THE STARS were certainly shining at Wimborne Road in this league encounter but the two brightest ones proved to be the Coastal Aluminium Pirates pair of Darcy Ward and Chris Holder as they combined to rob King's Lynn of a precious league win.
Unbeaten Pirates never led in this meeting until Chris Holder produced a jaw dropping heat 15 ride that will live long in last lap longevity for Poole fans.
Holder and Ward went to tapes needing a heat advantage, and they had been rare on this night for Poole. The Poole faithful had to wait until the 9th heat before they could applaud a heat gain from the table topping Pirates and that was a vital 8-1 with Holder being used as a tactical ride and ably supported by Dennis Andersson. That single heat result kick-started the Pirates recovery against a King's Lynn side that had provided 7 of the first 8 race winners. Over the course of the final 7 races Poole capitalised with five heat advantages overturning a 14 point deficit to clinch a 48-45 victory.
The pre-meeting build up was all about the challenge of two of the league's leading race winners and the first conquest went to visiting Niels-Kristian Iversen as he claimed the scalp of Darcy Ward in a re-started heat after Ricky Kling had fallen first time of asking.
Pirates target Mateusz Szczepaniak underlined just why Matt Ford was keen to try and bring him to Wimborne Road as he sped his way to a comfortable heat 2 victory whilst behind him Todd Kurtz and Ludvig Lindgren cleverly thwarted every move that Kevin Wolbert, no stranger to Poole fans, tried. The strength of the Stars came to the fore when world U21 champion Maciej Janowski denied Holder a heat 3 win.
Pirates reserve Todd Kurtz was unfortunate in the fourth heat. An early leader he had been preyed upon by Korneliussen and just after the Dane swept by him Kurtz appeared to wobble, right in front of Wolbert and the German couldn't avoid falling. Referee Christina Turnbull awarded the heat as a 5-1 in favour of the Stars and things began to look a bit desperate for the Pirates.
Iversen bagged his second key victory, this time over Holder as Poole remained short of race winners. There was an audible sigh of relief when Ward eventually took the chequered flag in heat 6 but the Pirates had nothing to back that up.
Joe Screen and Janowski then delivered a major blow to Poole's hopes as they paired up for a 5-1 over Miedzinski and Lindgren and then things became of crisis proportion as Nermark and Wolbert put a 10 point gulf between the two sides.
Holder and Andersson responded to that crisis and after Ward had won again in heat 10, Adrian Miedzinski stormed to his only race win of the night with Lindgren supporting in third. But Lindgren couldn't quite repeat it in the following heat and despite Holder's win over Janowski it was Szczepaniak's ride for third that ensured a tense finish to the meeting.
Poole clawed two point back with a heat 13 4-2 advantage from Ward and Miedzinski and then Lindgren made a storming start to heat 14. As Andersson was impeded by Screen at the first turn a re-run beckoned but no lights came on and Andersson had to go into overdrive to recover. The Swede managed to get by Screen and went on to try and hunt Wolbert down but to no avail and that left Poole going into the final heat still one point adrift of the Norfolk side.
Ward made a solid start and Holder was making no headway early on. Ward had the wherewithall to try and slow proceedings down, a brave gamble as Iversen and Janowksi were poised to seize on any error. But the timing by Ward was perfect and it allowed Holder to set up his final lap assault that saw him not just pick off the one Star to snatch the victory but to raise the Grandstand to their feet by rounding both opponents and even take the win from Ward as the flag dropped for the final time.
