Poole lift the cup

REPORT Wednesday 27th October 2021, 10:01pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The What the Fork Monarchs made a decent start to the second leg of the KO Cup Final at Poole tonight, and they never gave up, but gradually the tide turned against them with the Pirates finishing comfortable 57-33 winners on the night, aggregate score 104-75.

Team manager John Campbell said "We were not at the races, completely dominated by Poole and beaten by a far better team on the night.

"Drew Kemp was fine, he was competitive, Sam Masters was competitive and Josh Pickering was competitive, Richie couldn't get the bike going quickly enough.

"I feel sorry for Kye Thomson who is devastated that he has done so badly in a cup final, but he will bounce back."

Poole's heat leaders were pretty dominant with Rory Schlein unbeaten and only Sam Masters able to peg back Steve Worrall and Danny King, once each.

Sam Masters did make it to double figures for Monarchs with Drew Kemp and Josh Pickering scoring 8, though Josh hasn't won a heat in his final three matches.

Monarchs opened with a fine win for captain Sam Masters, Anders Rowe taking third in the opener, and reserve Drew Kemp won heat 2, the first of two victories.

However the next 5 races were all home 4-2s, and with no lead to defend it was pretty clear after 7 races that the Cup was going south. Richie Worrall had started with a couple of good gates but had to give best to the challenges by Danny King and brother Steve.

We kept at it, and heat 8 was Kemp's second victory with Rowe picking up another good point, keeping the dangerous Dane Benjamin Basso at the back.

Poole were gradually taking control though and added a further six points to their lead in heats 9 and 10. It wasn't Kye Thomson's night and he seems to have tired at the end of what has been a very good debut season.

Sam Masters gained his second heat win when he beat Danny King in heat 11, but we shed another 5-1 with Kye at the back in heat 12. Heats 13 and 15 went the same way and the second half of the match, after heat 8, proved a disappointment with very little achieved by the visitors.

So that is it for the season. Cup Finalists (well beaten) and Playoff semi-finalists, that proved to be our limit and we will be back next season to have another go.

Full Result Details