POOLE Comets withstood a valiant fight-back from Exeter Aces to emerge 93-85 victors following a thrilling British South West League clash at Harbourside Park.

The hosts looked set to run away with the contest until the Devon outfit found their feet during the closing heats.

Poole led from the start thanks to a maximum heat win from Callum Smith and Dean Hook before Jay Briggs and Ben Donohue repeated the feat to leave the visitors reeling.

Having established a healthy 13-point lead by the interval, the Comets were in no mood to let it slip and rubbed more salt into Exeter wounds with two more maximum heat wins after the break.

But from that point on, the Aces management made use of some astute tactical changes to win four of the last five races to peg back the Comets’ advantage.

However, ultimately, the Aces could not compete with Comets’ all-round strength in depth, with no fewer than six of the home riders chalking up double-figure scores.

Polish ace Matiej Ganczarek was in a different class for the Comets, thrilling the crowd with some well-judged passing moves to finish the match unbeaten by an opponent and received solid support from the rest of the team.

Poole: Jay Briggs 14+1, Fraser Garnett 13+1, Callum Smith 13+2, Dean Hook 11+2, Ben Tinsdale 7, Matiej Ganczarek 15+1, Ben Donohue 11+1, Macie Schmidt 9.

Exeter: Aaron Herbert 16, Rob Geach 10, Connor Tucker 16+1, Dave Murphy 8, Lauren Hookway 6, Dan Winchester 12, Andy Collett 4, Craig Nethercott 13.