Poole Pirates v Redcar Bears

Report

POOLE were held to a 48-42 advantage over Redcar to leave their Cab Direct Championship play-off semi-final against Redcar in a fascinating position at the halfway stage.

Richard Lawson scored another 15-point maximum for the Pirates, but they were kept in check by a resilient Bears side who only had four race wins but picked up the minor places with regularity.

Redcar in fact led the meeting by two points after Heat 8 when impressive reserve Ace Pijper took his second win, and Jake Mulford joined him for a 5-1.

Poole hit back immediately through Lewis Kerr and captain Zach Cook, but the only race advantages in the last six heats came with 4-2s to the home side in Heats 11 and 15.

Lawson was backed up by Kerr with 9+1, Anders Rowe with nine and Cook with 8+1 for the Pirates, whilst Danny King top-scored for a solid visiting side with nine from five rides.

Cook said: “Everyone was working hard in the pits tonight and there were no complaints.

“Redcar are a solid team and they thought they had it there for a minute, and it didn’t look good, so to have these six points – we can be happy with that, and we will just have to go there now and fight them at Redcar.”

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP SEMI-FINAL, 1st leg
POOLE 48: Richard Lawson 15, Lewis Kerr 9+1, Anders Rowe 9, Zach Cook 8+1, Paul Starke 3+1, Tobias Thomsen 2+1, Will Cairns 2
REDCAR 42: Danny King 9, Charles Wright 7+1, Mick Morris 6+2, Jason Edwards 6, Ace Pijper 6, Jody Scott 4+3, Jake Mulford 4+2

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