REJUVENATED Davey Watt reflected on his mixed campaign so far and then expressed his delight at emerging from his struggles to star for Pirates.

The Poole skipper was not at his best on English shale during the early stages of 2011.

He revealed that adapting his engines to the new silencers that were introduced this season had been one of the major factors behind his problems.

But 11 points against King’s Lynn and 12 at Peterborough have this week underlined his return to top form.

The Pirates captain told the Daily Echo: “I think I started the season okay – March and the start of April were pretty good.

“Everything just seemed to go downhill. I had a few bad meetings and everything got on top of me.

“The bikes weren’t great. With the new silencers, I hadn’t really got everything going but I was riding well and that was making up for the lack of speed I had in the engine.

“It was a tough reality check when I wasn’t riding the bike as well, to realise that the bikes weren’t going as well either. It took me six weeks to sort out all of that and, thankfully, I did.”

Watt admitted to being “a bit naïve” about the impact the silencers would have on engines but said the experience would stand him in good stead for the rest of his career.

He added: “I was still going all right in Sweden and Poland and it was only really England that was the big issue for me.

“The past six weeks or so have been a lot better in England and people here and throughout the world pay a lot of attention to your scores in England. Unfortunately, they weren’t paying attention to my scores abroad.

“But now it is going well and I can’t complain about it.

“Unfortunately, you do go through bad spells and that is just the way it works out. But I am glad I am through it.”