POOLE Pirates flew to another final as they defeated Scunthorpe in the semi final of the KO Cup.

Pirates gained payback on the side that denied them the cup last season and were able to defend their large first leg advantage, extending it with a win on the night.

In doing so, the south coast side denied Scunthorpe a 100 per cent win record at home this season as they ran out 50-40 winners.

The hosts began the meeting well, taking the first heat 4-2 before Tobias Thomsen won heat two, with the points shared.

Scunthorpe then took the third leg 5-1, before three 3-3 heats in a row, Richard Lawson taking his first win of the night in heat five, leaving the scores at 21-15 in the hosts favour after six heats.

But two heat wins for Pirates brought the tie back to level pegging two heats later, with Zach Cook leading his brother home in second in heat seven before taking the win again in heat eight.

Poole led for the first time in the meeting after heat ten, following a Tom Brennan win but shared points heat in heat nine, which secured Pirates’ place in the final.

It was Ben Cook this time in the tenth who took the win, with Zach in third, as Poole opened a narrow 31-29 lead with five heats to go.

Another 3-3 heat followed in the 11th, but Ben Cook took the win in the 12th for a 4-2 win for the visitors.

Pirates went on to win each of the last three heats through Tom Brennan, Zach Cook and Ben Cook, taking the 13th and 14th 5-1 and 4-2 with the points being shared in the final heat.

This secured a 50-40 win on the night for Poole, and a convincing 110-69 aggregate victory, to send them through to the KO Cup final, to face Oxford.

Their opponents are the only side to have beaten Poole at home this year, and they reached the final after drawing at Redcar to win their semi final 95-85.

Apart from a handicapped ride in heat three, imposed for touching the tapes, skipper Ben Cook had a solid night unbeaten by an opponent in the four races he started off scratch.

He said: “It was a bit of a silly one in my first heat when I touched the tapes but after that it was back to normal proceedings so yes, it was good for the boys as we showed what we can do here and we can get a win here.

“We just need to do it when it really matters in the next few weeks but everything is going good at the minute.

“It's quite a good racetrack here to be honest, a little bit rough but other than it was okay out there. Like I said this is a good sign as we go into the business end of the season.

“We visualised this as a normal meeting.

“We didn't want to think about only going out there and getting the thirty points that we needed to get through, we wanted to win the meeting and it is good that we were able to do that.

“Not everything went to our plans but to get the result shows we can do it and like I said we need to do it when it really matters.”

SCUNTHORPE: 40: Jake Allen: 9+2 (2',1',2,2,2); Kyle Howarth: 9+1 (3,1,3,1,1'); Simon Lambert: 8+1 (3,2,1',2); Connor Mountain: 6 (1,3,2,0); Michael Palm-Toft: 5 (3,0,2,0); Ace Pijper: 2 (2,R,0,0); Nathan Ablitt: 1+1 (1',0,0,0).

POOLE: 50: Ben Cook: 11+1 (0EH,2',3,3,3); Zach Cook: 11 (1,3,3,1,3,0); Tom Brennan: 10 (2,2,3,3); Richard Lawson: 9+1 (2,3,2,2'); Tobias Thomsen: 5+1 (0,3,0,1',0,1); Paul Starke: 4+2 (R,1',1,1',1).