Poole Pirates v Scunthorpe Scorpions

SCUNTHORPE stunned title holders Poole by taking a potentially vital point from their Cab Direct Championship play-off opener at Wimborne Road.

The Scorpions came from 33-27 down with five races remaining to level the scores at 45-45 after Heat 15, giving them a league point in Group A, with the Pirates collecting two as they were successful in the subsequent Super Heat.

Ryan Douglas gave another inspirational performance for the visitors with 17 points on a track where he frequently excels, whilst former Poole rider Drew Kemp returned to haunt his former club with 13+2 at reserve.

Steve Worrall (11+1) and Richard Lawson (10+2) got the Pirates over the line in the Super Heat but they will now be under pressure to secure results on the road themselves.

Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey said: “It was an amazing result for us – we always knew we had it within us and that the boys were capable of putting in a performance like this. We’d already enjoyed a decent night at Poole earlier in the season, so we had no fears coming here.

“You could even argue a couple of the refereeing decisions went against us, but I’m happy to hold them to 45-45.

“In the Super Heat, Dougie tried to slow it down and help Drew, but it wasn’t to be. But we’ve got to look at the bigger picture and realise that this result puts us in complete control of our group.”

Lawson said: “It was a very tough meeting tonight, we all tried really hard, we nearly threw that away going to in Heat 15, but we came through it and really we know that we will now have to go to Scunthorpe and win like we did before.

“It is certainly looking like the winner of that meeting will be topping the table, but that is not to write Edinburgh off of course.

“We all like the track there at Scunthorpe and whilst we haven’t got the lead that we wanted to take, we can still claim that we are unbeaten at home. We are the Pirates and we have come from worse.”

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF GROUP A
POOLE 45: Steve Worrall 11+1, Richard Lawson 10+2, Ben Cook 8, Anders Rowe 6+1, Kyle Newman 5+1, Zach Cook 5+1, Joe Thompson 0
SCUNTHORPE 45: Ryan Douglas 17, Drew Kemp 13+2, Jake Allen 7+1, Simon Lambert 3+1, Michael Palm Toft 2+1, Connor Mountain 2, Nathan Ablitt 1
Poole beat Scunthorpe 6-3 in Super Heat

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Photo credit: ANTHONY BURCHELL