JAMES Brundle blasted in his second successive full maximum as Buccaneers’ convincingly 15-point victory over Plymouth boosted their play-off hopes last night.
Daniel Halsey was only denied a paid full house by a second-bend exclusion as he grabbed 10 paid 12 from five rides to give solid support to Brundle, who got 12.
With Mark Baseby (nine paid 10) getting back to his best and all the other Bournemouth riders either grabbing a race win or being paid for one, their comfortable success propelled them to within one point of the top four.
Suddenly, Buccaneers are beginning to look as though they could be genuine title contenders.
Since Brundle replaced Chris Mills as their number one earlier this month, Buccaneers have plundered four straight victories, including triumphs at Weymouth and Rye House.
And they will fancy their chances of winning again at lowly Isle of Wight on Tuesday.
Plymouth’s challenge wilted early on after they were outgunned in the opening four heats as they fell 17-7 behind.
Seemond Stephens (14 paid 15) and Mark Simmonds (10) shared four race wins and Nicki Glanz (eight) also took the chequered flag once.
Other than that, Devils didn’t have a lot to offer and it was testament to that trio’s efforts that they didn’t lose by more than 15 against a solid Buccaneers outfit.
Former Elite League rider Brundle’s lightning quick gating is way too good for the third-tier and it enabled him to romp to four relatively easy successes.
Halsey followed him home twice for 5-1s but missed out in heat six when he was correctly excluded by referee Christina Turnbull for falling on the second corner.
A win for Halsey in race eight led to him being nominated for heat 15, which he won brilliantly, blasting outside Simmonds on the back straight to triumph.
Aaron Baseby was unlucky to miss out on second in race eight after diving inside Jaimie Pickard and narrowly failing to catch David Gough while Halsey was in front.
Despite Bournemouth’s dominance, Glanz’s last-lap pass of Karl Mason in heat five, and Stephens’s extra wide swoop on turn two to blast outside Mark Baseby on the back straight to win race seven were the champagne moments.
<•>Poole’s Davey Watt, Chris Holder and Darcy Ward are in Australia’s side for the World Team Cup race-off at Vojens tonight (6pm).
Pirate Bjarne Pedersen features for Denmark against Australia, Sweden and Russia.
Buccaneers 55: 1 James Brundle (3-3-3-3) 12, 2 Danny Halsey (2*-fell exc-3-2*-3) 10+2, 3 Karl Mason (1*-1-1*-3) 6+2, 4 Kyle Howarth (2-3-2-0) 7, 5 Mark Baseby (3-2-2-2*-ret) 9+1, 6 John Resch (2*-1*-1*-2) 6+3, 7 Aaron Baseby (3-1-1-0) 5. Team managers: Garry May and Neil Vatcher.
Plymouth 40: 1 Nicki Glanz (1-4^-3-0) 8, 2 David Gough (0-0-2-ret) 2, 3 Matt Bates (0-0-0-2) 2, 4 Seemond Stephens (3-3-1-6^-1*) 14+1, 5 Mark Simmonds (2-2-3-1-2) 10, 6 Jaimie Pickard (1-1*-0-1*-1) 4+2, 7 Ben Reade (0-0-0) 0. Team manager: Gary Spiller.
Referee: Christina Turnbull.
Match points: Buccaneers 3 Plymouth 0.
Ht 1: Brundle, Halsey, Glanz, Gough, 62.22 (5-1).
Ht 2: A Baseby, Resch, Pickard, Reade, 63.36 (10-2).
Ht 3: Stephens, Howarth, Mason, Bates, 63.30 (13-5).
Ht 4: M Baseby, Simmons, A Baseby, Reade, 61.83 (17-7).
Ht 5: Howarth, Glanz^ (tactical rider, double points), Mason, Gough, 62.89 (21-11).
Ht 6: (re-run) Brundle, Simmonds, Pickard, Halsey (fell excluded), 62.26 (24-14).
Ht 7: (re-run) Stephens, M Baseby, Resch, Bates, 62.03 (27-17).
Ht 8: Halsey, Gough, A Baseby, Pickard, 62.92 (31-19).
Ht 9: Simmonds, Howarth, Mason, Reade, 62.36 (34-22).
Ht 10: Brundle, Halsey, Stephens, Bates, 62.32 (39-23).
Ht 11: Glanz, M Baseby, Resch, Gough (retired), 62.48 (42-26).
Ht 12: Mason, Bates, Pickard, A Baseby, 63.38 (45-29).
Ht 13: Brundle, M Baseby, Simmonds, Glanz, 62.63 (50-30).
Ht 14: Stephens^ (tactical rider, double points), Resch, Pickard, Howarth, 63.18 (52-37).
Ht 15: Halsey, Simmonds, Stephens, M Baseby (retired), 63.05 (55-40).
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