Poole 53 Wolves 39

The Royal Marines are ‘invading’ the Bournemouth cliffs this week as part of an international air fair.

They could have no better example than the gallant, if ultimately unsuccessful, attempt by Wolves to storm the Wimborne Road fortress just down the coast.

Poole have not dropped a single point at home this season – and rarely looked like doing so.

But if Wolves, as team boss Peter Adams intimated before the match, were riding for pride alone then that was a commodity in rich supply in the visitors’ pits.

They simply tore into the opposition from the very first heat, won at a canter by Fredrik Lindgren.

In doing so they put down a marker for what many observers reckon will be this year’s Elite League play-off final.

Ultimately Poole, with impressive strength throughout the order, pulled clear as the track slicked off and ended as convincing winners on a night featuring some excellent racing.

Wolves were first to the flag in six of the first nine heats and trailed at that stage by only four points.

But with Tai Woffinden on his second bike – a loss of compression saw him slip from first to third in his opening ride – they couldn’t quite summon enough back-up to give the Pirates a real run for the points.

You couldn’t fault the skipper’s commitment. He was wringing the neck of his spare machine but repeatedly found himself overhauled.

Only in the closing stages of the match, when he bulled his way past Artur Mroczka in the penultimate heat and relegated Bjarne Pedersen to fourth in the closer, did he look his normal self.

Lindgren opened with a sumptuous brace of wins, but was surprisingly passed by Davey Watt in his third outing – Ty Proctor steamed inside Leon Madsen at the same moment – and relegated to third spot in his double-point outing in heat 13.

But he rounded off his night in style. Twice in the final race Watt got his nose in front entering the third bend but on each occasion Lindgren retained enough momentum on the cutback to go clear again.

Thirteen proved spectacularly unlucky for Nicolai Klindt, caught up in a wipeout after Lindgren’s left leg got trapped in Chris Holder’s machine.

Klindt was stood down from a meeting to which he had contributed three extremely sharp victories, none better than his heat six success against Holder.

The Aussie twice appeared to get the better of his rival on the inside exiting the pits turn but scrupulously left a racing line on each occasion and Klindt was able to power round and regain control.

The all-action Ty Proctor, who had covered every patch of shale and a fair part of the centre green in an unavailing attempt to dislodge Pedersen in the fifth, got the reward his perseverance deserved three races later when a scintillating cutback off gate four earned him the win.

Matt Wethers had a better night’s racing than his scorechart might suggest while Ludvig Lindgren’s unyielding determination kept Watt at the back in the visitors’ only 5-1 of the night.
Wolves were repelled this time but may yet be plotting a second assault.

By Tim Hamblin