PIRATES LOOK TO BOMBER AS ROCKETMAN MISSES CUP TIE

Borders club Berwick Bandits stand in the way of Poole Speedway reaching their fifth successive Knockout Cup Final, and the first fifteen heats of the semi-final tie will be battled out at Wimborne Road on Wednesday (24th June, 7.30 p.m.).

Awaiting the winners of this tie – the second leg follows on Saturday night – are Poole's South-West cousins Plymouth, which would make for a tasty local derby final.

But the Pirates will need to overcome the first-leg absence of talisman Richard Lawson who, along with club captain Zach Cook, has been an ever-present finalist this decade. With Wednesday initially a blank date in Poole's calendar, Lawson had a long-standing commitment to his Danish club.

Promoter Dan Ford acknowledges that Lawson is virtually irreplaceable at Wimborne Road.

“Unfortunately we’re without our talisman Richard Lawson tonight. Richard had already committed to riding in Denmark on this date, as originally arranged we had no meeting scheduled. We knew from the outset that Richard would be unavailable, but we felt we had to go ahead with the fixture as it would otherwise have meant more than a month without a home meeting, which wouldn’t have been good for the team, the club or our supporters.

"I know Richard is absolutely gutted to be missing the meeting. There aren’t many riders capable of stepping in and doing the sort of job Rich does for us, but thankfully we’ve managed to secure one of the few who can. Chris ‘Bomber’ Harris comes into the side and, with the options available to us, we felt he was the standout choice.

"Chris has already shown what he can do around Wimborne Road this season, scoring 15 points here for Glasgow, and with the Tigers not currently scheduled to return to Poole, it made perfect sense to bring him in. He’s a proven performer, a big-race rider and someone who can make a real impact for us against what we know will be a very determined Berwick side"

The clash with the Danish league also has a bearing on Berwick, as they too will be without their number one, Peter Kildemand. GB international Leon Flint will cover for him in this Wessex Marine-sponsored meeting.

Teams:

Poole (TM Neil Middleditch) 1 Chris Harris (Guest) 2 Fraser Bowes 3 Lewis Kerr 4 Cooper Rushen 5 Zach Cook (Capt) 6 William Cairns 7 Kyle Newman 
Berwick (TM Stewart Dickson) 1 Leon Flint (Guest) 2 Jye Etheridge (Capt)  3 Victor Palovaara 4 Lasse Fredriksen 5 Nick Morris 6 Jack Smith 7 Jordan Jenkins