POOLE are firmly in the driving seat for progression to the Craven Shield Final as the Buildbase Bees' defence of the trophy came unstuck at Wimborne Road on Wednesday.

Bees will have to pull back a significant deficit of 24 points in Friday's return fixture at Brandon if they are to have a chance of keeping the silverware as the Pirates dominated the first leg.

The home side romped into an early 23-7 lead as Bees conceded 5-1s in four of the first five races, and three of those featured Polish rider Adam Skornicki who is in the form of his life after moving to the Dorset club over the winter.

Bees did manage a mid-meeting revival but it took them nine races to provide a heat winner, Simon Stead taking the flag in Heat 9 - and then Chris Harris and Billy Janniro provided a moment for the visiting supporters to cheer as they collected a 5-1 over home skipper Bjarne Pedersen in Heat 10.

With four heats to go the score was 40-28 and Bees were hauling themselves back into contention, but the closing stages of the meeting went against them once more as Poole scored 18 points in those final races.

Davey Watt was in inspired form for the home team, and twice got the better of Rory Schlein in close battles in Heats 11 and 13 to keep his unbeaten run going, and Skornicki then combined with Freddie Eriksson in Heat 14 for the Pirates' sixth 5-1 of the night.

Harris, who dominated the Bees' scoring by finishing at least second in each of his five races, split the Poole duo in the last race as Watt completed his maximum - and there can be little doubt that the Pirates are strong favourites now to go through.

POOLE: Adam Skornicki 15+3, Davey Watt 15, Chris Holder 12, Bjarne Pedersen 8+2, Freddie Eriksson 6+1, Craig Watson 2+1, Karol Zabik r/r.

BUILDBASE BEES: Chris Harris 13, Billy Janniro 5+3, Simon Stead 5, Rory Schlein 5, Ben Barker 4, Olly Allen 1+1, Stan Burza 1+1.