THEY say ill luck comes in threes and Pirates certainly found that out to their cost this year.

The outcome of just three races all-but decided the destiny of Poole Castle Cover's season as they were left looking in from the outside as Coventry swept to an impressive treble.

The first two came in successive early away matches when the Dorset club were beaten 46-44 away by the Bees and Swindon.

Jason Crump, brought from Belle Vue for £28,000 over the winter, was leading heat 13 at Brandon when he suffered a rare engine failure while out in front.

The then world champion stressed he was "gutted" after that uncharacteristic mechanical mishap which left Pirates 42-36 behind instead of only 40-38 adrift.

A vital away win then would have unsettled the Bees, who went on to take the title.

It would also have stuck two fingers up to the critics who had labelled Pirates "top heavy" after they had elected to go with the double-barrelled spearhead of Crump and Bjarne Pedersen.

A week later, Poole were on the end of a controversial heat 14 refereeing decision that saw their 40-38 lead at Swindon slip away.

This time Troy Batchelor fell on the second bend of the second lap with the Robins on a 5-1 and stayed down.

Referee Graham Flint ruled Batchelor could have cleared the track and awarded Swindon a 5-1 that ultimately clinched them another close meeting.

Neil Middleditch was livid, believing the race should have been re-run because Jason Doyle was still in with a shout of catching Robins duo Mads Korneliussen and Charlie Gjedde when Batchelor fell.

But his strong protest went unheeded.

Victory then would have seen Pirates sitting pretty, but they rallied when Piotr Swist was introduced to win 10 league matches on the trot before the third piece of bad luck hit them.

Seemingly cruising to a big home triumph over table-topping Swindon, Poole led 13-5 only for Batchelor to momentarily lose concentration and crash on the third lap while a comfortable leader of race four.

The Aussie broke his collarbone, withdrew from the meeting, and Doyle, not long back from a broken ankle injury himself, was unable to cover Batchelor's absence at reserve.

Swindon took full advantage to sneak a 45-45 draw on June 11 that, although not fatal, did seriously derail Pirates' confidence.

From then on they never reached the heights they had threatened earlier in the campaign and were always one rider short of being title winners.

Realistically, Pirates always knew they had to finish in the top two to get through the semi-finals, but the points dropped from those three matches ate into their fragile confidence and led to their downfall.

In the final analysis, Crump and Pedersen did their jobs, and Ed Kennett, Craig Boyce, Batchelor and Doyle did at times.

But that quartet stumbled at the business end of the season, when the silverware was up for grabs, and Poole also paid the penalty for not having a seventh rider scoring solidly at Elite League level.

So, the pre-season critics were right - Pirates were too top-heavy.