HAS there ever been a more successful club owner than Matt Ford?

I would doubt it and without spending literally hours trawling through the archives, the one thing I am certain of is there definitely hasn’t been anyone in the modern era with a record to either match or surpass his.

Matt and his then partner Mike Golding bought Poole in time for the 1999 season. Matt has been in sole charge since 2008 and basically the Pirates have never stopped winning.

Admittedly, there has been the occasional barren year as a team (excluding individual rider successes) – but those trophy-less campaigns have been few and far between: 2000, 2005, 2016, 2017 and 2019 to be exact.

In 2000, they were runners-up in the Craven Shield; in 2005, they were third in the Craven Shield Final; in 2016, 2017 and 2019, they were first, second, fourth and first in the league table at the end of the regular season but went out of the play-offs at the semi-final stage three times.

But every other season, Ford and his cohorts have paraded at least one piece of silverware and that glittering collection of trophies includes nine as league champions!

In all as club owner, the 56year-old Ford has won 21 major national trophies (including nine league titles and six KO Cups) in 23 seasons and 17 in 19 years as the sole owner, numbers 20 and 21 (16 and 17) this year after the Pirates completed the league and cup double after returning to the second tier at the end of 2019.

And here, in black and white, is that remarkable record for the

WHAT an oar-some performance from Denmark’s top speedway snapper Bitsch Pedersen.

After a 40-year break while he travelled the world covering both speedway and handball for the top

The Pirates make another addition to Matt Ford’s silverware collection. Picture: TONY BURCHELL

man who has now handed over much of the day-to-day running of the club to his son Dan…. 1999: Runners-up Elite League. Knockout Cup runners-up. 2000: Fifth, Elite League. Craven Shield runners-up. 2001: Runners-up, Elite League. Craven Shield winners. 2002: Fourth, Elite League, lost play-off quarter-final. Craven Shield winners. 2003: Elite League champions (first). Knockout Cup winners. 2004: Elite League champions (first). Knockout Cup winners. 2005: Fifth, Elite League. Third, Craven Shield. 2006: Seventh, Elite League. Craven Shield winners. 2007: Fourth, Elite League, lost play-off semi-final. Pairs Championship winners. 2008: Elite League champions (first). Knockout Cup finalists. 2009: Eighth, Elite League. Pairs Championship winners. 2010: First, Elite League, lost in Grand Final. Knockout Cup winners. Pairs Championship, runners-up. 2011: Elite League champions (first). Knockout Cup winners. Pairs Championship winners. 2012: First, Elite League, lost in Grand Final. Knockout Cup winners. 2013: Elite League champions (fourth). 2014: Elite League champions (first). 2015: Elite League champions (first). 2016: Second, Elite League, lost in play-off semi-final. 2017: Fourth, Premiership, lost play-off in semi-final. 2018: Premiership champions, third. 2019: First, Premiership, lost in play-off semi-final. 2020: Season void. 2021: Championship champions. Knockout Cup winners.

Additionally, they won the Elite Shield four times (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016) and the hybrid British League Cup in 2003 when top-

Danish News Agency Ritzaus Bureau, he returned to rowing…and won the Middelfart club championship!

But what makes Bitsch’s achievement even more meritorious is that he has type two diabetes and has been under constant medical supervision, is unable to run after destroying cartilages in his knee after a fall at the Czech Republic Grand Prix and has been embroiled in a fight against cancer.

He told me: “About six years ago, I got diabetes two and was told I should take one Metformin tablet every day for the rest of my life. But after one or two months I stopped controlling my too high blood sugar with these pills and I never have used them since.

“Instead, I started controlling my blood sugar with sport. Then three years ago, on May 25, 2018, on my 66th birthday when I was working at the Speedway Grand Prix practice at Prague’s Marketa Stadium, an old fuel or television platform there crashed under me and since that time I haven’t been able to run and have struggled even walking.”

Bitsch has been having almost daily physiotherapy but after two to three years’ treatment. he had to accept he will never be able to run again.

He admitted: “In March this year, I finally gave up trying to learn to run again and because my right leg will never be the same again, I needed to try a sport where I could use both my arms, so in April I tried a few times to start up rowing again after the 40-year break, having first started when I was only 12.

“Since April, I have spent nearly every morning, from 6 am till 7.30, and three days a week also from 8 am till 9.30, rowing with some friends at Fredericia Rowing Club as well as typically three hours on a Sunday.

“On the other side of the two famous Lillebælt bridges where I live, there is another big rowing club in Middelfart and, in May, I joined that club so I am rowing there as well.”

With Fredericia’s club championship being called off because of wind, Bitsch entered the Middelfart championship and was ranked as one of the total outsiders, a ranking confirmed when he and his partner, 55-year-old Roar Kloppenborg-Skrumsager, were beaten in the first heat.

However, they went on to win a flight clubs had to field weakened teams in a competition for both Elite and Premier League contestants which means they have actually picked up 26 different honours during Ford’s time at the wheel.

Plus Tony Rickardsson (2001 and 2002), Jason Crump (2009) and Chris Holder (2012) were all crowned World Champion while riding for the Pirates.

Matt has no equal at building successful teams, as shown by the way he replaced Adam Ellis in his 2021 squad when the Great Britain international became a victim of the Polish rule that restricted the number of other countries they could race in.

He found an ideal (if not better) replacement when red-tape prevented the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Smetana from taking up his team spot.

Matt succeeded in conquering all the post-Brexit problems by finally getting approval to bring in young Dane Benjamin Basso, even though he had to admit: “It has not been an easy ride to get the signing completed as there has been a lot of additional hurdles in our way, including a spoken language test and a personal hearing before he was granted the necessary paperwork to allow him to get the clearance needed.”

That was an example of Ford’s perseverance; the capture of Schlein underlined his decisiveness….

With Ellis having a contract with Rzeszow as well as Sweden and Denmark, he pulled out of the Pirates’ squad towards the end of January but within a week they had signed the British Champion.

second-chance race but were still shocked to learn they had made it into the final, which they won to give him his first club championship!

He added: “Suddenly, all three of us, Roar, me and our cox, a very nice lady called Heidi Hermansen, were 2021 champions. I couldn’t believe it!”

34 speedway star November 13, 2021