POOLE produced one of the great 'five-rider' performances of all-time as they crushed a lack-lustre Eastbourne at Wimborne Road.

Meridian Lifts Pirates rode most of the meeting with only five men - but they still walloped the Eagles in front of a delighted 5,000 crowd of mainly Poole supporters.

Pirates went into the meeting without Krzysztof Kasprzak after he got stuck in a traffic jam on the M3 near Winchester after flying in from Poland in the morning.

And David Ruud was forced to withdraw from the meeting after winning heat two with suspected food poisoning.

That left Poole with only five fit riders and meant they had to go into three heats with only one man.

But the quintet dug deep and really gave the Eagles a roasting as they wracked up seven 5-1s and one 4-2.

At one stage Pirates were 41-19 ahead and looked to be heading to an even bigger winning margin than 22 points.

But Mark Loram led a late mini-revival as Eastbourne closed the gap to 16 points after heat 12 before two Leigh Adams-Tony Rickardsson maximums put the polish on a brilliant Poole performance.

Aussie Adams slammed in his second successive maximum for Pirates with 14 paid 15, while Rickardsson was only beaten once by an opposing rider, Loram, on his way to 12 paid 14.

It was Davey Watt (10 paid 12) and Bjarne Pedersen (nine paid 11) who really shook up Eastbourne on a slick, dusty track.

Watt excelled after running two lasts.

His highlight was winning heat four after jetting out in front of Joe Screen and then being expertly team-rode to a 5-1 with Rickardsson, who blasted from fourth to second on the first lap in fantastic style.

Pedersen returned to form by reeling off back-to-back wins in heats eight and nine as Eagles wilted under Poole's impressive onslaught.

HEAT DETAILS

Pirates: 1 Leigh Adams (3-3-3-2*-3) 14+1, 2 Rider replacement for Krzysztof Kasprzak, 3 Lukas Dryml (2-3-2*-1) 8+1, 4 Bjarne Pedersen (1*-2*-3-3-0) 9+2, 5 Tony Rickardsson (2*-3-2-3-2*) 12+2, 6 David Ruud (3) 3, 7 Davey Watt (0-0-3-1-2*-2*-2) 10+2. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Eastbourne: 1 Mark Loram (2-1-3-0-1-1) 8, 2 Dean Barker (1*-0-0-3) 4+1, 3 David Norris (3-1-1-1*-3-0) 9+1, 4 Joonas Kylmakorpi (0-0-2) 2, 5 Joe Screen (1-2-1-2*-1) 7+1, 6 Adam Shields (2-0-1) 3, 7 Gary Stead (1*-0-0) 1+1. Team manager: Olli Tyrvainen.

Referee: Robbie Perks.

Ht 1: Adams, Loram, Barker, Watt, 59.48 (3-3). Ht 2: Ruud, Shields, Stead, Watt, 61.19 (6-6). Ht 3: Norris, Dryml, Pedersen, Kylmakorpi, 60.06 (9-9). Ht 4: Watt, Rickardsson, Screen, Stead, 60.43 (14-10). Ht 5: Dryml, Pedersen, Loram, Barker, 59.63 (19-11). Ht 6: (re-run) Adams, Screen, Watt, Stead, 60.38 (23-13). Ht 7: Rickardsson, Watt, Norris, Kylmakorpi, 60.09 (28-14). Ht 8: Pedersen, Watt, Norris, Barker, 61.21 (33-15). Ht 9: Pedersen, Dryml, Screen, Shields, 61.07 (38-16). Ht 10: Adams, Kylmakorpi, Norris, (Poole only had one rider), 61.73 (41-19). Ht 11: Loram, Rickardsson, Shields, (Poole only had one rider), 61.89 (43-23). Ht 12: Norris, Screen, Dryml, (Poole only had one rider), 63.10 (44-28). Ht 13: Rickardsson, Adams, Screen, Loram, 60.85 (49-29). Ht 14: Barker, Watt, Loram, Pedersen, 62.91 (51-33). Ht 15: Adams, Rickardsson, Loram, Norris, 61.29 (56-34).

Eastbourne 40 Poole 32 (abandoned after 12 heats following serious injury to Mark Loram. Eastbourne conceded the tie with three heats remaining. The result stands)

Poole won 88-74 on aggregate

Eastbourne: 1 Mark Loram (2-2-3-fell inj ns) 7, 2 Dean Barker (1*-1*-3-0) 5+2, 3 David Norris (2*-2-3-3) 10+1, 4 Joonas Kylmakorpi (3-1*-2*) 6+1, 5 Joe Screen (2-3-fell exc) 5, 6 Adam Shields (1-1-1-2*) 5+1, 7 Garry Stead (0-1*-1) 2+1.

Team manager: Olli Tyrvainen.

Pirates: 1 Leigh Adams (3-3-2*) 8+1, 2 Kryzsztof Kasprzak (0-0-0) 0, 3 Lukas Dryml (0-0-2-1) 3, 4 Bjarne Pedersen (1-2-1*) 4+1, 5 Tony Rickardsson (3-3-ret-3) 9, 6 David Ruud (3-ret-1) 4, 7 Davey Watt (2*-ret-2-0) 4+1. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Referee: Frank Ebdon.

Ht 1: Adams, Loram, Barker, Kasprzak (excluded two minutes, started 15 metres back), 56.2 (3-3). Ht 2: Ruud, Watt, Shields, Stead, 56.9 (4-8). Ht 3: Kylmakorpi, Norris, Pedersen, Dryml, 57.0 (9-9). Ht 4: Rickardsson, Screen, Stead, Watt (fell, remounted, retired), 56.0 (12-12). Ht 5: Adams, Norris, Kylmakorpi, Kasprzak, 56.6 (15-15). Ht 6: Rickardsson, Loram, Barker, Ruud (retired), 56.2 (18-18). Ht 7: Screen, Pedersen, Shields, Dryml, 58.0 (22-20). Ht 8: Barker, Watt, Stead, Kasprzak, 58.7 (26-22). Ht 9: Norris, Kylmakorpi, Ruud, Rickardsson (retired), 57.4 (31-23). Ht 10: Loram, Dryml, Pedersen, Barker, 58.0 (34-26). Ht 11: (re-run) Rickardsson, Adams, Shields, Screen (fell excluded), 56.7 (35-31). Ht 12: Norris, Shields, Dryml, Watt, 57.1 (40-32). Ht 13 was started with Loram, Stead, Adams and Rickardsson. Loram fell and was declared unfit and a non starter for the re-run. Shields was named as his replacement but the race was never re-started.