PREVIEW: PIRATES GOING FOR FIRST OF THREE TITLES

Having broken the hearts of the Redcar Bears speedway fraternity once already this season,  by denying them a shot at their first Grand Final play-off appearance,  the Poole "Wessex Marine " Pirates will want to show no mercy when the sides meet again on Wednesday (8th October) in the MaxiCab Knockout Cup competition.

In what will be the first leg of the first arm of a treble assault by the Pirates, Poole promoter Dan Ford is reminding fans and riders that there is no room for any complacency, "obviously our performance on Sunday was impressive but we 'poked the Bear' and now we face the consequences. Apart from the bragging rights, our play-off semi final conquest counts for nothing against Redcar." 

"They remain a formidable set of opponents and we know that everything is rolled back to zero and we have to go again. Whilst we did exceptionally well to avoid dipping into our six point lead from the first leg we would have liked to have had a better advantage in the first place, so on Wednesday night the aim will be to achieve that and put ourselves in a strong position to retain the KO Cup."
"I am not going to put any specific targets on our lads, they are professional and committed enough to know what is expected of them and with our fans really behind us on Wednesday it would be good to put on another great showing."

Poole are hoping to have Richard Lawson back in the side to return to full strength whilst the Bears make one change to their seven from Sunday, with Darryl Ritchings, a stand-in Pirate earlier in the season, taking over the guest berth provided due to Jody Scott's concussion period.  

Teams
Poole (TM Neil Middleditch) 1 Richard Lawson 2 Tobias Thomsen 3 Lewis Kerr 4 Zach Cook (Capt) 5 Anders Rowe 6 Paul Starke 7 William Cairns
Redcar (TM Gavin Parr) 1 Charles Wright (Capt) 2 Jake Mulford 3 Jason Edwards 4 Jake Allen (Guest) 5 Danny King 6 Darryl Ritchings (Guest)  7 Ace Pijper