12:01am Thursday 31st July 2008
By Phil Chard
THEN there were three.
Pirates blew Eastbourne out of the title race last night to leave only Swindon and Lakeside as realistic fellow championship contenders.
It was all too easy for Poole Castle Cover, who had expected another tough battle from fourth-placed Eagles.
Twice already this term Eastbourne had pushed the Dorset club hard at Wimborne Road, losing by only eight and nine points respectively.
But it looked as though Pirates' riders had been eating raw meat for a week before this clash because they looked so hungry for success and the two points that doubled their lead at the top of the table to four.
Eagles, with three ex-Poole heat leaders in Lee Richardson, Scott Nicholls and Edward Kennett, attracted a bumper 4,000 crowd.
Only Richardson was on the pace, though, as Pirates quite simply crushed their south coast rivals with some lightning gating and unbelievable overtaking.
Although Chris Holder sped to a second successive 15-point home maximum for Poole, it was Magnus Zetterstrom who led the way with some inspired racing.
His heat six outing, when he chased Kennett hard for the best part of four laps before diving under the youngster coming off the second bend of the final circuit, will be remembered long after this season is over, whether the league silverware comes to Dorset or not.
First Zorro avoided being squeezed out into fourth down the back straight first time round as Kennett fought to allow team-mate Simon Gustafsson get by the Poole rider while Holder led.
Kennett, 15 years younger than the Swede, was well ahead of the old hand on laps two and three, but Zetterstrom never gave up.
All of a sudden his reward came when he nipped under Kennett to follow Holder home and gain a standing ovation from the Poole fans.
It was a fantastic piece of riding by Zorro, and it helped propel Pirates 25-11 ahead against a stunned Eagles outfit for whom Nicholls, surprisingly, failed to win a race.
Richardson tried to stop the rot when he passed Bjarne Pedersen, who locked up while leading on the second bend, to win the next race as a tactical rider scoring double points.
Cameron Woodward, however, suffered engine failure and was left at the tapes, so Eagles' 6-3 hardly made a dent in Poole's lead.
Holder rode magnificently, combining superbly with Zetterstrom to get two 5-1s before storming past Richardson twice to grab another full house.
Zorro missed out on a paid maximum when he was left at the gate in race 10, but he is more than doing his job for Pirates at the moment.
Davey Watt capped another brilliant performance with a swooping move outside Richardson to follow Holder home for a maximum in heat 15.
With Pedersen, Freddie Eriksson, Adam Skornicki and Daniel Davidsson, who only took three rides, also on fire, the Pirates as a team are clearly in the groove.
After a clinical performance like this, who wouldn't bet against them for the title now?
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