REACTION: MASTERS DELIGHTED WITH LONG AWAITED GOLD

Poole's hopes of lifting a national pairs title for the first time since 2011 were dashed when the Berwick Bandits pairing of Peter Kildemand and Nick Morris sensationally eliminated them in the semi-finals.

Poole were the second highest qualifiers, scoring 23 points from their four heats, three fewer than ultimate winners Oxford, represented by two former Pirates in Sam Masters and Anders Rowe. Berwick were third highest with 20, whilst Chris Harris and Leon Flint completed the knockout quartet with 19 points, but they could not halt Oxford's progress in the first of the two semi-finals.

For the first half of Poole's semi-final it looked as if they would have done enough to be able to face their Midland rivals, but both Morris and Kildemand stunned the Poole faithful as they passed Lawson to negate Cook's win, under the scoring system of 4-3-2-0.

The Border side couldn't repeat their exploits in the final, Morris finding himself some distance off the pace when he needed to try and find a way by Rowe. Speaking afterwards, the winner of the final, Sam Masters claimed:

"This one is for Oxford Speedway. They've had such a tough run this year on and off the track and it's just nice to finally get a gold. We have had a lot of silver since I've been there so this is for them."

Rowe added,

'You know, I've been here twice this year for Oxford and really struggled and yeah, like we come in today, we've got a lot of pressure on us and just went out and had fun, raced our bikes and got the job done."

Reflecting on missing out on the final, team manager for the night, Matt Ford said of Poole,

"Let's hope we can put things right with the next couple. It is disappointing of course because you want to win everything you are in, but we've got two big things coming up with the play-offs and the BSN final."

During the evening, the dates for the play-off semi-final against Edinburgh were confirmed, with Poole hosting the first leg on Wednesday 16th September, and forty-eight hours later the second leg will be staged at Edinburgh.

Pairs Result:
Semi 1: Oxford 6 (Masters 4, Rowe 2) Glasgow 3 (Harris 3, Flint 0)
Semi 2: Berwick 5 (Kildemand 3, Morris 2) Poole 4 (Cook 4 Lawson 0)
Final: Oxford 6 (Masters 4, Rowe 2) Berwick 3 (Kildemand 3, Morris 0)

Qualifying Scores:
Oxford 26 (S.Masters 14 (4, 2, 4, 4), A.Rowe 12 (3', 4, 3', 2)
Poole 23 (R.Lawson 12 (4, 3', 3, 2'), Z.Cook 11 (2, 4, 2', 3)
Berwick 20 (P.Kildemand 13 (3, 3, 3', 4), N.Morris 7 (0, 0, 4, 3')
Glasgow 19 (C.Harris 7 (2', 2, 3, 0), L.Flint 12 (3, 4, 2', 3)
Scunthorpe 17 (J.Pickering 15 (4, 3, 4, 4), L.Harrison 2 (2, 0, 0, 0)
Plymouth 17 (D.King 12 (4, 2, 2, 4), B.Barker 5 (2, R, 0, 3')
Redcar 16 (C.Wright 12 (2, 3', 3, 4), J.Edwards 4 (0, 4, 0, 0)
Edinburgh 14 (D.Thompson 10 (3, 3, 2, 2), K.Thomson 4 (0, 0, 4, 0)

Photo credit: Taylor Lanning