PIRATES hero Chris Holder urged co-promoter Matt Ford to keep the club in the top flight, after he teamed up with Hans Andersen for a stunning Elite League Pairs triumph.

The storm clouds have hovered relentlessly over Wimborne Road this term, as Poole have been beset by injuries, poor form and outrageous mid-season rule tinkering by the BSPA.

But Andersen and Holder blew these problems away when they outfoxed Eastbourne duo Davey Watt and Lewis Bridger to win the final at Arlington on Saturday night.

There was no doubt this was Pirates’ last chance of ending 2009 with a team trophy.

Their Knockout Cup campaign ended miserably at Belle Vue last month and relegation looks far more likely than them retaining last season’s title.

Speculation is also rife as to whether this will be Poole’s final year in the Elite, as Ford was left fuming by the BSPA’s decision to cut the number of play-off places from six to four.

Holder knows such a move would force him to ride elsewhere in 2010, but he hopes Pirates’ second Pairs crown in three years will play its part in persuading Ford to stay Elite.

He said: “If Matt doesn’t stay up, he’s going to lose a lot of riders and I definitely won’t be there.

“I don’t want to see the club go down because they’ve got such a good history and this has just been one bad year.

“You can’t throw all your toys out of the pram and want to go down after that.

“You have to take the good with the bad and, hopefully, next year will be a good year.”

Pirates travelled to Eastbourne as one of the favourites for victory and reached the semi-finals with 22 points.

Their heats were far from a breeze, however, as Holder struggled to control an overly-aggressive bike on Eagles’ tight, 275-metre circuit.

But the Poole stars were at their best when it mattered most.

They were drawn against Coventry in the last four and their night looked to be over as Harris and Kennett left them eating dust from the tapes.

Harris roared into the distance but Andersen ripped around Kennett on turn four to put Pirates’ master plan into action.

He knew second and third would be good enough to put Pirates into the final with a 5-4 heat advantage.

So the Dane used his considerable cunning to slow the race down, forcing Kennett to ride wide on the Arlington shale.

This allowed a hard-charging Holder to scorch up the inside at the end of lap three to set up a head-to-head with the hosts.

Eagles were determined to celebrate their 80th anniversary meeting in style with a huge victory over their South Coast rivals.

Everything went perfectly to plan for them from the traps, as Watt and Bridger left Andersen and Holder trailing.

But the Aussie quickly found a way past Bridger on turn four, before repaying Andersen’s delaying tactics from the semis.

He sat on the British international for three laps, allowing Andersen to get a run around the outside on lap four, turn one and claim his second successive Pairs trophy.

The Pirates duo popped wheelies and celebrated with elated team boss Neil Middleditch, and Holder was delighted to give Poole’s suffering supporters something to smile about.

He said: “We don’t like going out there and getting beaten every week and we knew this was our last chance for a trophy, so we made the most of it.

“We’ve had a really bad season after winning the title last year and a lot of people have been pretty upset at Poole.

“But we’ve managed to win the Pairs, which is the next best thing.”