DWR NEWS - JULY 2010:   Thursday, 29th July 2010: Heartbreak for Aussies in WTC Race-Off. Despite a spirited performance in Vojens this evening, Davey Watt, Darcy, and the rest of the young Australian team will have to look forward to the future after missing out on qualifying for Saturdays Speedway World Cup Final at the same venue after finishing third behind hosts Denmark and their Scandinavian neighbours Sweden.   Tuesday, 27th July 2010: Team GB push Aussies into race-off. After winning all of the first three heats of their qualifier at King's Lynn last night Australian hopes were high that they would qualify directly into Saturday's World Team Cup Final in Vojens, Denmark, and avoid Thursday's race-off at the same venue. Great Britain, however, had other ideas and began a fight back that saw them establish a three point lead over the Aussies by the end of heat twenty-one. Two heats later the two nations teams were all square again, but wins for Chris Harris and Scott Nicholls in the final two heats saw Team GB through to the final, where they join the runaway winners of the first event, Poland, with a fifty-one point tally, three ahead of Team Australia, who now face Denmark, Russia and Sweden, who finished third with forty points, in Thursday's race-off. Finland, who finished fourth on fourteen points are eliminated, as were the Czech Republic from the first round. Chris Holder top scored for Team Australia with twelve points, Davey Watt and Troy Batchelor each scored eleven. Darcy scored eight and Rory Schlein six.   Monday, 26th July 2010: Poland set new WTC points record. As they prepare for this evening's qualifying round at King's Lynn, Team Australia know that even if they progress straight into Saturday's final of the 2010 World Team Cup, at Vojens, Denmark, or the race-off at the same venue on Thursday, they will face a stiff task to overcome the winners of yesterday's first qualifier, Poland. In a meeting that was held over from the previous day due to heavy rain, the Poles, on home territory at Gorzow, finished in either first or second places in all but one of yesterday's heats, setting a new record points tally for the event of sixty-eight points as they eased their way into the final. Denmark go through to Thursday's race-off, as do Russia, whose solid team performance pushed the Czech Republic into fourth place and out of the competition. Polish Grand Prix star Jarek Hampel was pleased with his country's performance but warned of the dangers of becoming over-confident in the final. He said, "We are in the Final, but it could be totally different in Vojens. We are strong but we need to be ready because the rest of the teams want to improve. We know that". "It’s a totally different place and the track is totally different. It’s pretty short with tight corners. The most important thing is that we read the track well from the beginning and get the best lines". "“There will be four strong teams over there. We’ve got a great chance, but we’ve got to work so hard".   Wednesday, 22nd July 2010: Paid Max for Darcy in KO Cup triumph. Having to overturn a ten point first leg deficit proved no obstacle to the Poole Pirates in the second leg of their Knock-out Cup encounter against the Belle Vue Aces at Wimborne Road last night. By the end of heat eight the aggregate scores were all square and the home side then started to open up a lead, eventually winning the meeting 57:35, and the overall tie 97:85. Darcy proved to be the hero of the hour, his maiden paid fifteen point maximum at Elite level. A paid win in his first outing was followed by four first places. Darcy's score: 21,3,3,3,3 = 14 (paid 15 maximum) This evening the Pirates travel to Ipswich to face the Witches in an Elite League 'B' encounter.   Tuesday, 20th July 2010: Pirates settle for consolation bonus. Despite trailing the Panthers throughout the meeting, expect heat three, the Pirates resolve earned them a consolation bonus point as they clawed their way to within three points of Peterborough and could, in fact, still have won the meeting with a heat fifteen maximum, being only three points behind at that stage. However, Panther's Grand Prix Dane, Kenneth Bjerre, having earlier lost his chance of a maximum when beaten around his home circuit by Davey Watt in heat eleven, was in no mood to repeat the feat however, and held off the challenge of fellow GP rider, Chris Holder, who had earlier raised the visitors hopes with a great double points tactical ride victory over Troy Batchelor, to see the Panthers home to a win. Rory Schlein passed Bjarne Pedersen to finish third to give a final score of Peterborough 49:44 Poole. Darcy once again showed his liking for the track where he held the track record last season, racing to three heat wins on his way to a total of eleven, paid twelve, from six rides. Darcy's score: 3,0,3,1,11,3 = 11 (paid 12)   Monday, 19th July 2010: Darcy back to 'Lynn for World Team Cup. Darcy returns to his former home, King's Lynn, next week after being named as part of the five man Australian outfit for the 2010 World Team Cup which begins with the first round in Poland on 24th July. Australia begin their cup trail at King's Lynn two days later, and Pirates fans will feel very much like they're at home, as Australia's five man squad boasts three current Pirates; Chris Holder and Davey Watt, who is named captain, joining Darcy, plus former Poole rider Troy Batchelor and Rory Schlein. Other ex-Pirates taking part in the round include Sweden's captain Magnus Zetterstrom, his fellow countryman Antonio Lindback, and British riders Scott Nicholls and Lee Richardson. Event 1: Gorzow, Poland, 24 July 2010. Start Time: 1900H LOCAL TIME RUSSIA: RED 1 Artem Laguta 2 Renat Gafurov 3 Grigoriy Laguta 4 Denis Gizatullin 5 Roman Povazhny Team Manager Stanislav Khan POLAND: BLUE 1 Jaroslaw Hampel 2 Rune Holta 3 Tomasz Gollob (Captain) 4 Adrian Miedzinski 5 Janusz Kolodziej Team Manager Marek Cieslak CZECH REPUBLIC: WHITE 1 Lukáš Dryml 2 Aleš Dryml (Captain) 3 Martin Málek 4 Zdenek Simota 5 Matej Kus Team Manager Milan Špinka DENMARK: YELLOW 1 Kenneth Bjerre 2 Niels Kristian Iversen 3 Hans Andersen 4 Nicolai Klindt 5 Bjarne Pedersen Team Manager Jan Staechmann Event 2: King’s Lynn, Great Britain, 26 July 2010. Start Time: 1930H LOCAL TIME FINLAND: RED 1 Timo Lahti 2 Joonas Kylmäkorpi 3 Juha Hautamäki 4 Kauko Nieminen (Captain) 5 Kalle Katajisto Team Manager Jyri Palomaki AUSTRALIA: BLUE 1 Chris Holder 2 Dave Watt (Captain) 3 Troy Batchelor 4 Rory Schlein 5 Darcy Ward Team Manager Craig Boyce GREAT BRITAIN: WHITE 1 Scott Nicholls 2 Lee Richardson 3 Tai Woffinden 4 Simon Stead 5 Chris Harris (Captain) Team Manager Rob Lyon SWEDEN: YELLOW 1 Fredrik Lindgren 2 Andreas Jonsson 3 Antonio Lindbäck 4 Magnus Zetterström (Captain) 5 Daniel Nermark Team Manager Peter Jansson Race Off, Vojens, Denmark, 29 July 2010: Second and third placed teams from Events 1 & 2 Final, Vojens, Denmark, 31 July 2010: Winners of Event 1 & 2 plus the top two teams from the Race-Off   Sunday, 18th July 2010: World U21 Finals get underway! Rain caused the first round of the world U21 final to suffer a delayed start, prompting an hour's delay after just 5 heats when lightening blitzed around the stadium with further downpours and then a total abandonment after all riders had completed 3 rides a-piece. Defending champion Darcy Ward had two second places and a third, his final ride seeing him holding second place until a mistake allowed Patrick Dudek through and Ward himself almost fall. His Poole Pirates team-mater Artur Mroczka endured a miserable night on a track where he is usually simply awesome. Machine problems in his first ride saw him limp home for a point after Kevin Wolbert had packed up totally. The gremlins were still with him in his second outing where he found himself almost a full lap behind at one stage and he looked a poor shadow of his normal self in what was to prove to be the final race of the rain-soaked evening. Latvian Maksim Bogdanov headed the scoreboard with an unbeaten 9 points with Belle Vue's Patrick Hougaard, who will be part of the cup side that visits Wimborne Road on Wednesday night on 8 points, two clear of a quartet of riders on 6. The championship will now move on to Daugvapils, Latvia on August 7th culminating in Pardubice, Czech Republic on October 2nd. Scores:- M.Bogdanov (LV) 9 (3,3,3); P.Hougaard (DK) 8 (3,3,2) ; J.Pavlic (HR) 6 (3,3,0); A.Laguta (RU) 6 (2,3,1); W.Tarasenko (RU) 6 (3,2,1); M.Janowski (PL) 6 (1,2,3); D.Ward (AU) 5 (2,2,1); M.Vaculik (SI) 5 (1,2,2); R.Bach (DK) 4 (0,1,3); P.Dudek (PL) 4 (2,R,2); K.Wolbert (DE) 3 (R,0,3); M.Kus (CZ) 3 (0,1,2); D.Andersson (SE) 2 (2,0,0); A.Mroczka (PL) 2 (1,1,0); F.Facher (DE) 2 (1,1,0); D.Sperz (PL) 1 (F,F,1)   Friday, 16th July 2010: Eagles end Pirates league run. The recent run of form shown by the Eastbourne Eagles continued at Arlington last night as they ended the Poole's winning league sequence of seven matches with a 49:41 victory in front of their home fans. The Pirates will no doubt be disappointed, having had the majority of heat winners but missing out on the all-important minor placings on too many occasions. Darcy had a frustrating meeting, losing point scoring opportunities due to a variety of reasons in all but his first ride, where finished second. Six points down after eleven heats, the visitors got back to within four in heat twelve and it remained that way until heat fifteen, where Chris Holder and Davey Watt had a chance to snatch a last gasp draw if they could finish ahead of Zagar and Woodward. Sadly for the Pirates fans it was not be, as the home pairing took maximum points to secure an eight point victory and deny the Pirates a bonus point. Darcy's score: 2,0,0,x = 2   Thursday, 15th July 2010: Darcy again misses out on paid max.! Despite a four ride fifteen point maximum, which included a tactical win, by guest number one, Chris Harris, the Lakeside Hammers were powerless to stop the march of the Poole Pirates, whose win against the third placed side further cements their position at the top of the Elite League table. Darcy, for the second time this month, just missed out on a paid maximum. After winning his first outing and recording a paid win in his second ride, he became one of Chris 'Bomber' Harris's victims when finishing second to him when the Hammers guest took his tactical ride win. A win in his final ride gave Darcy a total of ten, paid eleven, from four rides. The Pirates 56:33 victory was mathematically assured by the the end of heat twelve, well before the time the meeting was abandoned due to a sudden torrential downpour prior to heat fifteen. Darcy's score: 3,21,2,3 = 10 (paid 11) This evening the Pirates face the first of two away meetings in consecutive days, when they travel to Eastbourne to wrap up their last remaining Elite 'A' fixture. Tomorrow they visit Coventry, where they will be hoping to make it four league victories over the Bees this season. Two comfortable home wins were accompanied by a solid, 34:59, win at Brandon in April.   Tuesday, 6th July 2010: Aces take ten point lead in KO Cup clash. Darcy scored ten points for the Pirates in their 50:40 Knock-out Cup, first leg, defeat against the Belle Vue Aces in Manchester last night. Taking advantage of postion in a reserve berth, Darcy took six rides. Having recorded three points from his opening two rides, Darcy fell in his third outing but bounced back to win two of his last three races, which earned him another seven points, to finish as joint top scorer on ten points alongside Bjarne Pedersen (10, paid 12). Remarkably, only the Pirates number one, Chris Holder, failed to win a heat for the visitors, although most of the Poole side suffered inconsistent meetings. Their spearhead of Holder (5) and Davey Watt (5+1) would have expected to score more, although Holder is still suffering the effects of the arm injury he received in the recent Grand Prix, and the Pirates will still be confident of doing enough at Wimborne Road to achieve an aggregate victory. A maximum in heat twelve brought the visitors to within just four points of the home side but the Aces then slammed in succesive 5:1's of their own in heats thirteen and fourteen to slam the door firmly shut. Poole managed to claw two points back in heat fifteen, reducing the deficit to ten points, to enhance their second leg chances. Darcy's score: 1,2,f,3,1,3 = 10   Thursday, 1st July 2010: Darcy just misses out on paid max.! Darcy narrowly missed out on a six ride paid maximum in the Pirates 58:35 demolition of the Coventry Bees at Wimborne Road last night. He dropped his only point to an opponent in his fourth race, having started with a paid win in heat one behind the unbeaten Chris Holder. He then recorded two wins before losing his paid maximum chances, but bounced back with another paid win and completing his evening's work with his third heat victory of the match. Darcy's score: ,21,3,3,2,21,3 = 15 (paid 17)