Poole Pirates 60 (108), Lakeside Hammers 33 (75)
HAMMERS’ hopes of clawing their way back into this play-off final were blown away as Poole stormed to speedway's Elite League crown tonight.

Pirates laid down their marker with a 5-1 in the opening heat Chris Holder and Magnus Zetterstrom leaving Hammers’ guest Scott Nicholls and Leigh Lanham in their wake.

And, showing there was no complacency in the home camp, Daniel Davidsson and Freddie Eriksson repeated the dose in heat two, with Krzysztof Jablonski and Rick Kling again eating dirt.

Things improved marginally in the night’s third heat when Jonas Davidsson grabbed second spot behind Bjarne Pedersen, but Adam Skornicki came in third to ensure a third heat victory for the home side.

However, Pirates quickly emphasised the home side’s superiority on their fast track, Davey Watt and Daniel Davidsson claiming a third maximum in heat four, Jonas trailing his brother into third place and Jablonski in last.

When the heat did get underway Nicholls, in the Hammers’ line-up in place of the ill Andreas Jonsson, showed his commitment to the cause, trying hard to catch Pedersen and in the end falling from his machine as he tried too hard.

The heat was awarded to Poole with Pedersen first, Davidsson second and Lanham getting a solitary point.

Hammers suffered another faller in heat six when Kling took a tumble on the third turn, though he was trailing last at the time.

The race was restarted and, as he had done first time around, Chris Holder led from the tape, albeit that Hammers’ Davidsson made a sharp start. He couldn't hold his line into the first turn and ended up holding off Zetterstrom to deny Poole a maximum.

With Hammers well behind Nichols was given the chance to ride for double points in heat seven. He made a poor start first time off the tapes but as Eriksson had jumped the gun the race was restarted.

There was a surprise on the second start when Hammers’ Tomasz Jedrzejak made a blistering getaway. He led for all but the closing couple of seconds with Nicholls keeping Watt at bay in a thrilling tussle.

As the two Hammers approached the line, Jedrzejak eased back and Nicholls crossed first to take double points and Hammers a morale-boosting 8-1 heat win.

Sadly they couldn’t make it successive heat successes as Zetterstrom stormed away with a win in heat eight. Jablonski fought hard to take second place for Hammers with Daniel Davidsson third.

Pedersen stormed away with heat nine for his third win out of three but there was a scintillating battle behind him with Hammers’ rider of the night Jonas Davidsson coming from behind to take second from Skornicki and then holding him off.

Heat ten saw Pirates wrap up another 5-1 and heat winner Chris Holder pulled a big wheelie as he crossed the line to celebrate. Zetterstrom backed him up in second place, with Jedrzejak third and Jablonki last.

The crown was clinched mathematically in heat 11 when Pirates picked up a 3-3. Nicholls won the heat for Hammers but that didn’t spoil the party in any way for the Wimbourne Road fans who cheered home Watt and Eriksson to spark wild celebrations.

Pedersen continued his perfect night leading home Daniel Davidssen in front of hard-riding Jedrzejak and the lacklustre Kling in heat 12.

There some classy riders in heat 13 but Jonas Davidsson emerged the best of them to hold off Davy Watt in a thrilling race. Scott Nicholls was third and Chris Holder at the back as Hammers enjoyed a rare heat victory.

"It was nice to get a win. We have to ride hard to keep our confidence up for Thursday's Craven Shield final," said Davidsson. Hammers are at home to Coventry in the first leg of that final on Thursday.

Hammers’ dismal night was summed up in the penultimate heat of the night when Jablonski took a tumble after clashing with Eriksson and he was excluded. The restart was brought back somewhat controversially with Eriksson adjudged to have got a flier.

Jedrzejak made the most of his third start in the heat to blast into the lead and the win took his side through the 30 point barrier.

Pirates rounded off the evening with another 5-1, Holder leading home Pederson, who was denied a maximum in his final ride.

Davidsson was third and Jedrzejak fourth.

Hammers co-promoter Stuart Douglas reflected on the night’s events, saying: “we are not used to losing but full credit to Poole who have been excellent all night and all season, but I promise that we will be back next season.

“I think we have done really well to have been here, particularly with all our injuries. We were successive wood spoonists two years ago which so how well we’ve done. I’m just sorry we couldn’t have done a little better tonight.

Hammers team boss Jon Cook said: “We are on course for where we want to be. This is only the second year we’ve been at the club which was on its knees when we took over. We were wooden spoonists and a reputation as perennial losers. At least we’ve go ourselves to a final and we intend to be around in finals for as long as we possible can.

“Now we’ve got to pick ourselves up and it’s going to take a bit of picking up for one or two of our riders. They should have done better. Jonas Davidsson, who was in hospital a few of weeks ago has shown a lot of determination and what you can do. He’s been the star of our night and possibly our season.

“We can take a lot of pride from what he’s done and Tomasz Jedrzejak to a certain degree has had a good night as well so we can take a couple of positives from the night.

“I would have like to have had the seven riders we had at the start of the season, it would have been a lot closer, but congratulations to Poole for what they have done.”