(SPEEDWAY 1)
POOLE stalwart Chris Holder makes his first return to Wimborne Road in opposition colours with King’s Lynn tonight (Wednesday).
Holder had only previously represented the Pirates in the top flight since making his debut with the club in 2008 prior to his winter switch to the Stars.
The SGB Premiership clash features the teams in third and fourth place in the table, with Poole looking to bounce back from their home defeat to Belle Vue prior to the World Cup; whilst the Stars have an impressive away record with three wins on the road so far.
Krzysztof Kasprzak makes his return for the Pirates at No.1 whilst Danny Ayres continues at reserve for the Stars although Simon Lambert is due back for Thursday’s return fixture.
King’s Lynn boss Dale Allitt said: “Traditionally King’s Lynn struggle down at Poole, but we believe we can go there and get something out of the meeting this time around.
“I think the loss of Brady Kurtz through injury is a massive blow to the Pirates with the form he’s shown this season and hopefully we can capitalise on that over the next couple of nights.
“I’m sure it will be a strange feeling for Chris Holder going up against the club with whom he spent so many years, but we’re sincerely hoping that he can lead by example again.”
(SPEEDWAY 2)
IPSWICH stage a Wednesday home fixture tonight as Sheffield visit Owlerton with the home side looking to go top of the SGB Championship.
The Witches were limited to one point from their trip to Newcastle on Sunday despite holding a comfortable lead at the halfway stage, and that leaves them level with leaders Edinburgh having ridden two matches more.
Danny King has declared himself fit to ride despite his crash at Brough Park, and boss Ritchie Hawkins has stressed a top-four finish remains their priority.
He said: “It is a very important meeting, and we need to win and stop them from getting any points. They are contenders and it is important to carry on our home form.
“There were a lot of positives from the weekend even though a lot of people will look at the negatives, but there were a lot of positives that we can build on this Wednesday
“We only need to get into the play-offs. If we can get to the play-offs by finishing top of the league, then great but you don’t get anything from it. If we make the play-offs, then dropping a point at Berwick and not getting a win at Newcastle won’t mean anything.”
Sheffield, who won at Workington last weekend to close in on fourth-placed Redcar, bring in Josh Bailey to guest for shoulder injury victim Robert Branford at reserve.
Tigers star Josh Grajczonek said: “Ipswich will be tough, they have two big hitters in Rory Schlein and Danny King and the rest of their team is pretty strong too.
“It is not going to be easy. We struggled at times on the road before winning at Workington so we will have to be on top of our game for this one.
“This will be a busy few days for us but hopefully we can go and get something there because we didn’t do too well at their place earlier in the season.”
(SPEEDWAY 3)
CRADLEY return to Perry Barr against Plymouth tonight (Wednesday) with boss Will Pottinger demanding a big improvement from his side.
The Heathens crashed to a heavy defeat against co-tenants Birmingham last week to leave them behind their local rivals in the National League table having ridden two more matches.
Now they race as the home side against the Devils, who underlined their renewed potential with a KO Cup win against the Brummies at the same venue a fortnight ago.
Cradley again call upon Ben Morley to guest at No.1 with Danny Ayres on Premiership duty with King’s Lynn, whilst the visitors are at full strength and include former Heathens favourite Adam Roynon
Pottinger said: “There’s no two ways about it, that performance last week just wasn’t good enough. With the riders we’ve got we shouldn’t be losing to Birmingham like that, so we need to take stock and improve.
“We’ve got to learn from it when we ride against Plymouth, because we can’t afford to keep dropping points.
“We need to pick our game up and look to put things right on Wednesday because if we’re going to make the play-offs we can’t ride like we did against Birmingham again.”
(SPEEDWAY 4)
PETERBOROUGH are set to welcome Simon Lambert back into action this Sunday.
The Panthers reserve has been sidelined for just over a month with a badly broken wrist but will return to the team on Sunday when they entertain Redcar in an SGB Championship clash at the East of England Arena.
Team boss Carl Johnson said: “A fully fit Simon is as good as any reserve in the Championship. We all know the scoring potential he has after seeing him pile up big scores in the past two seasons.
“He is coming back very quickly from a nasty injury and I must admit I didn't really expect to see him back on a bike until August.
“But he has had a couple of practice sessions and assures us he is fit and ready to slot into the team again.”
Lambert is set to make his comeback at Premiership level for King’s Lynn on Thursday, but has to sit out the Panthers’ fixtures on Friday and Saturday as they had operated a 28-day injury replacement facility to cover for him.
(FIXTURES)
WEDNESDAY JULY 12:
SGB PREMIERSHIP: Poole v King’s Lynn 7.30
SGB CHAMPIONSHIP: Ipswich v Sheffield 7.30
TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Cradley v Plymouth 7.30 (at Birmingham)
THURSDAY JULY 13:
SGB PREMIERSHIP: King’s Lynn v Poole 7.30, Swindon v Belle Vue 7.30
SGB CHAMPIONSHIP: Redcar v Scunthorpe 7.30, Sheffield v Berwick 7.30
CHALLENGE: Isle of Wight v GB Young Lions Select 7pm
FRIDAY JULY 14:
SGB PREMIERSHIP: Belle Vue v Swindon 7.30
SGB CHAMPIONSHIP: Edinburgh v Newcastle 7.30, Peterborough v Sheffield 7.30
TRAVEL PLUS NATIONAL LEAGUE: Lakeside v Buxton 8pm
