Plymouth Gladiators v Poole Pirates

Report

POOLE raced to a 51-39 win at Plymouth on Friday to set up a Championship KO Cup semi-final with Oxford.

The Pirates took an 18-point lead into the meeting so were always strong favourites to progress on aggregate, eventually going through by 30 points overall.

The tie was secured by a 5-1 from Steve Worrall and Anders Rowe in Heat 11 and the visitors then dominated the closing stages to push on for victory on the night with Worrall top scoring on 12+1 and Ben Cook adding 10.

Promoter Dan Ford said: “Although we went into this meeting with a good lead we knew we had work to do, and our boys were really fired up for it especially following some of the things they had heard from Plymouth in the build-up to the meeting.

“And I’m pleased to say they went out there and put in a dominating performance from one to seven.

“I was especially pleased for Stevie as he hasn’t been quite at his best for us this year and has been quite unwell in the past week, but you wouldn’t have known that by the way he rode to be our top scorer tonight.”

CHAMPIONSHIP KO CUP, QUARTER FINAL, 2nd leg
PLYMOUTH 39: Ben Barker 11, Kyle Howarth 8, Richie Worrall 7+1, Dan Gilkes 7, Paul Starke 3+1, Ben Trigger 3, Jake Turner 0
POOLE 51: Steve Worrall 12+1, Ben Cook 10, Zach Cook 7+1, Richard Lawson 7, Anders Rowe 6+1, Kyle Newman 5+2, Adam Roynon 4
Poole win on aggregate 105-75

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Photo credit: DAN WESTLAKE