Pirates stung

Poole Meridian Lifts led what looked like a depleted Bees side without injured Billy Hamill, Andreas Jonsson and Stuart Robson 25-23 going into heat nine.

But then disaster struck for six-man Pirates - they used rider replacement for injured Gary Havelock - as they lost the next three races to trail 36-30 with only four heats to go.

Poole, led superbly by Tony Rickardsson once again, pegged back two 4-2s in heats 11 and 12.

But Andre Compton couldn't quite keep the experienced Tomas Topinka behind him after passing the Czech Republic rider to go into third place in heat 14, a move that would have dragged the scores level at 42-42.

It meant Rickardsson and Hans Andersen went into the final race needing a 5-1 for Poole to win the meeting and keep their hopes of a third place finish in the Elite League alive.

But the Coventry duo of Lee Richardson and guest Nicki Pedersen got out in front of the Pirates pair coming off the second bend.

And although Rickardsson roared past Pedersen soon after, he had to settle for second behind Richardson.

With Pedersen heading Andersen home, it meant the Bees took a 4-2 and won 47-43 to snatch two league points and book a home date against Poole in the first round of the top five title play-offs next Wednesday.

Pirates go to Belle Vue on Monday and Coventry visit Eastbourne on Saturday, but the results of those meetings are both meaningless.

That's because the Bees moved four points clear of Poole - who secured the bonus 93-87 last night - and cannot now be caught by the Dorset track who have only one regularly season league meeting left.

Coventry have finished third and will host fourth-placed Pirates in a one-off play-off meeting at Brandon.

Bjarne Pedersen, who bagged nine paid 10 points for Poole, said: "Coventry were really up to win and maybe we were too sure of winning our home meeting.

"Maybe we were not 100 per cent concentrating and paid for it.

"It is tough and we did not have too much luck tonight. But Coventry had a good team and did a really good job.

"You could see every one of their riders was up for a win over us and that is what proved the difference in the end.

"The Poole lads all tried our best but it didn't work out for us." The Pirates camp were despondent after the meeting but they have nothing to reprimand themselves for, they were just beaten by the better side on the night.

With Lars Gunnestad and Henka Gustafsson, until his last ride, off key, and with Compton not getting the points his riding deserved, they really struggled to fill the gap created by Havelock's absence.

Rickardsson, with four heat wins and three seconds, got 18 and Andersen got nine, eight from his opening three outings.

Poole, however, couldn't match six-man Coventry's all-round team strength and it was the Bees who had silenced another bumper 4,000 crowd at Wimborne Road by the end of the meeting.

Injured Poole asset Alun Rossiter will have to undergo surgery on damaged knee ligaments.

Rossiter, who attended last night's meeting, is still being kept in in Poole Hospital until further notice.

But he has been told by doctors he will have to have an operation on his knee, although he has not been informed when.

He also has a broken tibia and scaphoid sustained in a track spill at Poole two weeks ago

HEAT DETAILS Pirates: 1 Rider replacement for Gary Have-lock, 2 Bjarne Pedersen (2*-1-3-2-1) 9+1, 3 Hans Andersen (3-2-3-0-1-0) 9, 4 Lars Gun-nestad (0-1*-1-0) 2+1, 5 Tony Rickardsson (3-3-2-2-3-3-2) 18, 6 Henka Gustafsson (1-1*-0-0-3) 5+1, 7 Andre Compton (0-0-0) 0. Coventry: 1 (guest) Nicki Pedersen (0-3-2-3-2-1) 11, 2 Billy Janniro (1-2-ret-1*-1) 5+1, 3 Lee Richardson (1*-3-3-3-2-3) 15+1, 4 (guest) Andrew Appleton (2-0-1) 3, 5 Rider replacement for Andreas Jonsson, 6 Tomas Topinka (3-0-2*-0-1*) 6+2, 7 Ryan Fisher (2*-1*-2-0-2) 7+2. Referee: Frank Ebdon. Ht 1: Rickardsson, B Pedersen, Janniro, N Pedersen, 59.78 (5-1). Ht 2: Topinka, Fisher, Gustafsson, Comp-ton, 60.89 (6-6). Ht 3: Andersen, Appleton, Richardson (ex-cluded tapes, started 15 metres back), Gunnestad, 60.74 (9-9). Ht 4: Rickardsson, Janniro, Fisher, Comp-ton, 60.89 (12-12). Ht 5: N Pedersen, Andersen, Gunnestad, Janniro (retired), 61.29 (15-15). Ht 6: Andersen, N Pedersen, B Pedersen, Topinka, 61.05 (19-17). Ht 7: Richardson, Rickardsson, Gustafsson, Appleton, 60.29 (22-20). Ht 8: B Pedersen, Fisher, Janniro, Gustaf-sson, 62.24 (25-23). Ht 9: Richardson, Topinka, Gunnestad, Andersen, 60.90 (26-28). Ht 10: Richardson, B Pedersen, Appleton, Gunnestad, 61.29 (28-32). Ht 11: N Pedersen, Rickardsson, Janniro, Gustafsson, 61.11 (30-36). Ht 12: Rickardsson, Richardson, Andersen, Topinka, 61.10 (34-38). Ht 13: Rickardsson, N Pedersen, B Peder-sen, Fisher, 61.12 (38-40). Ht 14: Gustafsson, Fisher, Topinka, Comp-ton, 62.45 (41-43). Ht 15: Richardson, Rickardsson, N Peder-sen, B Pedersen, 61.43 (43-47). Last night's other results: Oxford 50 (L Adams 15) Wolves 40 (M Karlsson 11+1), Peterborough 48 (R Sullivan 12) Ipswich 42 (S Nicholls 16). Title play-offs, first round (Wednesday): Coventry v Poole, Wolves v Oxford or Peter-borough. Tonight's fixture: Ipswich v Belle Vue. Friday: Peterborough v Wolves (30-60). Saturday: Eastbourne v Coventry (45-45). Monday: Belle Vue v Poole (38-52), Peterborough v Oxford (43-47).