STEVE Worrall insists he is relishing "healthy competition" for Poole Pirates' number one jacket, as he prepares to relinquish the spot next week.

Worrall began the campaign at number one, having taken that spot from Rory Schlein during the 2021 campaign.

But when the May averages kick in this weekend, Worrall (9.05) will drop down to number three, with captain Danny King going from five to one on a 9.73 average and fellow heat leader Richard Lawson (9.16) moving from three to five.

Worrall ended his current reign as number one in perfect fashion, with a paid maximum 13+2 as Poole Pirates swept aside Birmingham Brummies 54-36 at Wimborne Road last night.

Having won each of his first three races, Worrall then claimed second spot behind King in heats 13 and 15.

Speaking about losing the number one jacket ahead of Pirates' trip to Plymouth Gladiators on Tuesday, Worrall said: "Life should get a little bit easier at number three!

"But no, there's three of us here, who are probably the top three riders in the league, all vying for the number one spot.

"I think most other teams we'd all be number one, so healthy competition is nice."

Reflecting on the win over Brummies, Worrall added: "It was a solid performance from us all. Fair play to Birmingham, they're a very tricky team.

"You can see from the score-line, we didn't sail off as easy as we wanted to. But it was a good performance from us all."

King ended the night with 12 points, recovering from a slow start where he collected just three points from his opening two rides, before winning his final three.

“I had a little bit of a sulk after my first two rides and had to make some changes," King admitted.

“The track caught me out a bit as there wasn’t quite as much material on it as I had thought during the track walk and so we just had to de-tune the bike a little bit after I persevered for two rides, and in doing that I was able to make better starts.”