Aussie sensation Jack Holder showed his former club Poole what they were missing, as he dropped just one point in a five ride session at the Oak Tree Arena, a feat matched by reigning World Champion Jason Doyle as the Rebels banked another three valuable league points.
The only rider to beat the pair of them on the night was Polish youngster Kacper Woryna who recorded an excellent 17 point score from a full-house of rides and was the stand-out performer for the Pirates who were given two huge helping hands of fortune to even pick up a consolation point.
The 48-42 victory to Somerset should have been much greater but Lady Luck was not shining on Rebels reserve Jake Allen who was twice set to play his part in crucial 5-1’s, alongside Holder for the home side, only to be denied by huge misfortune.
In heat 7 the Rebels duo were looking comfortable against Woryna and ex-Rebel Richie Worrall but a puncture coming out of the second turn on the final lap forced Allen to pull-up, allowing the Pirates to claim a drawn heat and stay just two points behind the Rebels (22-20).
That same differential remained in place with a drawn heat 8 then 4-2’s were traded in 9 and 10, the latter seeing Woryna sensationally storm clear of Doyle to gain a huge personal victory for the Poole reserve.
Set to go into a six point lead Allen was again nestled in neatly behind Holder in heat 11 when he found a hole on the fourth turn which threw him to the floor, Kurtz and Sundstrom skilfully avoiding him to share the heat.
A slight mistake on the back-straight in heat 12 by new boy Claus Vissing allowed Worrall to get by him and as the Dane tried hard to get back into contention his tight navigation of the final turn ended in disaster and he crashed out with Poole sneaking into a two point advantage (35-37).
Holder and Doyle answered that immediately, a superb inside move by Doyle on Kurtz setting the 5-1 up and Lawson and Covatti kept the Rebels in the driving seat going into the final heat by sharing heat 14 behind Sundstrom, Poole’s other impressive performer.
It was the Swede and Woryna who were given the nod to go out against the immaculate Holder/Doyle partnership and the Rebels duo made no mistake with their second maximum score in the space of three heats.
Team manager Garry May admitted to being both “relieved and disappointed” with the result. “I am relieved that we came through the meeting with the win. Luck certainly wasn’t on our side, especially in the case of Jake and you can’t help feeling sorry for him when things go like that. But that said I would have preferred it had we not allowed them to get that consolation point and hence a little bit disappointed on that front. These away losing points could be significant by the time the play-offs come round as they could be the difference between making the play-offs and missing out.
“The main thing though is the lads did what I asked of them, they maintained our home record and that means we are keeping the pressure on towards the top of the table. Now though we have to move forward and focus on extending it further against King’s Lynn on Monday.”
Scorers
SOMERSET – 48: J.Holder 13+1 (2,3,3,3,2′), J.Doyle 13+1 (3,3,2,2′,3), R.Lawson 10 (3,2,3,2), N.Covatti 6+2 (0,1′,3,1,1′), B.Wilson-Dean 4+2 (2′,2′,0,0), J.Allen 2 (1,R,1,F), C.Vissing 0 (0,0,F)
POOLE – 42: K.Woryna 17 (3,3,2,2,3,3,1), L.Sundstrom 9+2 (1,3,1′,1′,3,0), R.Worrall 6+2 (2,1′,1,2′), M.Szczepaniak 4+2 (2′,1′,1,0,0), J.Grajczonek 3 (0,0,2,1), B.Kurtz 3 (0,1,2,0)