Steve Shovlar

Not a patch in last week racing wise. Both semis good but overall a disappointing meeting. Well done to Oxford who were consistent all night. Berwick battled well and deserved to make the final after Lawson decided to attack Morris rather than defend his third place. A poor decision which cost us a final place but the way the Oxford pair were riding Masters and Rowe would have been difficult to beat.

Only drizzle clearing soon. Don’t think it will affect anything other than give the track natural watering.

Forecast is good. Dry overcast day so better for track prep. Let’s hope the racing is as good as last week.

Well we may as well start off the conjecture for the 2027 season. Who will stay and who will go? Who will join the Pirates? 1. Sam Masters in place of Lawson? Feeling Richard Lawson has other priorities in his life and it’s starting to get in the way of his racing. Seems Matt Ford read him the riot act a couple of weeks ago. Lawson thanked Matt on the mic for giving him a chance to redeem himself. Popular with the Pirates faithful. I would prefer him over Masters but just get a feeling that his time is up here. 2. Will Cairns 3. ? Louis Kerr has been better this season than last. But be surprised if he makes it three seasons. 4. Cooper Rushen 5. Feel this is definitely Zach Cooks last year with us. Had an excellent stint and improved every year. 6. Slater Lightcap 7. Beau Bailey

The track was perfect for great racing last night, if a tad under watered. The new bowser lets out too little water IMO. Make the jets bigger! In warm conditions by the time the tractor has done a lap, 50% of what was sprayed out has evaporated. Wimborne Road is now a very smooth track. No bumps of the past.

Cracking meeting tonight played out in front of what was probably the biggest crowd of the season? Loads of great racing all through the meeting. Batchelor the stand out for the visitors. Best he has been at Poole for years. Zack Cook star of the show two weeks running.

Just played catchup and the decision to exclude Cook was appalling! Where on earth is he meant to go when Etheridge was locked up and out of control? Ref completely bonkers decision and did Etheridge even bother to come over and apologise to Cook after he caused the smash that wrecked a bike?

Looking forward to a good tussle. Pirates to run out winners but Masters always puts up a fight and Killeen is no slouch. 51-39ish.

Poland won’t be able to stop British riders plying their trade in Britain. Unless they are employed full time, the riders are self employed and it would be a restriction of trade. Would never stand up in court. the Polish league could say we are not going to employ these riders who refuse to obey us, but again that would be discrimination. And would Polish clubs tow the line when there are British riders they would want in their team? They could test the waters but Kurtz, Holder, Doyle and a few others could refuse the rule or demand a large wage rise which covers their loss of earnings.

Battle for young top Pirate has heated up a notch after tonight’s British Final. Wills will not like Coops coming to his home track and getting all the plaudits, especially as he had a bit of a duff meeting. It will just make them go even harder at it, to the benefit of us fans.

Was hat the blonde presenter? Thought she was good, confident and was never flustered. Where does she come from?

Thought is got better as the heats went on. Shocking crowd though, well empty. Management should have done something about that. Give tickets away if you have to. Lambert in another postcode. Always going to win it and did. Well done to Charles Wright after a tough season. The tears were very raw and real. Special mention to Coops who smashed it for a 16 year old. Mistake in the final choosing white. Red would probably have got him a podium place. Huge for the sport having him and Cairns (Kerns as Kelvin kept calling him) coming through. Great it was on ITV. The whole country could have watched that.

Ref forgot to put 2 mins on and it was probably only put on when he was waiving frantically to his pit crew. Went on for an age and the BSN commentators said he was in overtime. Still you make your own luck and Edinburgh had it with Cluff and Poole didn’t have any with two important EF’s. Cooper Rushen in his interview on BSN that Edinburgh had their setups dialled to perfection out of the starts and Pirates were playing catchup.

Slater Lightcap won rider of the night with 47 % of the vote. Only scored 3 but was very entertaining. Deserved more.

What a self inflicted defeat for Pirates. First of all well done Edinburgh. They took advantage of Poole’s misfortunes. Ref helping by giving Cluff bout 4 minutes at the tapes when his bike fell apart. Lightcap having an ef while on a 5-1, then Eddie doing the same on a 3-3 cost us the points in the end.