Previewing: Poole v Berwick - SGB Cab Direct Championship

The Berwick Bandits might be arriving at Wimborne Road as a basement club in the SGB Championship with just two league points to their credit, but they still harbour strong hopes of reaching the play-offs that are open to the top six clubs this season.
 

It will be that target which will ensure they will be seeking to make things as difficult as possible for the Wessex Marine Pirates, who themselves will be looking to extend their proud home record, which stretches to twenty one official meetings (league, play-offs and cup competitions).

Poole have breached the sixty point barrier in their last two official home fixtures - defeating Plymouth in the league 64-26 before that staggering BSN Final first leg 62-28 trouncing of Glasgow last week.

Heading up the Bandits attack will be former Pirate Rory Schlein, who stunned the speedway world by returning to these shores after retiring at the conclusion of the 2021 season having steered the Pirates to their first Championship double, a feat that of course they repeated last year too.

In that 2021 season at Wimborne Road, Schlein was unbeaten by an opponent in forty-one of his sixty-six rides across the fourteen meetings he appeared in, only once failed to be paid for a double point haul and actually hit race point double figures in ten of those meetings. Schlein is joined in the Berwick side by Thomas Jorgensen who is making his first appearance at Wimborne Road since July 2019, an occasion in which he was forced to withdraw after just two rides on medical grounds, whilst skipper Leon Flint is the Bandit who has ridden at Poole most recently, having guested for Plymouth in last term's play-off quarter final, when he contributed paid five for the beaten Gladiators.

Facing Schlein in his opening ride will be Anders Rowe who was a scholar at Schlein's No Limits Training school, an initiative which has certainly played its part in Rowe's development. Rowe though has no fears of lining up against his tutor, admitting, "it will be no problem really, it is just another rider. Rory is a good gater and he is consistent. He has been in the sport a lot of years, but  yeah, you know, he is beatable."

Looking at the bigger picture, with league points on offer at Wimborne Road for the first time since June 7th, Rowe is remaining focused on the task in hand "every team is good in the league so you never really know these days, they [Berwick] could come here and you never know what happens, this is speedway. Anything can happen. It would be brilliant to keep our home winning streak going and great to get to the top of the league and I am sure we will do everything in our power to get there. We are working well as a team at the moment, we all work well together, all one to seven and the two managers. We all discuss things and work out what we need to do. I am really loving every minute of being here. It is sort of my home town club and I am having fun racing my bike and we have got a really good bunch of guys here, from the management, team managers and the riders  and it is just working really well. Like I said,  I'm having fun and I think it is showing in my racing."
Rowe and his team-mates will have an added reason to impress on Wednesday night as club owner Matt Ford will be on hand. Anders admitted "it will be good to see Matt, he is normally in France watching the stream, but he is here on Wednesday so that will be good and hopefully we can put a good show on for him."  

Teams:
Poole - 1 Richard Lawson 2 Anders Rowe 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Kyle Newman 7 Adam Roynon Team Manager Neil Middleditch
Berwick - 1 Rory Schlein 2 Jye Etheridge 3 Leon Flint (Capt)  4 Jonas Knudsen 5 Thomas Jorgensen 6 Jacob Hook 7 Connor Coles Team Manager Scott Courtney