MATCH REPORT: Battle of the Comets – Poole come out on top in BTC
Although Hurricane Bertha blessed the match with gusty conditions, the morning deluge gave way to a bright afternoon on and off the track as the battle of the “Comets” provided a lively KO Cup quarter final encounter.
Three excellent first half wins from top visitor Ben Scranage kept the hosts honest at the interval with a 49-40 scoreline as Hayden Chant recovered from a last place in his opener to take two wins. A Hook/Donohue 7-2 in heat 11 opened up the margin but that was one of only three maximum returns for Poole, all of them coming when an opponant was excluded.
Dean Hook reeled off three second half race victories and Aaron Smith was back to his best for Poole who were missing four of their line-up from the previous round. Scranage and Parish were the best of the young visitors team but Ben was denied the chance of a 20 maximum in heat 17 when referee Steve Copping adjudged him guilty of bringing down Ben Donohue.
All in all, a good advert for the KO cup and a rare chance to see the two Comets teams go head to head!
Poole 100 (Dean Hook 18 Aaron Smith 17 Gav Wheeler 16+1 Ben Donohue 14+3 Hayden Chant 13+2 Pete Chant 12+1 Jay Briggs 6 Niall Instone 4)
Bury 76 (Ben Scranage 16 Chris Parish 14 Will Owens 11+1 Neil Howarth 10 Kristian Ramsden 9 Danny Taylor 8+1 James Elston 6+1 Adam Turnbull 2)