BRUISED, BATTERED BUT BATTLING

The 'Wessex Marine' Pirates kept their hopes alive of regaining the BSN Series title that they conceded to Redcar last season with a recovery from being twelve points adrift at the home of the holders, to eventually trail by six points heading into Wednesday night's (23rd September) second leg at Wimborne Road.

With mechanical issues, falls, knocks and facing a determined Bears' side the resolute Pirates refused to allow their heads to drop, pleasing number one Richard Lawson who, himself, had a night of misfortunes. Speaking after  the 42-48 loss, the Rocketman said:-

"In my first one I made the start initially but then it had to be re-run and in between the staging of the re-start we broke a fuel filter, so when I let the clutch out the bike just died and we were like on half power. So I just toodled round hoping somebody would break down or something. So, that was a tough one to start with. But then I had three good ones and was feeling good and was all up for the battle in heat fifteen. I felt like me and Zach (Cook) had loads of speed, so I sent it out wide and yeah, maybe I shouldn't have gone that wide but I don't think I had much option. Jake (Allen) was there and Charles (Wright) too, and I wanted to get by but the back wheel went a bit too far and clipped the bottom of the fence, knocking the chain off. But we saw some real character tonight. What was it, twelve down at one stage and still being able to go into fifteen just four points behind them. Like I said, I really believed Zach and I were capable of getting the 5-1 or at least a heat advantage, but it is what it is. We are six down. We feel good at home and we want that trophy back. I mean when you look at what happened to us tonight. I had bike problems, Cooper (Rushen) bent two bikes and we had to straighten out one just to get him out. Lewi (Kerr) had a big crash and he's limping around quite badly. So it has been hard work to be fair, but no-one is giving up, so that shows great spirit."

Kerr's limp was a result of a nasty looking heat seven incident when he locked up around the first bend and Rushen couldn't avoid riding into him. The carnage might well have been a lot worse had Simon Lambert not shown razor sharp reactions to lay his bike down to avoid the Poole boys.

Remarkably, Kerr then came out and won his next ride with a brilliant victory over Charles Wright in heat ten. He commented after:

"I'm a bit sore right now. My lower leg just feels like a really bad dead leg to be fair, but fortunately I think that is all it is and the bike was okay. It was unfortunate, but I really enjoyed my next ride. It was good to bounce back with a win and especially beat Charles (Wright) round here, because he is very good here. I thought I was on for another win in my last race but somehow Jody (Scott) found some grip on the inside which I didn't expect and yeah, nothing much I could do about it other than follow him. He was very fast. I thought I had got round him, which I did on the first bend and then out from nowhere he got some speed and like I've always said, it  is a great race track here but once you get that dirt line and stay on it, then it is hard to overtake. Overall though, I think we are in a good position, we are quite happy with it. We would have liked the win though and maybe  had a few things not gone the way they did then we could have got it, but yeah, we are quite happy with six and go again tomorrow."

Redcar had a spell of four successive heat advantages between races six and nine inclusive but the Pirates recovered to close the gap with one of the key heats being heat fourteen when Rushen was only troubled by scraping the boards but Kyle Newman battled fervently to withhold everything that the vastly experienced Simon Lambert - who earlier in the meeting celebrated his first race win for the Bears - tried to throw at him.

The destiny of the BSN Series will be determined at Wimborne Road on Wednesday with Poole hoping to be able to field Slater Lightcap back at reserve, after his crash at Edinburgh last Friday.

Scorers:
REDCAR 48 -Charles Wright 11 (2,3,2,1,3) ,Jake Allen 10 (3,1,3,2,1) ,Ace Pijper 6+2 (2',2,2',0) ,Jake Mulford 6+2 (1',1,3,1') ,Simon Lambert  6 (3,3,0,0) ,Jason Edwards 5+2 (1',2',2,0) ,Jody Scott 4 (0,0,1,3)
POOLE 42 -Zach Cook 12 (3,2,2,3,2) ,Richard Lawson 7+2 (0,2',3,2',R) ,William Cairns 7 (3,3,R,1) ,Lewis Kerr 6+1 (1',X0,3,2) ,Cooper Rushen 6 (2,1,0,3) ,Kyle Newman 4+1 (1,F,1,1',1) ,Jordy Loftus 0 (0,R,0,RS)

Full heat details and meeting report