HIGHLIGHTS: Harbourside drama as Newport snatch last lap victory

Poole Comets snatched defeat from an improbable victory in an incident packed affair against a fully loaded Newport side at Harbourside. Matches are never won on paper but with Mould, Carmichael and Harrold making a rare combined appearance for the Welsh outfit, few would have given the hosts much chance.

With the scoreline at 32-37 after 7 races, the match saw a remarkable turnaround – not the last that the crowd would witness before the match was over. Successive maximum race wins before the break saw the home side take a 46-42 interval lead and much consternation in the Welsh ranks.

Maximum capitalisation from a Harrold tapes infringement in heat 12 moved the scoreline on to 64-53 but 5 of that margin was immediately pulled back after a hotly contested Wil Bristow exclusion in the next heat. Two shared heats moved the score to 76-70 before the most controversial flashpoint of the incident packed afternoon.

HIGHLIGHTS: by South Coast Journalism (must watch)

Adam Bennett came to grief in an all-out tussle with Fraser Garnett and in a fit of pique, throw away his helmet and walked across the track in front of oncoming riders, failing to collect a point and very fortunate not to collect a red card. Scoreline now 81-74.

Newport were given a glimmer of hope when Harrold suckered Comets skipper Dean Hook into allowing partner Dan Bock through for a 7-3 and Ben Mould pulled the same trick on Matty Ganczarek to allow partner Carmichael through for a match winning 7-3 on the final lap of the match. Checkout South Coast Journalism highlights coverage if you didn’t quite
believe what happened!

PHOTOS: By Graham Robins

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Poole 87
Jay Briggs 14, Fraser Garnett 13, Maciej Ganczarek 17,  Dean Hook 12, Ben Tinsdale 12, Wil Bristow 9, Ben Donohue 7, Callum Smith 3.

Newport 88
Chris Davies 10, Mark Carmichael 15, Jack Harrold 10, Adam Bennett 11, Ben Mould 18, Dan Bock 10, Joe Lewis 9, Dale Clark 5.

Referee – Mike Legge


Report by Graham Sutton. Photos by Graham Robins.