PIRATES DELIGHT AT GLASGOW

TITLE holders Poole moved to the top of the Cab Direct Championship table with a statement 47-43 victory at Glasgow on Friday.

The Pirates put in their best performance of the season to take the spoils over their rivals, who slipped up at home just 48 hours after an away win at Oxford.

Chris Harris scored 17 points from six rides for the Tigers, but he lacked full support in the hosts’ top five, whilst a solid Pirates side scored down the order with Tobias Thomsen (8+1) crucially backing up their heat leaders.

Richard Lawson scored 9+1 after being disqualified from Heat 1 for breaking the tapes, whilst Anders Rowe and Lewis Kerr both also scored nine, with Kerr and Paul Starke collecting the match-clinching 4-2 in Heat 14.

Pirates manager Gary Havelock said: “Overall I’m absolutely over the moon with the way the boys are going.

“It’s true we have been struggling a bit this season, we haven’t started off as well as we normally do. But write us off at your peril because we’ve got a team of fighters there and a team of guys who genuinely want to win things.

“The team sprit was fantastic tonight, it’s definitely going in the right direction.”

Tigers boss Cami Brown said: “With Dan Thompson and Ashton Boughen missing through injury, we needed our top four to be on the top of their game.

“But that wasn’t really the case and Poole are champions for a reason, they take their opportunities. They were consistently better out of the starts. 

“It’s a massively disappointing defeat. We’ve had three great away wins and you never want to lose at home. 

“All the boys gave it 100 per cent but Poole were just the better side on the night. Their top five were far more solid.”

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Photo credit: IAN ADAM