REACTION LAWSON - NOT A POOLE SCORE

Poole suffered only their seventh defeat in the BSN Series competition, but their 12-point loss at the hands of the Oxford Cheetahs proved to be their worst, a fact that number one Richard Lawson succinctly described as: ‘Not a Poole performance.’

Having been the only Pirate to win more than one heat, and one of only four race winners, Lawson explained:

‘The track caught us all out. We knew it was going to be slick, but I mean, we’ve never ridden this place so slick. We weren’t making the starts and they were and so, yeah, we’ve given ourselves a mountain to climb. I’m glad personally that my last three rides were good from the start. That’s all it really was tonight – get out there and go. We got it back to, what, 12 points in the end. Of course we can do that at home. I’ve got faith in everyone to do that, but it is just a shame that, no matter where we go, this was just not a Pirates score. So it is disappointing and we will need to bounce back.’

It took the Pirates seven heats before they could produce their first race winner. Lewi Kerr made one of those much-needed starts and led home Oxford’s guest replacement for the sick Erik Riss, Justin Sedgmen, and former Pirate Darryl Ritchings. But a lot of the damage to Poole was inflicted by Ritchings’ fellow reserve, Dayle Wood, who was unbeaten in his first four rides, but then evidenced just how crucial it was to be at the front from the start, as he missed it in heat twelve and finished last, some distance behind both Kerr and Will Cairns, who were sharing the heat won by another ex-Pirate, Anders Rowe.

At one stage, the Pirates were trailing by eighteen points (39–21 after ten heats), but through their first heat advantage in heat eleven, when skipper Zach Cook came in as a tactical substitute to support Lawson home after Ritchings had fallen, the pair then earned a 4–2 two heats later, finishing either side of the hitherto unbeaten Sam Masters – another example of a rider unable to make up lost ground after missing the start.

The return fixture will be the Pirates’ next meeting, but that will not be until Wednesday 29th, when a Poole victory would see them qualify from the group.

Scorers:

OXFORD 51 – Sam Masters 14 (3,3,3,2,3), Dayle Wood 10+2 (3,3,2',2',0), Anders Rowe 9 (1,3,2,3,0), Mitch McDiarmid 6+2 (3,2',1',R), Luke Killeen 5+1 (2',0,3,N2), Darryl Ritchings 4+1 (0,1',FD,3), Justin Sedgmen 3 (0,2,1,0)

POOLE 39 – Zach Cook 11+2 (1',2,3,2',1,2), Richard Lawson 8+1 (0,1,3,3,1'), Cooper Rushen 7 (2,2,1,2), Lewi Kerr 7 (2,3,0,2), William Cairns 3+3 (1',1',0,1'), Fraser Bowes 2+1 (0,0,1,1'), Kyle Newman 1 (1,0,0,TS)

Heat Details

Photo Credit: Liam Cockwell