtell for a levelling 5-1 and then Barker and Nicholls delivered the final blow to get the Gladiators over the line at 47-43.

PLYMOUTH 47 ,Ben Barker 18 (2,3,3,3,1,3,3) ,Scott Nicholls 10+1 (3,3,R,2,2') ,Joe Thompson 7+2 (2',1,2,2') ,Alfie Bowtell 7 (1,R,RS,FD,0,TS,3,3) ,Kye Thomson 4+3 (1',2',0,1') ,Tom Spencer 1 (0,RS,0,0,RS,1) ,Lasse Fredriksen 0 (FN,NS,NS,NS) 
POOLE 43 ,Richard Lawson 11+1 (3,2',2,3,1) ,Tobias Thomsen 6+1 (0,3,2,1',0) ,William Cairns 6 (3,0,1,2) ,Anders Rowe 6 (2,1,3,0) ,Zach Cook 5+2 (1,1',2',1) ,Lewis Kerr 5 (X0,2,3,FD) ,Paul Starke 4+3 (2',1',1',0)

Heat Details and report

Photo Credit Chianna Farr