I would like to thank everyone who has visited this unofficial site since it was opened in 2001. Due to increased commitments the site will now be run as a Roll Of Honour to the Poole Pirates Speedway Team. Please visit the Official Poole Speedway web site for up-to-date information throughout the season.

All Time Greatest Victories
Biggest Home Win:
73-17 v Eastbourne KOC (23.04.97)
Biggest Away Wins:
1994, Eastbourne 0 - 80 Poole D1 - awarded by BSPA after meeting was rained off
near the end of season and Eastbourne refused to re-stage it.
1990, Peterborough 29 - 67 Poole D2
1989, Mildenhall 30 - 66 Poole D2
1962 Leicester 32 - 64 Poole. Provincial Cup, 1st Round.
1953 Southampton 23 - 61 Poole. Hampshire and Dorset Trophy, 1st leg.
1990, Eastbourne 35 - 61 Poole D2
1955, Southampton 35 - 61 Poole D2
1952, Oxford 24 - 60 Poole D2
1951, Wolves 25 - 59 Poole D3
1952, Liverpool 25 - 58 Poole D2
1951, St. Austell 28 - 56 Poole D3
2001, Belle Vue 32 - 58 Poole D1 = Biggest proper D1 away League Victory.
1951, St. Austell 26 - 53 Poole D3

Elite League
Best and Worse Performances (1997-2004):
Biggest Win: Home: 65-25 v Coventry (24.09.97). Away: 58-32 at Belle Vue (23.07.01)
Biggest Defeat: Home: 26-64 v Ipswich (01.07.98). Away: 25-68 at Belle Vue (15.09.04)

League Champions D1 1994. L-R (standing): Jason Crump,
Jorgen Johannsen, Neil Street (manager), Steve Masters,
Martin Willis, Lars Gunnestad.
(kneeling) Alun Rossiter, Craig Boyce, Steve Schofield.

* British Under-21 Champion in that year

A Brief History of Poole Speedway. 1948–2001

Speedway racing was first staged at the Poole Stadium on 26th April 1948, under the directorship of C. E. Brewer, H. G. Hayden and team manager E. J. Crutcher. The Pirates lined up for their inaugural season as members of the 3rd Division of the National League. They did reasonably well in their first year, but really hit the heights in 1951, under the new promotional team of Len Matchan and Geoff Bravery, when they not only won the Festival of Britain Shield, but also carried off the 3rd Division championship and with it, promotion to Division 2.

The step up failed to stop the club's ambitions, with Poole going from strength to strength to take the Division 2 title at the first attempt, however, any thoughts of attaining First Division status for 1953 were dashed by the Speedway Control Board. Coronation year saw the Pirates finish runners-up to Coventry in the 2nd Division title race, with the club missing out on the championship by just one point, and more of the same was to follow in 1954, with another second place finish in the league, this time behind Bristol.

1955 saw Poole very much in a class of their own, as they walked off with the 2nd Division title for the second time in four seasons and with it promotion to Division One. This makes Poole the only club so far in British speedway history to have won promotion from the bottom division right up to the top!

Poole did well for a promoted side and were one of the front runners of the league competition before dropping back to a sixth place finish. But the end of the 1956 season brought rumours of closure, and when the shutters went up early in the New Year, the reality came as no surprise, with the promoters citing poor attendance figures and petrol rationing for their decision.

Unhappily when speedway returned to Wimborne Road in June 1957, the Pirates had lost their league status, with only a series of open meetings scheduled to be raced. However, in a bid to race in front of a bigger audience, Rayleigh promoter Vic Gooden brought his side to Poole to race two Division One league matches against Belle Vue and Norwich. The side were temporarily dubbed as the 'Rayleigh Pirates'. At the end of the year, Gooden took over the promoting rights and shifted his operation to Poole, fully under the banner of Poole Pirates, in time for the start of the 1958 campaign. After two unsuccessful seasons, Stadium redevelopment plans forced him to move the side to Ipswich for the 1960 season, but speedway remained at Poole, with the Southampton-based Knott family taking over the reins at Wimborne Road.

They redeveloped the stadium site, introducing greyhound racing for the first time at Wimborne Road, and also installed a completely new, if smaller, speedway track. And in keeping with the new facilities, the Pirates took to the new track in a new speedway league, opting for Provincial League status in the re-formed league structure.

A successful campaign saw the re-formed Pirates finish runners-up to Rayleigh, in what was to become a renaissance period for speedway throughout the country. With new clubs joining the league the future looked rosy for speedway and Poole. And so it proved with the Pirates completing a Provincial League winning 'double' during the next two years. 1964 saw the Pirates, and the Provincial League, operating outside of the jurisdiction of the Speedway Control Board, with open warfare between the SCB and the Provincial League promoters. Once the season started, Poole soon knew that there would be no third championship win, with the Pirates having to settle for sixth place to end a topsy-turvy year.

The long awaited enquiry to look at the running of British speedway finally made its results known during December, with the promoters gaining more control at the expense of the Speedway Control Board. However, the main talking point was the introduction of one big British League, with 18 teams, including Poole, jumping at the chance of membership.

Poole remained in the top flight for twenty seasons, winning the league title for the first time in 1969. The club continued to be administered by the Knott family until midway through the 1979 season when Reg Fearman bought out the promoting rights. Fearman and various partners continued to promote speedway at Wimborne Road until the end of the 1984 season when financial problems forced the closure of the club.

However, speedway was not to be lost to the town, when last minute salvation came in the form of Mervyn Stewkesbury and Peter Ansell, who moved their Weymouth operation to Poole Stadium for the start of the 1985 season. Their decision to move along the South Coast proved to be one of speedway's more inspired switches, with the club soon becoming one of the 'giants' of the National League.

The move saw several changes at Wimborne Road, with the new promoters choosing to enter the National League under the name of the Poole Wildcats (after the Weymouth Wildcats). This proved to be unpopular with the Poole fans and after a two year spell, which saw them twice finish runners-up in the League competition, the club reverted to its original Pirates nickname in time for the 1987 season. Overall, the club's six year spell in the lower league proved to be one of the most successful eras in its long history, with the team again finishing runners-up in 1988 before racing to League Championship success in 1989, and a League and Cup double in 1990.

At the end of 1990, the league competitions underwent yet another restructuring, with Poole being elevated to the top flight of the reformed British League. The Pirates soon adapted to the faster pace of the new league, winning the British League championship title for a second time in 1994. But speedway was on a downward path and 1997 saw the Promoters Association try and arrest the downward slide with the launch of the Premier and Elite Leagues. Stewkesbury and Ansell chose to take Poole into the Elite section, but success turned its back on the club leaving the Pirates firmly anchored to the lower reaches of the league standings.

Changes at boardroom level saw Stewkesbury sell his controlling interests to Matt Ford and Mike Golding at the start of 1999, which saw a complete about turn in the fortunes of the club. Poole put in a season long challenge for the league title, failing only to take the title when losing in the very last heat of the season at King's Lynn.

The dawning of the new millennium saw the crowds flocking back to Wimborne Road in droves, and although the team failed to live up to expectations in the league, the supporters soon had another hero to cheer. By the end of the season they were able to welcome the club's first ever World Individual Speedway Champion, Mark Loram, who lifted the crown at the end of an exciting Grand Prix series. Tony Rickardsson joined Poole in 2001 and lifted the world crown in that year and the following. He was joined by Leigh Adams in the Pirates ranks in 2003, and together they spearheaded the team to an incredible triple championship of Elite League, Knock Out Cup and British League Cup glory. If that was not enough, the following year in 2004, a revamped side swept all away again claiming all available domestic honours of League and KO Cup, and in doing so, propelling the side to back-to-back League and Cup doubles - the first time this has been achieved by any top-flight club since 1959/60.

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