Elite League
Poole Speedway: Pirates leapfrog back to the top
By Nick
Aug 7, 2008, 19:46

The Poole Castle Cover Pirates climbed back to the top of the Elite League standings thanks to a 50 – 42 win over the Lakeside Hammers, who were the league leaders going into this match.  Pirates were never seriously challenged throughout the match, although it was made a little easier with Hammers having their number one star Andreas Jonsson missing on paternity leave. And their luck turned against them in Heat 6 when Joonas Kylmakorpi suffered a dislocated shoulder in a first bend crash which ruled him out for the rest of the match. The flying Finn had already notched up two second places from his first two outings, and this unfortunate injury put paid to any chances the Hammers had of denting the Pirates progress.

“ I thought we did extremely well in the circumstances “ said Pirates team manager Neil Middleditch “ Freddie Eriksson suffered mechanical problems throughout the match, and both Adam Skornicki and Magnus Zetterstrom were struggling to keep on the pace.”

“ Having said that Lakeside refused to roll over and give up, and came back at us strongly in the penultimate race, but Adam had different ideas and secured what could be a valuable win for us come the end of the season.”

Indeed the Hammers restricted Poole to a narrow four point lead at the halfway point before Bjarne Pedersen and Skornicki doubled the Pirates advantage with a 5 – 1 maximum score in Heat 9. 

Heat 13 proved to be unlucky for Lakeside with Dave Watt and Chris Holder laying the foundations for a Pirates victory with a tapes to flag maximum heat win, but this also opened the door for the visitors to try one last gasp effort by using Jonas Davidsson as a tactical option in the penultimate race.

From the start it looked as though their plan would come off as Davidsson and Kling sped from the tapes and hit the front, however they hadn’t reckoned with Skornicki who forced his way to the front to secure victory and two more valuable league points for the table topping Pirates.