POOLE Pirates lost ground at Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich last night in their quest to retain the Craven Shield.

They gained just one heat advantage as the home team moved into pole position.

The third leg of the final takes place at Coventry tomorrow night and it could well go down to the wire.

Andre Compton moved into the team proper to replace the injured Henka Gustafsson with Davey Watt coming into the reserve berth.

Watt was given two of Lars Gunnestad's programmed rides as team manager Neil Middleditch tried to stem the tide.

Five of Poole's first six heats were drawn, with Bjarne Pedersen passed by Lee Richardson on the second lap of heat two.

Peter Karlsson then passed Craig Boyce on the second lap to win the following race.

Hans Andersen and Gunnestad suffered a 5-1 at the hands of Billy Hamill and Ryan Fisher with Hamill winning from the start and Fisher diving inside Andersen on the second circuit.

Chris Slabon and Jarek Hampel gated in heat six, but the latter made a hash of the first bend and the Pirates escaped with a 3-3. Andersen then beat Joe Screen from the start to win race eight.

Heat nine saw Bjarne Pedersen hush the Ipswich crowd when he went round the outside of Danny Bird on the last lap.

Karlsson sped beyond Fisher on the third lap to gain second place in an all-action heat 11, and the Pirates suffered another 4-2 reverse in the next race when Scott Nicholls swept inside Andersen on the second turn.

Adam Skornicki led heat 14 for two laps and Pedersen had to hold off a serious challenge from Stuart Robson in a hard-fought drawn heat 14.

Hampel powered on his throttle to race round Andersen on the second bend of the following heat, before Andrew Appleton suffered engine problems yards from the start of heat 17 and Karlsson and Compton took advantage to gain a 4-2 over Richardson.

But the evening did not end on a happy note for Poole with Nicholls gating and Joonas Kylmakorpi squeezing through a gap on the inside to pass both Poole riders on the opening corner of the final race.

HEAT DETAILS Ipswich: J Hampel (2*-0-3-3) 8 (1), C Slabon (3-3-2*-1) 9 (1), C Boyce (2-1*-1-2) 6 (1), D Bird (1*-2-3-1*) 7 (2), S Nicholls (1-3-3-3)10, J Kylmakorpi (0-2*-1-2*) 5(2). Res: K Jansson not used. Coventry: B Hamill (1-3-3-3) 10, R Fisher (0-2*-1-f/x) 3 (1), L Richardson (3-0-2-02) 7, T Topinka (0-1-0) 1. J Screen (2*-2-1-3) 8 (1), S Robson (2*-1*-0-0) 4 (1). Res: A Appleton (e/f) 0. Poole: P Karlsson (3-2-2-3) 10, A Compton (0-1*-0-1) 2 (1), A Skornicki (1*-0-2-1) 4 (1), B Pedersen (2-3-1*-0) 6 (1), H Andersen (0-3-2-2) 7, L Gunnestad (1-0). Res: D Watt (0-0) 0. Ht 1: Slabon, Hampel, Hamill, Fisher. 59.3 (5-1-0) Ht 2: Richardson, Pedersen, Skornicki, Topinka. 60.0. (5-4-3) Ht 3: Karlsson, Boyce, Bird, Compton. 60.9. (8-4-6) Ht 4: Robson, Screen, Nicholls, Kylmakorpi. 60.8. (9-9-6). Ht 5: Hamill, Fisher, Gunnestad, Andersen. 61.0. (9-14-7) Ht 6: Slabon, Karlsson, Compton, Hampel. 60.5. (12-14-10) Ht 7: Nicholls, Kylmakorpi, Topinka, Richardson. 61.1 (17-18 -13) Ht 8: Andersen, Screen, Robson, Gunnestad. 61.2 (17-18-13) Ht 9: Pedersen, Bird, Boyce, Skornicki. 61.1 (20-18-16) Ht 10: Hampel, Slabon, Screen, Robson. 59.3 (25-19-16) Ht 11: Hamill, Karlsson, Fisher, Compton. 61.0 (25-23-18) Ht 12: Nicholls, Andersen, Kylmakorpi, Watt. 60.1 (29-23-20) Ht 13: Bird, Richardson, Boyce, Topinka. 60.5 (33-25-20) Ht 14: Screen, Skornicki, Pedersen, Robson. 61.5 (33-28-23) Ht 15: Hampel, Andersen, Slabon, Watt. 60.8 (37-28-25) Ht 16 (re-run): Hamill, Boyce, Bird, Fisher (f/exc). 61.7 (40-31-25) Ht 17 (re-run): Karlsson, Richardson, Compton, Appleton (e/f). 61.6 (40-33-29) Ht 18: Nicholls, Kylmakorpi, Skornicki, Pedersen. 61.2 (45-33-30)