Poole Pirates v Oxford Cheetahs

Report

POOLE clinched their third Cab Direct Championship title in four years with a stirring second leg fightback in an incident-packed Grand Final with Oxford.

The Pirates were 12 points down from the opening clash at Cowley but hit back with a 56-34 win in the return at a packed Wimborne Road, taking the league title by ten points on aggregate.

They levelled overall with a 5-1 from Ben and Zach Cook in Heat 9 but it took until Heat 12 for them to finally take the lead, with Zach Cook and Tobias Thomsen securing their triumph with a 4-2 in the penultimate race.

Tom Brennan top-scored with 13 points from five rides, Thomsen put in a key display at reserve with 10+2 and Richard Lawson bounced back from a Heat 1 disqualification for bringing down Sam Masters by scoring 10+1 from his remaining four outings.

Masters led the way for the Cheetahs with ten points, but their hopes were hit by the withdrawal of high-scoring reserve Luke Killeen, who was involved in two early crashes.

Skipper Ben Cook said: “It is awesome being the captain of the league champions. I wasn’t happy with the last place that I ran in one ride, and perhaps we won’t talk about that.

“We always knew we were still in it but had to really dig deep, make some starts and be hard on them in the first corners.”

The league title battle between the clubs is not the end of the story for 2024, as the Pirates and the Cheetahs will meet again over two legs later this month in the Cab Direct KO Cup Final.

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY OFF FINAL, 2nd leg
POOLE 56: Tom Brennan 13, Tobias Thomsen 10+2, Richard Lawson 10+1, Ben Cook 9, Zach Cook 8+1, Vinnie Foord 3+1, Sam Hagon 3
OXFORD 34: Sam Masters 10, Dan Gilkes 6+1, Scott Nicholls 6, Cameron Heeps 6, Ashton Boughen 4, Jody Scott 2, Luke Killeen 0
Poole win 95-85 on aggregate

POOLE ARE 2024 CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP CHAMPIONS

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Photo credit: TONY HARTMAN