PIRATES 58 READING 34

GRZEGORZ Walasek showed his Speedway World Cup winning form for Pirates as he rattled up his second paid maximum for the club in his 83rd appearance.

The modest, quietly spoken 29-year-old was one of Poland's stars as they lifted the Ove Fundin Trophy last year.

But he won't be lining up in this season's competition, which begins on Sunday week, although he did his best last night to embarrass the Polish selectors for leaving him out of their squad.

To be fair to them, GP Greg, as he was originally nicknamed by Poole fans because of his Grand Prix performances in 2001, has had an up and down season so far, especially in Britain.

However, he was at his best last night, particularly with the way he burst out of the gate so quickly, to chalk up his highest score in a skull and crossbones race jacket.

Indeed, Walasek was rarely troubled as RIAS Pirates tore Elite League title challenging Reading to shreds with a devastating performance that saw five of their riders glean paid double figures.

On a grippy track, saturated by more than five hours rain during the day, Poole who are struggling to achieve a league top four play-off place put one wheel into the Knockout Cup semi-final.

Now they need to finish the job at Smallmead tomorrow, and a 24-point lead should, barring a sporting disaster, be enough protection to go on and join Eastbourne in the last four.

Walasek was the only rider who didn't fall in heat three as he got out from the traps in front.

Antonio Lindback and Chris Schramm collided going into the first turn, and collected Janusz Kolodziej as they all fell to the ground. Fortunately, all three got up uninjured before Walasek followed Lindback home for a 5-1 in the re-run that saw Poole surge into a lead they were to build on purposely throughout the meeting.

Walasek recorded impressive tapes-to-flag victories in races nine when he had to beat Matej Zagar twice after Glenn Cunningham blatantly fell while last on the fourth bend to force referee Paul Carrington to order a re-run 14 and 15.

He also allowed Jonas Davidsson to sweep past him on the second bend into the lead after he had trapped first as they recorded a 5-1 in heat 12 over hard-chasing Sam Simota.

But the Pole's piece de resistance was his spectacular race five blast from third to first as he swept outside early leader Greg Hancock and Boyce on the pits bend into the lead.

Walasek then staved off the Reading star's determined inside dive on the fourth turn before going on to take the chequered flag.

Reading were clearly under-strength, with Andy Smith (injured) and Charlie Gjedde (unavailable) missing, but Pirates showed no mercy.

They nullified both Bulldogs tactical rides with Davidsson superb in pegging back Simota in heat eight and Walasek doing a fine job to beat Zagar in the following race.

Davidsson's fourth to second blast past Schramm and Kolodziej in heat seven was brilliant, while Lindback's wide, wide third to first burst to squeeze outside Boyce and Kolodziej in race 10 had to be seen to be believed.

Bjarne Pedersen then won real ding-dong battles for second places in heats 11 and 15 as Poole finished the meeting on a high.

Pirates take the same team to Swindon in the league tonight (7.30pm) and a 58-36 lead in the battle for the bonus point, with Poole also meeting the Robins in the Southern Area League.

PIRATES v READING Pirates 58: 1 Antonio Lindback (1*-3-2-3-1) 10+1, 2 Craig Boyce (2-1-1*-2-2*) 8+2, 3 Rider replacement for Krzysztof Kasprzak, 4 Grzegorz Walasek (2*-3-3-2*-3-3) 16+2, 5 Bjarne Pedersen (3-3-2*-0-2*) 10+2, 6 Jonas Davidsson (3-2*-1*-3-3-1) 13+2, 7 Shaun Tacey (0-0-1) 1. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Reading 34: 1 Greg Hancock (3-2-1-2*-1) 9+1, 2 Travis McGowan (fell exc-0-3-0) 3, 3 (guest) Chris Schramm (0-0-1) 1, 4 Janusz Kolodziej (1-1-0-0) 2, 5 Matej Zagar (2-3-4-3-0) 12, 6 Glenn Cunningham (1*-0-fell exc-0) 1+1, 7 Sam Simota (2-1*-0-1-2) 6+1. Team manager: Jim Lynch.

Referee: Paul Carrington (Ipswich).

  • Ht 1: (re-run) Hancock, Boyce, Lindback, McGowan (fell excluded), 57.46 (3-3).
  • Ht 2: Davidsson, Simota, Cunningham, Tacey, 58.18 (6-6).
  • Ht 3: (re-run) Lindback, Walasek, Kolodziej, Schramm, 57.43 (11-7).
  • Ht 4: Pedersen, Zagar, Simota, Tacey, 58.16 (14-10).
  • Ht 5: Walasek, Hancock, Boyce, McGowan, 58.05 (18-12).
  • Ht 6: Zagar, Lindback, Boyce, Cunningham, 57.66 (21-15).
  • Ht 7: Pedersen, Davidsson, Kolodziej, Schramm, 59.11 (26-16).
  • Ht 8: McGowan, Boyce, Davidsson, Simota (tactical rider, double points), 59.01 (29-19).
  • Ht 9: (re-run) Walasek, Zagar (tactical rider, double points), Tacey, Cunningham (fell excluded), 58.49 (33-23).
  • Ht 10: Lindback, Boyce, Schramm, Kolodziej, 58.12 (38-24).
  • Ht 11: Davidsson, Pedersen, Hancock, McGowan, 58.85 (43-25).
  • Ht 12: Davidsson, Walasek, Simota, Cunningham, 58.92 (48-26).
  • Ht 13: Zagar, Hancock, Lindback, Pedersen, 58.23 (49-31).
  • Ht 14: Walasek, Simota, Davidsson, Kolodziej, 59.34 (53-33).
  • Ht 15: Walasek, Pedersen, Hancock, Zagar, 59.07 (58-34).

KNOCKOUT CUP ROUND UP Knockout Cup round up, first round: Reading 97 Swindon 43, Wolves 101 Oxford 83, Arena-Essex 96 Peterborough 92. Quarter-finals: Eastbourne 106 Wolves 79, Ipswich 48 Coventry 42 (after first leg), Pirates 58 Reading 34 (after first leg), Arena-Essex v Belle Vue.