Poole Pirates v Edinburgh Monarchs

POOLE marched into their 13^th play-off Grand Final with a 55-35 win over Edinburgh to make themselves uncatchable in Cab Direct Championship Group A.

The title holders have topped the section with one match to spare, and now await news as to whether they will face Oxford or Glasgow in the decider.

The Pirates provided a full six-man performance against the Monarchs, operating rider replacement for Anders Rowe, with Richard Lawson top-scoring on 13 points whilst Steve Worrall and Zach Cook picked up 11+2 apiece and Ben Cook had three wins and one retirement.

None of the home side were able to record a maximum thanks to the efforts of Josh Pickering who won three races in a 14-point total, with Paco Castagna adding 11 from seven rides.

Worrall said: “We did the hard work at Scunthorpe to put us in the driving seat, and so tonight we were able to treat this as something like a dress rehearsal.

“No disrespect to Edinburgh, they put up a good fight, but we were able to try different things and have a play around with the track and kind of had a bit more dirt out wide. Obviously it’s getting cooler and the bikes react differently so it was good for us to try these things.”

Monarchs boss Gordon Campbell said: “Circumstances dictated that we were racing without a No.1 which added significantly to the difficulty of the task.

“Paco and Josh led the charge admirably, but Poole were always comfortable. Paco did particularly well considering he had a heavy crash on Monday but completed seven rides without question.”

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF GROUP A
POOLE 55: Richard Lawson 13, Zach Cook 11+2, Steve Worrall 11+2, Ben Cook 9, Kyle Newman 7+2, Joe Thompson 4+2, Anders Rowe r/r
EDINBURGH 35: Josh Pickering 14, Paco Castagna 11, Kye Thomson 3+2, Lasse Fredriksen 3, Dayle Wood 2+1, Bastian Borke 2, Craig Cook r/r

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Photo credit: TONY HARTMAN