PREVIEW: CRUNCH DERBY TIME IN BSN GROUP

The 'Wessex Marine' Pirates return to BSN group action on Wednesday night, as they face the Plymouth Gladiators, with both sides focussed on winning the Southern section, to proceed into the semi-finals.

In his programme message last Wednesday, Poole promoter Dan Ford said "we now just have to do a job against Plymouth and pick up the aggregate point" but it is a job that is going to test the Pirates, as he explains:

"Plymouth are certainly not going to be any pushover. They showed their mettle at Edinburgh on Friday night when they picked up a Championship away win and ran Berwick close on Saturday. Add in the fact that they have riders that can certainly get around our place and arguably have a strong home advantage on their small circuit, I think it is very clear that we are going to be facing a tough thirty heats of racing.

"Plymouth are hoping to welcome Nico Covatti into their team for the first time this season and having been a former Poole rider he will be making his comeback on a track he is accustomed to. With Kyle (Newman) and Joe (Thompson) returning to their 2023 home track, it provides an added boost to them and they have signed Dan Thompson too, who has been in red hot form wherever he has ridden this year.

"I have said on previous occasions, in terms of speedweay this is very much a local derby fixture and that alway brings an extra dimension to any meeting. But our lads have been doing a great job in our limited matches so far with Tom (Brennan) and Sam (Hagon) and Tobias (Thomsen) all having settled into the side most impressively."

"There are two important meetings coming up but we believe that we can keep our interest in the competition as we seek to successfully defend the title we won last year."

Teams
Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates (TM Neil Middleditch) 1 Richard Lawson 2 Tobias Thomsen 3 Tom Brennan 4 Zach Cook 5 Ben Cook (Capt) 6 Sam Hagon 7 Max Perry
Plymouth 'ProwPark' Gladiators (TM Garry May) 1 Nico Covatti 2 Alfie Bowtell 3 Dan Thompson 4 Kyle Newman 5 Ben Barker (Capt) 6 Joe Thompson 7 Jacob Hook