REACTION: PIRATES INFLICT HEAVY DEFEAT ON CHEETAHS

Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates extended the club's run to 28 undefeated meetings at Wimborne Road and hit the sixty point barrier for the third time this season by inflicting a 60-30 defeat on the Oxford Cheetahs, who were racing their final meeting of the season.

The Pirates collected three league points to move six points clear of their nearest rivals, Glasgow, the the team they face next, when they travel to Scotland for their penultimate league match of the campaign.

An all-round solid Poole performance had skipper Zach Cook and back-from-injury Kyle Newman firmly in the spotlight, with both unbeaten from their programmed rides, before missing out on maximums in the nominated heat fifteen when Sam Masters resolved not to be overtaken for a third time by Cook.

The points were comfortably in Poole's locker by that stage, three maximum heat scores in the first five heats being the meat in the sandwich of two 4-2 heat gains for the visitors, setting Poole on their way and then later in the meeting they dropped just two points in the space of five races between heats 10 and 14 inclusive.

Newman who had missed the past two meetings for the Pirates admitted

"I feel good. I let it go in heat fifteen but it is just nice being there. I was feeling good on track and I am sure later it is going to hit me in a bit but it was pretty cool. Although I have been out I haven't really had much chance to rest up. I spoke with my physio and they said it was just swelling inside and basically told me to get on with it. Told me when I should ride and when I should do other things. So I followed the advice and it went like a treat."

Cook had two super races against Masters, passing him from behind in heats eleven and thirteen and he justifiably won the Rider of the Night award for the fifth time this season. Speaking afterwards the skipper said,

"It's a nice feel getting the nomination and it means that I am going good, and I did have a good one tonight. I had a couple of good races with Sam and it was nice to do him twice from the back. In the last one there he knew where I was going to be, and so he shut the door and then I knew I couldn't carry the momentum, so he wrecked it for me in that one, but yeah it was nice to have those races. I'm not sure what the final score was in the end but hopefully we can carry some momentum into the remaining meetings as they are going to be the big ones."

Poole will travel to Glasgow where they will operate rider replacement for Cooper Rushen whilst the hosts have drafted in Anders Rowe, who guested for the Tigers against Poole back in 2024 at Ashfield and scored 10 points and Plymouth's Anze Grmek as cover for Kyle Howarth (retired) and Mario Hausl (injured) respectively.

Scorers: POOLE 60 -Zach Cook 14 (3,3,3,3,2) ,Kyle Newman 10+4 (3,2',2',2',1') ,Lewis Kerr 10 (3,2,2,3) ,William Cairns 7+1 (0,1',3,3) ,Richard Lawson 7+1 (2,2,2',1) ,Slater Lightcap 6+2 (2',1,1,2') ,Cooper Rushen 6+2 (2',0,1',3)
OXFORD 30 -Sam Masters 14 (1,3,3,2,2,3) ,Mitch McDiarmid 5 (1,2,1,1) ,Anders Rowe 4 (1,3,0,0) ,Luke Killeen 4 (3,1,0,0,0) ,Darryl Ritchings 2 (1,0,1,0) ,Dayle Wood 1 (0EH,0,TS,1) ,Mitchell Cluff 0 (0,0,R,R)

Full Heat details and report

Photo credit: Liam Cockwell