BANDITS LATE STRIKE DENIES PIRATES VICTORY

The Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates came within a hair's breadth of becoming the first team to beat the Berwick Bandits at Shielfield Park this season, but a treble of 5-1's from the home side saw them sneak home 47-43.

Poole, with three guests, two of which were unbeaten two-thirds of the way through the meeting - Oxford's Sam Masters and Edward Kennett - surprised many as they forced the Bandits in having to use a match-saving tactical substitute in heat ten.

A Poole win began to emerge when third guest Sam Hagon was leading heat fourteen at the point it was stopped, following Cooper Rushen's overtaking move on Reid Battye, one that referee deemed unfair riding and disqualified young Rushen, who had decisions go against him at the same venue when the sides met in the Knockout Cup recently.
In the three-man rerun Hagon could do little about stopping Jordan Jenkins and Reid Battye from securing the match levelling 5-1, before Berwick's guest Leon Flint backed up Nick Morris to secure the match points for the Bandits.

Looking back at the final outcome team manager Gary Havelock said,

 "Obviously I am a bit gutted at the end, but overall very proud of the lads. They did a great job and you know, poor Coops (Cooper Rushen) getting excluded for that. He got by him and the throttle goes two ways you know. I didnt agree with the call at all. Then they expected us to go out in the dark for heat fifteen, so I spoke to the referee and said it is dangerous. He agreed with me, so what did they do? They put three lights on the back straight that shone onto the football pitch  and there was nothing on the corners. The corners were pitch black, you couldn't see a thing and listen, speedway is a dangerous sport as it is and it doesn't need to be made anymore dangerous. But we got the bonus point. Of course I would have liked the win, it would have been good. It clearly meant a lot to them, they were dancing around as if they had won the league. They won't even make the play-offs! But as I said, I was proud of the boys. They had a couple of off races but that is to be expected here. If you can get out the traps and get a bit of fresh air between you and them then its great. But It's like a night and day difference. If you're behind and you're getting roasted with shale it's a horrible battle. I really wanted to use Eddie (Kennett) a bit more but the guy was blown out. Really feeling it. Absolutely knackered. He's 40  years old and been out the sport for a few years and he just couldn't do it. I wanted to use him in heat 14 but he said he was done. I knew we needed him so I did a deal and said if you cant do 14 you will have to do 15, which he did. But it is what it is and on a different day we would have won that."

Top scoring Pirate for the night, Sam Masters said afterwards,

 "I am sorry we couldn't get the win for Poole but I did my best. It felt a long time between heats five and eleven and the track had changed a lot and it just caught me off guard. I had done three races in the space of five heats and that was difficult but good fun. I love riding the bike and was happy to guest for Poole. Round here though it is hard on the body, hard on the bikes and I would have liked to have seen Poole get the result but it wasn't to be."
 

Poole now have five Cab Direct Championship meetings remaining including two visits to Scotland. Their other three meetings are all at Wimborne Road, including one against Oxford where they will be in opposition to Masters and Kennett - the duo that scored 26 between them in this meeting.

BERWICK 47 -Nick Morris 16+1 (3,3,3,2,3,2') ,Leon Flint  10+3 (1',2,2',2',3) ,Reid Battye 8+1 (2,1,2,1,2') ,Jordan Jenkins 6+1 (2,1',0,3) ,Victor Palovaara 4+1 (1',2,1,0) ,Jye Etheridge 2 (2,0,0,TS) ,Vinnie Foord 1 (0,1,0,RS)
POOLE 43 -Sam Masters 14 (3,3,3,3,1,1) ,Edward Kennett 12 (3,3,3,3,0) ,Lewis Kerr 5+1 (2,1,2',0,0) ,Cooper Rushen 5+1 (0,2,1,2',X0) ,William Cairns 4 (0,0,R,3,1) ,Sam Hagon 3 (1,0,1,1)