CUP holders Poole Pirates took a giant step towards retaining the knockout trophy with an emphatic 52-38 win over Coventry Bees in the first leg of the final at Brandon tonight.

Danish rider Niels-Kristian Iversen, who played a leading role in the semi-final success over Peterborough, was again the star guest, winning all five of his races.

Pirates got off to the perfect start with a 5-1 success thanks to Iversen and team-mate Ludvig Lindgren’s 5-1 in heat one.

Sam Masters then ensured a 3-3 by winning heat two, before Kenni Larsen and Scott Nicholls paired up to square the meeting for the hosts.

But the visitors’ dominance was soon resumed with injured Chris Holder’s deputy Rory Schlein winning two of the next three heats.

Sandwiched between his successes was Iversen’s second victory in heat five.

Edward Kennett stopped the rot for Coventry, before Krzysztof Kaprazak got into gear by clinching heat eight.

Schlein continued to shine with his third victory in heat nine, while Iversen and Kasprazak won heats 11 and 12 respectively to open up a 41-31 advantage.

Iversen then underlined his supremacy by beating Nicholls in the second man-on-man race to keep the Bees at bay.

The great Dane then reeled off further wins in heats 13 and 15.

  •  Pirates captain Chris Holder yesterday confirmed, via his Twitter account, that he was likely to require surgery after sustaining a broken rib, broken tibia and knee ligament damage in his horror smash at Peterborough.

With Darcy Ward already sidelined, Pirates have booked Hans Andersen and Niels-Kristian Iversen as guests for Monday’s cup final second leg at Wimborne Road.