COVENTRY once again proved Pirates’ bogey team at Wimborne Road as the visitors departed Dorset with four Elite League points.

One of just two teams to win at Poole last season, Gary Havelock’s side appeared fired up following their controversial defeat to the reigning champions at Brandon on Friday.

Consistently better out of the gate, the Bees ended Poole’s 100 per cent winning start to the campaign with relative ease.

The hosts were without Maciej Janowski due to a knee injury so Lakeside’s Richard Lawson guested in the skipper’s absence.

The Bees tracked Kevin Doolan after Stuart Robson had been ruled out and the Berwick flier got off to a superb start.

Doolan was quickest away in the opener and was never troubled on his way to the fastest race time of 2015 at Poole, a rapid 59.85 seconds.

A first-bend fall for Jason Garrity earned the reserve an exclusion in heat two, only for James Sarjeant to lower the colours of Paul Starke, with Kyle Newman a surprise third.

Coventry beat the home riders to the first bend again next time out. Dakota North suffered a spill on turn three but the Bees maximum had already been sewn up, extending to 13-5 the advantage.

In a topsy-turvy heat four, Kacper Gomolski was passed for second by Joonas Kylmakorpi after the Pole had hit a rut, only for the Finnish ace to lock up and fall on the final bend as he tried to round Newman, handing Pirates a welcome 5-1.

Again Coventry responded with Garrity doing well to hold off Josh Grajczonek as Doolan took his second chequered flag for a third Bees maximum in five heats.

A magnificent battle between Gomolski and Chris Harris – won by a matter of inches by the former – was soured when the Bees rider gestured angrily at the Pole after the finish, receiving a less than favourable reception from the home crowd as a result.

Incredibly, out came the black-and-white helmet for Pirates in heat seven and despite Poole being on an initial 7-1, tactical rider Chris Holder was passed by Danny King for second.

Gomolski fell at the starting gate before the tapes had gone up for the next contest but it did not appear to affect the former Swindon man unduly as he scorched round for the win.

But just two heat advantages in eight for Pirates told its own story.

Grajczonek did his best to start a comeback when he blasted from third to first out of turn two, in tandem with Newman reducing the Coventry lead to five points.

However, heat 10 was swiftly aborted when Lawson came off the back of his bike at the first turn. North had failed to score in his first two outings but rode a lightning first two bends in the re-run to roar past Hans Andersen and limit the damage caused by Lawson’s departure.

Holder took another 0.2 seconds off Doolan’s briefly-held 2015 track record in heat 11, a hard-earned effort given that Harris was charging impatiently behind him.

Somehow, Pirates had reeled Bees in to just a three-point lead but a buoyant home crowd was reduced to a hush following a terrifying crash in heat 12.

As Newman ripped down the inside, Garrity, Sarjeant and Starke were sent flying in a back-straight tangle. Amazingly, the trio were on their feet within a few minutes and Garrity was excluded by referee Paul Carrington.

In some ways, the second re-run provided an equal surprise. Starke was third when he fell with three bends left and despite smoke billowing from his machine, the reserve pushed his bike round the circuit to salvage a point to a stirring ovation.

The foundations for a comeback had been laid – but it did not materialise.

Harris and Andersen dominated a virtual no-contest in heat 13 and North’s spill in the penultimate outing further increased the home side’s troubles.

Unable to produce his earlier form, Gomolski could not prevent a fifth maximum of the night for the Bees as they wrapped up victory with a heat to spare.

And Andersen and Harris forced a closing 3-3 to restrict Poole to just five heat advantages on the night.

RIDERS’ SCORES AND HEAT DETAILS

Pirates 41: 1 Chris Holder (0-2^-3-1-3) 9, 2 Josh Grajczonek (1-1-3-1) 6, 3 Dakota North (f-0-3-fx-0) 3, 4 Kacper Gomolski (2*-2-3-1) 8+1, 5 Richard Lawson, guest (1-3-0) 4, 6 Paul Starke (2-0-1) 3, 7 Kyle Newman (1*-3-0-1-3) 8+1. Team manager: Neil Middleditch.

Bees 50: 1 Hans Andersen (2*-3-2-2*-2) 11+2, 2 Kevin Doolan (3-3-1*-1*) 8+2, 3 Danny King (2*-2-0-3) 7+1, 4 Joonas Kylmakorpi (f-r-2-2*) 4+1, 5 Chris Harris (3-1-2-3-1*) 10+1, 6 Jason Garrity (fx-2*-2-fx) 4+1, 7 James Sarjeant (3-1-0-2) 6. Team manager: Gary Havelock.

Ht 1: Doolan, Andersen, Grajczonek, Holder, 59.85 (1-5)

Ht 2 (re-run): Sarjeant, Starke, Newman, Garrity (fell/dsq), 60.47 (4-8)

Ht 3: Harris, King, Lawson, North (fell), 60.21 (5-13)

Ht 4: Newman, Gomolski, Sarjeant, Kylmakorpi, 60.72 (10-14)

Ht 5: Doolan, Garrity, Grajczonek, Starke, 60.31 (11-19)

Ht 6: Andersen, Gomolski, Harris, North, 60.28 (13-23)

Ht 7: Lawson, King, Holder (tactical), Kylmakorpi (retired), 60.47 (18-25)

Ht 8: Gomolski, Garrity, Doolan, Newman, 61.22 (21-28)

Ht 9: Grajczonek, Kylmakorpi, Newman, Sarjeant, 60.59 (25-30)

Ht 10 (re-run): North, Andersen, Doolan, Lawson (fell/dsq), (28-33)

Ht 11: Holder, Harris, Grajczonek, King, 59.65 (32-35)

Ht 12 (re-run x2):  Newman, Sarjeant, Starke, Garrity (fell/dsq), (36-37)

Ht 13: Harris, Andersen, Holder, Lawson, 60.41 (37-42)                                 

Ht 14 (re-run): King, Kylmakorpi, Gomolski, North (fell/dsq), 61.53 (38-47)

Ht 15: Holder, Andersen, Harris, North, 61.25 (41-50)

ECHO STAR RIDER – KACPER GOMOLSKI

On a night when the majority of the Pirates side were well below their best, Kacper Gomolski stood out above his team-mates.

The winter signing was quick out of the gate and competed well for all four laps, giving a display that suggested more was to come.

Skipper Maciej Janowski may have been absent but Gomolski kept the Polish flag flying in a difficult meeting for Neil Middleditch’s team.