As Kent Speedway management made it very clear that one of the major reasons they moved into the Championship division was to be taking on a Speedway heavyweight club like Poole Pirates, it was obviously an important moment on Wednesday evening in the history of the club to make their first visit to the iconic track on Wimborne Rd in the seaside Dorset town. 

Appropriate to their status, the 2021 Pirates have a suitably heavyweight septet and sadly despite the valiant efforts of the TouchTec Kings it was to prove too strong on the night with the home side recording a 58-32 victory.

For three seasons, in the early years of the century, a Poole Pirate himself, Kent’s skipper Scott Nicholls enjoyed a successful return to his former home track, getting the better of all the homesters with four heat wins including the opening race and the final heat of the night where he brilliantly passed first Rory Schlein and then Steven Worrall to take the last chequered flag of the evening and bring his total to 16, exactly half his team’s total.

In fact the visitors had the first two heat winners of the match with Ben Morley following the example of his skipper by taking heat two but then a run of four 5-1 maximums in the next seven heats meant that just past the half way point, Chris Hunt’s charges faced an enormous challenge.

Heat 8 saw a big tumble for Dan Gilkes on his first visit to the Poole track but he dusted himself  down to go on; while returnee Cam Heeps was clearly taking time to get back into full racing fitness after his shoulder injury, pulling up in one race when he suffered pain from his torn muscle.

Another Kings’ man who has had spells with Poole is Paul Starke and he showed his knowledge of the circuit with a typically battling display, including a trademark passing manoeuvre to take a second place in heat 10.  The following race was a classic with Nicholls reeling in Danny King and overtaking him around the boards on the final lap.

Watching by live stream from home due to Covid restrictions, Kent co-promoter Len Silver commented,

“Scott was magnificent, showing everyone how to do it.  Ben did a good job as reserve and Paul Starke was always in the thick of it.  So it wasn’t all negative”.

Poole                                                 58

Rory Schlein        2, 3, 3, 3, 1′               = 12+1

Zane Keleher     1′, 0, 2′, 1               = 4+2

Steven Worrall   3, 3, 3, 3, 2               = 14

Stefan Nielsen   2′, 1, 2′, 3               = 8+2

Danny King          3, 2, 2, 1               = 8

Ben Cook            2, 0, 1′, 2′               = 5+2

Danyon Hume    1′, 2′, 3, 1               = 7+2

Kent                                                 32

Scott Nicholls      3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 3  = 16

Paul Hurry          0, 0, 0                  = 0

Paul Starke          1, 1, 2, 2, 0               = 6

Rider Replacement – Tom Bacon

Cameron Heeps  0, 2, R, 0               = 2

Ben Morley   3, 0, 1′, 1, 0, 0, 1               = 6+1

Dan Gilkes     0, 1, 1, 0, 0               = 2

Heat details

1 Nicholls, Schlein, Keleher, Hurry 61.1 (3-3)

2 Morley, Cook, Hume, Gilkes  61.5 (6-6)

3 Worrall, Nielsen, Starke, Morley 60.8 (11-7)

4 King, Hume, Gilkes, Heeps  61.2  (16-8)

5 Worrall, Nicholls, Nielsen, Hurry  60.8 (20-10)

6 Schlein, Heeps, Morley, Keleher  61.0  (23-13)

7 Nicholls, King, Starke, Cook  60.4  (25-17)

8 (rerun) Hume, Keheler, Gilkes, Hurry  60.6  (30-18)

9  Worrall, Nielsen, Morley, Heeps (ret.) 61.1  (35-19)

10  Schlein, Starke, Keleher, Gilkes  60.5  (39-21)

11 Nicholls, King, Cook, Morley  60.8 (42-24)

12 Worrall, Starke, Hume, Morley  60.7 (46-26)

13  Schlein, Nicholls, King, Heeps  60.5 (50-28)

14 Nielsen, Cook, Morley, Gilkes (fell rem.)  61.9  (55-29)

15 Nicholls, Worrall, Schlein, Starke  60.8 (58-32)