Flown down from Scotland Jerran Hart fired in a perfect seven ride score for the Buccaneers in the first leg of their cup semi-final against Plymouth that has left the Dorset side on the verge of a cup final appearance. But this performance wasn't just about Hart's 21 point maximum as Mark Baseby quickly got to grips with the tricky petite St.Boniface circuit. It took bronze helmet winner Jay Herne a little longer to find the best set up but once he did the Buccaneers stunned the Devils as the home side was condemned to a rare home defeat.
Early on events were suggesting that Bournemouth, beaten only once so far this season, would be looking to try and restrain Plymouth from gaining too much of a first leg advantage. Aaron Baseby infinged at the tapes in heat 2 at was penalised 15 metres, although he was able to pick up a point to add to Hart's first of seven wins, when Stoneman packed up. Kyle Newman was next to be handicapped in the very next heat and then failed to get off the temporary grid when the tapes rose. Hart covered the rider replacement outing admirably in heat 4 but with no other Buccaneer adding his name to the list of winners the visitors slumped to a 6 point deficit after 6 heats.
Mark Baseby was gifted three points when race leader Hughes came detached from his machine in heat 7, Newman opening his scoring with a point for third. Back to back wins for Hart helped Bournemouth to level the meeting as his fourth win of the night was ably backed up by a battling Mark Baseby second place as previously unbeaten Seemond Stephens wad relegated to a non-scoring position. Plymouth steadily re-established a four point lead from the next two heats but a fighting third from Aaron Baseby in heat 12 saw Bournemouth again chip away at the lead and he did it again in heat 13 as Herne picked up his first win of the night when the race was re-run following a spectacular crash by Mark Simmonds as he sought a brave outside swoop to try and improve on his third place. A huge 5-1 from Hart and Mark Baseby in heat 14 virtually ruled out a Buccaneer's defeat as the only needed a finisher in heat 15. They provided two - first and second - through their Double-H bomb factor Hart and Herne to give themselves a 49-41 victory and edge ever closer to that cup final.
Plymouth 41
M.Simmonds 2',3,3,Fx=8+1
P.Starke 3,1,2,1,0=7
S.Stephens 3,3,0,2,1=9
M.Bates 1,0,1,1=3
K.Hughes 2,F,3,2=7
D.Stoneman R,2,0=2
D.Gough 2,1',1',1,0=5+2
Bournemouth 49
J.Herne 0,1',2,2,3,2'=10+2
A.Aldridge 1,0,2,0,0=3
K.Newman R,1,0,=1
M.Baseby 2,3,2',2,2'=11+2
R/R (AA,JHe,MB,AB)
A.Baseby 1,0,1,1=3
J.Hart 3,3,3,3,3,33=21
Referee:Mr Ronnie Allan
Gates 2+4 Bournemouth lost the toss. Heat 15 1+3
1.Starke Simmonds Aldridge Herne 5-1 5-1 (52.7)
2.Hart, Gough, A.Baseby (15m tapes), Stoneman 2-4 7-5 (52.7)
3.Stephens, M.Baseby, Bates, Newman (15 tapes rtd) 4-2 11-7 (53.0)
4. Hart, Hughes, Gough, Aldridge 3-3 14-10 (51.8)
5. Stephens, Aldridge, Herne, Bates (fell rem) 3-3 17-13 (54.2)
6.Simmonds, Herne, Starke, A.Baseby 4-2 21-15 (53.5)
7. M.Baseby, Stoneman, Newman, Hughes (fell) 2-4 23-19 (52.7)
8. Hart, Starke, Gough, Aldridge 3-3 26-22 (52.8)
9. Hart,M.Baseby, Bates, Stephens 1-5 27-27 (52.5)
10.Simmonds, M.Baseby, Starke, Newman 4-2 31-29 (52.6)
11. Hughes, Herne, Gough, Aldridge 4-2 35-31 (52.2)
12. Hart, Stephens, A.Baseby, Gough 2-4 37-35 (52.3)
13. Herne, Hughes, A.Baseby Simmonds (fell disqualified) 2-4 39-39 (53.3)
14.Hart, M.Baseby, Bates, Stoneman 1-5 40-44 (53.1)
15. Hart,Herne, Stephens, Starke 1-5 41-49 (52.9)