West Cumbrian Richard Lawson starred for Poole last night in a hard-fought Cab Direct KO Cup tie.
It is fascinatingly poised now after the Pirates won the first leg 49-40 as Edinburgh Monarchs put in a resilient display to keep themselves in the hunt ahead of the return fixture at Armadale a week tomorrow.
Poole number one Richard Lawson scored 14 from five rides with Tom Brennan adding 11+1, and Lawson dropped his first point of the season at Wimborne Road to Josh Pickering who led the visitors’ scoring with 13.
Lawson said: “It was a shame that I couldn’t max out again, but Josh is a good rider to race against and he had the beating of me in Heat 13.
“We have had lots of battles in the past and only recently I denied him his maximum at Berwick so I guess he was keen to do it back to me.”
Edinburgh manager John Campbell said: “It was a battling display and I actually felt we maybe left a couple of points on the track at times, but we have to be happy with that and the second leg is finely poised.”