Workington Comets were well beaten by table-topping Poole Pirates at Northside as the powerful southern outfit raced to a 53-37 win at Northside.
It was a second setback inside less than 24 hours for the Comets as they try to reach the play-offs in their first season back in the Championship.
Team manager James Denham said: “It has been a disappointing week-end for us with two defeats back to back against our play-off rivals.
“But we are still very much in contention and will be aiming to get as many points as possible from our remaining fixtures. Don’t forget everyone had written us off before the season started, expecting us to finish bottom, so to be as high as we are has been an achievement.”
The Comets had missed out on the aggregate point when they lost at Scunthorpe on Friday night and for the clash with Poole this afternoon, the realistic hope was for League points while the extra one seemed well out of reach following the 61-29 defeat in Dorset.
It had started well enough with a 5-1 in the opener as skipper Craig Cook followed home Claus Vissing in a re-shaped top two.
But that was quickly erased when the Pirates raced to a maximum in the reserves race before starting to build their lead with three successive 4-2 advantages.
Although Cook and Vissing ensured a share of the spoils in heat six behind the impressive Tom Brennan the Pirates started to pull away with a couple of 5-1’s.
The Comets managed to check their progress with a couple of shared heats, the second of which was an absolute classic.
It certainly wasn’t case of too many Cooks spoiling the broth because Craig, Ben and Zach put on an absolute thriller with the lead changing hands three or four times before the Workington skipper asserted himself at the head of affairs.
At that point the Pirates led by 14 points – 37-23 – and extended that in the next race with a 4-2 as Troy Batchelor was the meat in a Richard Lawson/Ashton Boughen sandwich.
Craig Cook was brought in for Sam McGurk as a tactical substitute in heat 12 and well backed up by Antti Vuolas the Comets pair raced to a 5-1 over Ben Cook and Sam Hagon.
At that point four rides had brough captain Cook ten points but rather surprisingly heats 13 and 15 were disasters for him – retiring in one and finishing out of the points in the other.
Those two heats went the way of the Pirates, both by 5-1 but there was plenty to cheer about for the Comets fans in the penultimate race of the afternoon.
Zach Cook looked a little unfortunate to be excluded after a first bend fall but from the rerun Celina Liebmann blasted away and wasn’t to be caught. Guest Jason Edwards settle in for second to keep out Vinnie Foord and the Comets had a 5-1 to enjoy.
Workington Comets 37: Craig Cook 10 +1; Claus Vissing 5+1; Antti Vuolas 9+1; Jason Edwards 3+2; Troy Batchelor 6; Celina Liebmann 4;Sam McGurk 0.
Poole Pirates 53: Richard Lawson 12+1; Ashton Boughen 5; Ben Cook 8+1; Zach Cook 5+1;Tom Brennan 14+1; Sam Hagon 3;Vinnie Foord 6+2.
