Captain Cook makes the Pirates walk the plank!

BELLE  VUE  ACES  51 -39  POOLE PIRATES 

Belle Vue produced a stunning display to thrash the reigning league champions in the Poole Pirates on Monday night, to see the Aces remain unbeaten at home in the league and end the 100% record of the Dorset side beating them 51-39.

  A late surge of heat advantages towards the end of the meeting proved the difference and saw Craig Cook ride a Captain`s meeting as the Cumbrian rider scored a paid maximum of 13+2 in the victory.

 Poole were missing their reserve pairing of Kyle Newman and Lee Smart but drafted in former Belle Vue Colt Charles Wright, as well as Oliver Greenwood to help the Pirates. The league champions also had the services of former World Champion Chris Holder in the line up as he took the place of 'Injured' Darcy Ward, with his fellow Countryman from Down under is riding for the Pirates as a 28 day injury cover.

Belle Vue came into this meeting on the back of a sensational last heat draw down at Wolverhampton last Tuesday night as Scott Nicholls and Matej Zagar secured two points which included an extra bonus point too, So this match was seen as an indicator to whether the Aces would be challenging for honours in the season as they faced the league champions, in a stern test.

The opening heat saw a stunning 5-1 for the home side as Aces GP star Matej Zagar and Michael Palm Toft, managed to keep Chris Holder behind them as well as fellow Australian Josh Grajczonek, who finished in last place and saw the young Aussie on fire after this heat. 

  Charles Wright and Oliver Greenwood then helped the Pirates cut the lead to just two points, when the young Stockport rider got away with a quick start from the tapes after it looked like he anticipated the tapes a tad early from the human eye, but the referee let it go on and saw Wright pick up the race win for a 4-2 to the away side.

This meeting was very much a sea-saw battle between the sides with them trading heat wins and didn`t include a single drawn heat throughout the meeting.

  Craig Cook got his night off to a flyer when he took the spoils in heat 3, when he left Przemyslaw Pawlicki trailing in his wake as he was unable to catch the Cumbrian rider, while Scott Nicholls claimed third place for a 4-2 heat victory to the Aces.

  Josh Grajczonek then came to the party after his disappointing last place in the opening outing, with him out gating Richie Worrall too see him fly round his old stomping ground with Poole a touch fortunate to score a 4-2 advantage, with Stefan Nielsen looking on course to finish in third place and see a share of the heat. Unfortunately though Nielsen, his bike packed up on the last bend to see Oliver Greenwood nearly collide with the Aces man as he went him to steal a point as the Pirates plunder a 4-2.

Heat 5 saw the pairing of Matej Zagar and Craig Cook cruised to victory over the Polish duo of Pawlicki and Vaclac Milik as they left them for dead too see the Belle Vue pair secure a 5-1 over them.

  Heat 6 saw the lead stretched a bit more when Scott Nicholls beat Chris Holder, after the Poole number one got up the inside of Worrall to see him move into second place. 

  That saw the score then move on to 22-14 for the hosts, with the meeting then entering a Purple patch for the Pirates as they recorded four consecutive heat wins over the Aces to see them lead 31-29 after Heat 10, to see the Dorset side move ahead for the first time in the meeting.

Heat 10 saw Zagar showing off his 'never say die' attitude to the cause when he chased the Polish duo down on every lap but was struggling to find a way round the pairing. As the race headed to it`s conclusion, Zagar then raced with Janowski to the line and pinched second place and that kick started the comeback for the home side.

  Scott Nicholls and Craig Cook shown the former World Champion Chris Holder the quickest way round the 'Kirky Lane' circuit, with them both powering to the front and scored a big heat win which saw Cook on his way to a paid maximum. 

  Poole responded in the next race seeing them draw level at 36-36 after 12 races gone in the meeting. Josh Grajczonek and Oliver Greenwood then scored a 4-2 to put the visitors still in the hunt of claiming a point from the meeting and perhaps even more.

Matej Zagar BATTLES Janowski 

However the remaining three races saw the Aces take Maximum points in all of them, as Zagar rode a superb inside line to come up on the inside of Janowski which saw him join Cook at the front. Heat 14 saw Milik then fall off on the second bend to see the race stopped and had the referee award the race to the hosts making it 46-38 to Belle Vue and saw them needing to avoid a heat loss to secure the full 3 points in the meeting.

  Heat 15 saw Slovenian rider Matej Zagar once again showing his racing talents off when he battled once more into second place, as he got the better of Grajczonek before going to the boards to stop the momentum of the Aussie star. That then saw Zagar and Cook ride away for a 5-1 maximum to see Craig Cook pick up a paid maximum and a massive confidence booster for the rest of the season for the young British rider and one he can now build on.

Zagar in RED HELMET gets ahead of Grajxzonek

Belle Vue took the full three points on offer in the meeting, as they won 51-39 and seen the Pirates sail away empty handed as the Aces trumped their opponents in those final three races to see the Manchester outfit move onto 11 league points level with Wolves and Coventry. 

  The Aces next meeting is a return fixture from a couple of weeks back as they travel to Leicester to face the Lions at Beaumount Park on Saturday Evening.

BELLE VUE ACES : 51

Matej Zagar    12+2

Michael Palm Toft     4+1

Scott Nicholls    9

Richie Worrall     6

Craig Cook   13+2

Stefan Nielsen     7+1

Ben Reade   0

POOLE PIRATES : 39

Chris Holder     4

Josh Grajczonek     8

Przemslaw Pawlicki    9

Vaclac  Milik     3

Macej Janowski    2

Charles Wright      8

Oliver Greenwood     5