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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
Once again the Poole Castle Cover Pirates proved that this season they are the strongest Elite league opponents around the East of England Showground for the Peterborough Panthers.
But it was a meeting very much of two halves as the luckless Poole Castle Cover Pirates all but handed the Peterborough Panthers their victory, haemorraging points through a catalogue of misfortune, but a late recovery inspired by Aussies Holder, Watt and Ward enabled the Pirates to snatch a point and upset Peterborough's plan to make it maximum points from their remaining home matches.
The meeting build up was enough to suggest that it wasn't going to be Poole's night, Chris Holder and Davey Watt enduring flight cancellations and diversions on their way back from Poland and Leon Madsen reporting for duty despite a bout of flu-poisoning. But things became worse when Jason Doyle made an unforced error whilst amongst the points in heat 2 which would have given the visitors a heat advantage, Ward the run-away winner. Doyle's was out again two heats later and made a lightning start but was soon overhauled by both fellow Aussie Troy Batchelor, Doyle not even able to complete the distance as his bike packed up.
Sick Madsen made a strong start in heat 5 and he and Holder looked as though they might square-up proceedings but Madsen was unable to hold position and was rapidly relegated to the rear.
Poole went with both reserves in heat 8, Ward standing in for Madsen but again points were handed to the Panthers when Doyle's night to forget continued, slipping out of second to fourth!Blessed with the better gate positions in heat 9, Poole had a chance to put the squeeze on the Panthers but carburretor problems for skipper Watt developed with the two minutes exhausted and with Doyle so out of form it was best to keep Watt on track through the handicap. That though moved the gate positions over and Schlein and Iversen swallowed up the advantage emphatically.
Showground supremo Bjerre then produced a great ride to wrestle more points off the Pirates after Pedersen and Mroczka had made good early running. Significantly though the shared heat tee-ed things up for Poole to deploy Chris Holder as a tactical rider in heat 11, the British GP winner making no mistakes but behind him it was a case of digging deep against the health odds for Madsen as he battled into third that closed the gap sufficiently to put Poole back in the hunt for a point.
Heat 12 saw a blistering ride from Schlein and Ward's drift back through the pack looked to be critical but he managed to battle back and share the heat. Up to the plate came skipper Watt, without a win to his name from his first three rides but then doing something that is rarely achieved at the Showground this year - he beat Bjerre and with Holder in third the Pirates were suddenly in with a shout of a shock win.
Ward replaced the out-of-sorts Doyle and duly won heat 14 with a spectacular ride, Mroczka though unable to add to Poole's late rally. The pressure mounted ahead of heat 15 with thoughts of what happened at Eastbourne last Thursday flooding back.
But whilst Bjerre was determined to make amends for his heat 13 defeat Holder got in between the Dane and Schlein to protect the point and with Pedersen keeping Schlein fully attentive the heat result was sufficient enough for that well deserved league point that gives Poole an 8 point advantage at the top of the table.
Peterborough 49 - K.Bjerre 14; N.Iversen 8+1; R.Schlein 8+1; T.Batchelor 8; N.Kosciuch 5+4; K.Buczkowski 4; M.Tressarieu 2
Poole 44 - C.Holder 14 (2,3,6^,1,2); D.Ward 11+1 (3,0,3,1,1',3); B.Pedersen 9 (3,2,2,2,0); D.Watt 6 (1,2,0,3); A.Mroczka 3+2 (1,1',1',0); L.Madsen 1+1 (R,0,NS,1' ); J.Doyle 0 (F,R,0)
League points awarded Peterborough 2 Poole 1
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