The Poole Castle Cover Pirates stretched their lead at the top of the Elite League standings to five points after posting a convincing 54 – 36 win over bottom of the table Peterborough.   This 18 point home win also saw the Pirates chalk up their twelfth successive league win of the season, the best that the club has achieved since the formation of the Elite League in 1997.

“ Yet another solid all round team performance “ said Pirates team manager Neil Middleditch  “ We had a few minor mechanical problems during the meeting but didn’t let them get in the way of what we had to do.”

“ A lot of people are making us favourites to lift the league championship right now, but we can’t afford to drop our guard for one moment. We still have a job to do and there is still time for someone to come along and spoil the party, We won’t be getting complacent that’s for sure.”

Pirates got off to a flying start, courtesy of Chris Holder and Magnus Zettersom, to go four points up after the opening race and went even further ahead when Bjarne Pedersen and Adam Skornicki pulled off yet another maximum heat win in Heat 3. 

Peterborough looked to have no answer and when Pedersen and Skornicki raced home in Heat 5 to put Poole 21 – 9 ahead, it looked as though the Pirates were on course for a landslide home victory.  However, Panthers hit back when Daniel King posted their first race win in Heat 6 but only after Chris Holder had pulled out of the arec with a mechanical problem.

Pirates extended their lead to 12 points by the halfway stage after which a succession of race wins gave them a twenty point lead by the end of Heat 13.  Peterborough still refused to throw in the towel, with Vissing and Proctor pulling off a surprise 5 -1 win in the penultimate race to give their fans something to cheer about.

But it was too little too late for the visitors with  Dave Watt and Bjarne Pedersen sealing the Pirates win with another Pirates heat win in the final race.