Poole Pirates 64 Plymouth Gladiators 26
Cab Direct Championship Wednesday 7th June 2023
Peter Moore at Wimborne Road
Poole Pirates maintained their unbeaten start to their league campaign with a crushing 64-26 victory over the visiting Plymouth Gladiators at Wimborne Road on Wednesday evening.
The visiting side could muster only two wins on the night as Poole totally dominated the meeting from the start to the finish with nine heat maximum heats.
When these sides meet just twenty four hours earlier, Poole needed a last heat victory from Zach Cook to claim a narrow two point win. However, this evening Pirates set the tone for the night ahead with a 5-1 maximum in the very first heat through Steve Worrall and Anders Rowe.
Courtesy of another two heat maximums, the hosts led 15-3 after only three heats. The next couple of heats were shared including heat four which saw the visitors pick up their first win of the night courtesy of Richie Worrall. In heat five Gladiators nominated Richie Worrall for a tactical ride, with the gamble paying off, but the Cook brothers packed in for second and third place to make the score 21-9.
By the time heat eight was over, Poole were dominating the contest, leading by 22 points after yet another heat maximum-the fifth of the night. It took until the tenth heat for Plymouth to produce their only 5-1 maximum of the meeting when Ben Barker led Dan Gilkes home.
That was to be the last heat advantage for the visitors with Poole banging in a further four heat maximums with consecutive 5-1’s in the final three heats to run out comprehensive winners.
Ben Cook top scored for the hosts with 14 points from five rides with Richard Lawson picking up 13+1 from five rides.
The excellent reserve pairing of Kyle Newman and Adam Roynon claimed a total of 15+5 with Newman picking up a paid maximum of 12 points from his four rides.
The only rider to enter double figures for the Gladiators was Richie Worral who amassed 12 points from six rides, with every other rider struggling on a night that maintained Poole’s excellent home record on the track.