LADY Luck deserted Pirates in the East Midlands as they slipped to an agonising two-point defeat after leading 26-22 on Friday night.

With axed Poole Castle Cover rider Sergey Darkin supporting them from their side of the pits, they had put themselves in with a strong chance of grabbing their first away league win since July with three races to go.

But Jason Crump suffered a rare breakdown while leading race 13 and Troy Batchelor also pulled out of heat 14 with an ignition problem as the meeting cruelly slipped away from them late on.

Batchelor wasn't sure, but he thought he might have suffered an ignition problem.

Those breakdowns, and another one for Jason Doyle in race six, cost Poole any chance of victory or a draw after they had won nine out of the 15 heats.

Crump, who jumped on his back-up bike, and Bjarne Pedersen, who escaped a heavy heat 12 fall without injury, retaliated with a 5-1 for the Dorset club in the last race.

At least that boosted Pirates at the death and gives them a good chance of taking the bonus point in the televised return at Wimborne Road on Monday, April 23.

Crump ended up with 11 points and Pedersen with 11 paid 12.

With Jason Doyle, twice, Craig Boyce, who almost held on to beat Scott Nicholls in the best race of the night, and Edward Kennett also taking the chequered flag, Poole pushed Coventry all the way. Only Craig Watson, on his Pirates comeback appearance after being called in to replace Darkin, failed to impress at any stage.

And he was hampered by the nut in the centre of the clutch that holds it in place coming loose in the pits midway through the meeting that caused damage to his chain and bike.

Poole had began brilliantly and silenced a 3,000 crowd at Brandon as they stormed to four heat wins in the opening eight races.

Nicholls, Coventry's top scorer, got the better of Crump in heat one, inflicting the Australian's first defeat in 16 races.

But up until the half way stage, Pirates piled on the pressure and three 4-2s and a brilliant 5-1 by Kennett and Batchelor, who gated first, let his team-mate past, and then held off the duel challenge of Martin Smolinski and Billy Janniro expertly, put Poole in control.

Two 5-1s in a row for Coventry, however, turned the meeting on its head as their four-point deficit was turned into a 32-28 lead.

Pedersen and Doyle got a 4-2 in the re-run of heat 12, the Dane getting up off the floor after being edged into the fence by Morten Risager to brilliantly beat Rory Schlein, and renew the Dorset side's hopes of victory.

But mechanical gremlins cost the Pirates dear at the death on a night when they proved that they could be a major force in the top flight this year.