SWINDON 50 PIRATES 39

When Rye House beat Somerset earlier in the day the 'Volvo Cars' Poole Pirates plummeted to the bottom of the Premiership league table and so their Bank Holiday contest became top versus bottom as they travelled to defending champions Swindon.

In truth, the disparity in league positions was not easily seen for a large part of the meeting, nothing between the sides for the first eight heats.
The Pirates may have considered themselves a little fortunate that Adam Ellis twice fell when leading in his opening two rides but the visitors were to suffer major problems themselves when Peter Kildemand ran out of track in heat 9 and fell right in the path of debutant Stefan Nielsen. With the Dane disqualified, young Brit Nielsen needed the ride of his life to try and keep the scores tight as he faced Bellego and Batchelor. Trying to keep it tight in to turn two Nielsen spun out of the re-run and left a third start made-up of a simple Robins' match-race.
The Robins further feathered their nest when both Morris and Ellis blitzed by Sundstrom in heat 10 to suddenly give the home side a healthy 9 point lead. Kildemand, in as a tactical substitute suffered another fall in heat 11 after taking two laps to weave a way by Wajtknecht, negating Kurtz's third win of the night to just a heat share.
Grajczonek shone in heat 12 with a smart move on Batchelor whilst Szczepaniak also put himself about but found himself just unable to sneak by the Australian.
Musielak went past Kurtz in the early stages of heat 13 to inflict the first defeat on the Pirates' number one and with Morris out-pacing Kildemand the Robins put victory virtually beyond the Pirates, making certain of finishing the job when Wajtknecht passed Lundstrom for third on the final lap of heat 14 to convert Bellego's win into a home side 4-2, before Kurtz completed a solid night for himself with a fourth win.

SWINDON 50
N. Morris 2,3,3,1=9
A. Ellis R,FD,3,2'=5+1
T. Batchelor 3,1',2',2=8+2
D. Bellego 2',2,3,3,1'=11+2
T. Musielak 2,3,2,3,2=12
Z. Wajtknecht 2,0,1',1=4+1
M. Davey 0,1',0,0=1+1

POOLE 39
B. Kurtz 3,3,3,2,3=14
K. Woryna 1,0,2=3
J. Grajczonek R,2,0,3,0=5
L. Sundstrom 1,1',1,0=3+1
P. Kildemand 3,2,FD,F,0=5
M. Szczepaniak 3,1',1',1,2=8+2
S. Nielsen 1,0,FD=1

Ht 1 B. Kurtz N. Morris K. Woryna A. Ellis (Rtd) 2-4 (2-4) (66.18)
Ht 2 M. Szczepaniak Z. Wajtknecht S. Nielsen M. Davey 2-4 (4-8) (67.02)
Ht 3 T. Batchelor D. Bellego L. Sundstrom J. Grajczonek (Rtd) 5-1 (9-9) (65.39)
Ht 4 P. Kildemand T. Musielak M. Davey S. Nielsen 3-3 (12-12) (66.18)
Ht 5 B. Kurtz D. Bellego T. Batchelor K. Woryna 3-3 (15-15) (66.15)
Ht 6 N. Morris P. Kildemand M. Szczepaniak A. Ellis (Fell d/q) 3-3 (18-18) (66.74)
Ht 7 T. Musielak J. Grajczonek L. Sundstrom Z. Wajtknecht 3-3 (21-21) (66.77)
Ht 8 A. Ellis K. Woryna M. Szczepaniak M. Davey 3-3 (24-24) (66.77)
Ht 9 D. Bellego T. Batchelor S. Nielsen (Fell d/q) P. Kildemand (Fell d/q) 5-0 (29-24) (67.61)
Ht 10 N. Morris A. Ellis L. Sundstrom J. Grajczonek 5-1 (34-25) (66.71)
Ht 11 B. Kurtz T. Musielak Z. Wajtknecht P. Kildemand (Fell) 3-3 (37-28) (67.62)
Ht 12 J. Grajczonek T. Batchelor M. Szczepaniak M. Davey 2-4 (39-32) (67.49)
Ht 13 T. Musielak B. Kurtz N. Morris P. Kildemand 4-2 (43-34) (67.58)
Ht 14 D. Bellego M. Szczepaniak Z. Wajtknecht L. Sundstrom 4-2 (47-36) (67.83)
Ht 15 B. Kurtz T. Musielak D. Bellego J. Grajczonek 3-3 (50-39) (67.46)

Referee Dave Robinson
Gates: POOLE won toss and chose gates 2&4 | SWINDON took gates 2&4 in heat 15
SWINDON 3 league points POOLE 0 league points
Rider of the Night: Brady Kurtz