PIRATES IN CONTROL AT HALF-TIME OF PLAY-OFF SEMI FINAL

Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates extended their unbeaten home sequence to thirty meetings and now sit in the cockpit  as they head towards another Championship play-off final.

A remarkably strong finish from the Pirates, sparked by an impressive 5-1 immediately after the interval from Slater Lightcap and his nursemaid Zach Cook, saw Poole complete a 57-33 victory over the Edinburgh Monarchs, giving themselves a 24-point advantage when they head to Armadale on Friday for the second leg of this play-off semi final tie..

Number one Richard Lawson, who has been self-critical of his recent form, was delighted with the magnitude of the advantage, to which he contributed a five-ride paid maximum.

"I said to Middlo (Neil Middleditch) around about heat eight that I felt we needed to kick on a bit as we only had about a ten point lead and we did just that, and I am not even certain what it was in the end, but we hit them hard.''

On confirming that it was a 24 point lead, Lawson added,

"Let's have it! That'll do, honestly. After the break the ride from Slater and Zach was something special. They both rode well and Zach covered his back. For Slater to win that one was important and we really kicked on from there and just stretched that point gap."
 

Skipper Cook admitted
"It was cool to be able to do a bit of team riding. It was good. He done what he had to do and I was just sat on the inside, making sure he was safe where he was. But yeah, in knockout speedway every point is vital and if you can save a couple there by looking after each other then who knows. In speedway it can come down to one or two points, like we saw last year in the final. So yeah, its been a good night. It's not over yet, we are only halfway, but definitely we hold a good lead and we've done well up there this season already.''

Poole's lead might have been greater had it not been for Lightcap's plug cap coming loose when he was well clear in heat 14 and steering the Pirates to 4-2, but his loss of power allowed Michele 'Paco' Castagna to score his tenth point of the night and give Edinburgh only their second heat advantage from the whole meeting.
For his overall performance he was voted Rider of the Night and admitted,
"Every lap is a learning curve, but I am starting to figure the track out now. Unfortunately I had that mishap with a defect that does not usually happen and those problems I don't need to have as it costs me points."

POOLE 57 -Richard Lawson 13+2 (2',3,3,2',3) ,Zach Cook 12+2 (2,3,2',3,2') ,Kyle Newman 9+2 (3,1',3,2') ,Slater Lightcap 6+1 (2',1,3,R) ,Cooper Rushen 6+1 (1,2,1',2) ,Lewis Kerr 6+1 (0,1',2,3) ,William Cairns 5 (3,1,1,0)
EDINBURGH 33 -Michele Castagna 10 (3,2,2,3,0) ,Dan Thompson 9 (3,2,3,R,1) ,Kye Thomson 5 (1,3,X0,1) ,Justin Sedgmen 4+2 (2',0,1',1) ,Jonatan Grahn 3 (0,0,2,1) ,Jordy Loftus 1 (0,0,RS,1) ,Mitchell Cluff 1 (1,0,0,0,0)

Full Heat details 

Photo Credit: Tony Hartmann