Powerful Pirates too strong for Bears
Poole raced to a comfortable 55-34 win over the Redcar Bears in Redcar’s penultimate away league fixture of the season. Lewis Kerr top scored for Redcar with 12 whilst 3 Poole riders (Danny King, Ben Cook and Richard Lawson) hit paid 14.
In a clash which was delayed by an hour due to a heavy rain shower, Steve Worrall took the win in heat 1 but with the Bears duo packing into the minor placings, Poole could not gain an early lead.
Zach Cook took the chequered flag in heat 2 with Bears debutant Kyle Newman challenging in the latter stages. Cook went wide on the final bend and Newman tried to go up the inside but fell. Incredibly, with Nathan Ablitt struggling to adapt to the early track conditions, Newman had time to remount to claim 3rd and a second shared race.
The decorated 2021 league champions took their first 5-1 in heat 3 as both Pirates, (Danny King and Ben Cook) went either side of the early leader, Jason Edwards for a comfortable 5-1. The third shared race of the early stages arrived in heat 4 as Richard Lawson powered to the chequered flag with both Bears behind the Kings Lynn man, Poole could not extend the early lead.
Poole asserted their dominance on the Championship clash with a heat 5 maximum as Ben Cook and Danny King gated to send the hosts 8 ahead.
The sixth race saw Kerr make a fantastic gate but Steve Worrall clipped Kerr’s back wheel and crashed into the air fence alongside his teammate Drew Kemp.
After a short delay, Worrall was excluded from the re-run (the Wolves star subsequently withdrew from the meeting). The re-run saw Kerr take the win with Redcar looking set for a 4-2 heat advantage. However, Jordan Jenkins tried an ambitious pass on Drew Kemp and the Bears man took an awkward looking fall with only 2 riders left for a rarely seen 3-2 away advantage. Poole took their lead to 11 in heat 9 with another 5-1 courtesy of Zach Cook and Lawson.
Heat 8 was one of the races of the night as Charles Wright tried everything to pass the race leader, Zach Cook. The Bears skipper tried the inside and outside but finally got the better of the Poole man on the 4th bend of the final lap to take the win and with Jenkins in third, Redcar had their second heat advantage.
With Redcar sensing a way back into the meeting, Gavin Parr used Wright as a tactical substitute alongside Kerr. Despite the Bears having a strong pairing in place, they did not make the gate and the Pirates took a 5-1 to stretch their lead to 13. Any hopes of an unlikely Redcar revival were then fully extinguished in heat 10 as Lawson and Kemp hit another 5-1 to send the large home crowd wild.
The Bears stemmed the flow with a shared heat 11 whilst heat 12 saw an exciting battle between King and Newman. Newman initially had the lead but King passed the Bears reserve and with Edwards falling, Poole had another heat advantage. On a tough night for the Bears, they did have another highlight as Kerr, using the outside dirt line, won heat 13 brilliantly ahead of King and Lawson.
Newman showed the travelling Bears fans what they can expect of him in Bears colours as he rode intelligently to hold off both Cook brothers to take his first heat win as a Bear. Poole finished the night off with their 8th heat advantage as Ben Cook took a superb victory over Kerr to finish a superb night for the Pirates.
Jordan Jenkins also withdrew from the meeting in the latter stages after his heat 6 tumble despite taking his place in heat 8. Jenkins was withdrawn as a precaution and is expected to be fit for Friday’s big KO Cup clash at Edinburgh.
Redcar team boss Gavin Parr believes his side didn’t get going on the south coast, ” I’m not taking anything away from Poole but we had too many passengers this evening (barring our top 2) against a brilliant Poole side.”
Parr also commended the display of the club’s new signing, Kyle Newman, “Kyle was fantastic considering it was his first time on a bike for over 8 weeks. Kyle was one big positive tonight and he will be a real trump card for us!”
POOLE 55:
- Steve Worrall = 3 Withdrawn
- Drew Kemp = 5+1
- Danny King = 12+2
- Ben Cook = 12+2
- Richard Lawson = 12+2
- Zack Cook = 10
- Nathan Ablitt = 1
REDCAR 34:
- Charles Wright = 8+1
- Rider Replacement for Erik Riss
- Jason Edwards = 3+1
- Kasper Andersen = 1
- Lewis Kerr = 12
- Kyle Newman = 6+1
- Jordan Jenkins = 4+1