PAIRS PREVIEW

The Championship Pairs event in recent seasons has produced more than a fair share of talking points and Poole promoter is hoping that Wednesday night's event at Wimborne Road will be making headlines for all the right reasons.

Looking ahead to the meeting, Ford said:

'Last year there was an incident in the final that cost us the title and the year before, Redcar had a huge slice of forturne when home rider Scott Nicholls was disqualified in the final. I can also remember the time at Oxford when Steve Worrall had a fuel problem at the start of the final that also cost us dearly and those controversial years when the event was traditionally held at Somerset on Grand Prix eve. I believe that we have a line-up that can produce memorable racing on a track where most of the riders know how to score well and so we have all the ingredients for a great night's racing.'

Since 2019 (allowing for the fact that the competition was not staged in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions) only two clubs have won the competition - Redcar and Glasgow. Redcar, who field Charles Wright and Jason Edwards , have won back to back titles in the past two seasons, adding to their title of 2022. Wright himself has also won the competition with Sheffield (2018) and been runners-up twice.

Poole will arguably go into the meeting on Wednesday night as favourites for the title with their pairing of Zach Cook and Richard Lawson but with so many track specialists in the line-up the meeting is likely to throw up shocks and surprises.

Unfortunately, Scott Nicholls' on-going injury has forced him to withdraw as one of Plymouth's representatives and so Ben Barker will now partner Danny King.

Tapes are up at 7pm and Poole supporters are reminded that this is not covered by their season ticket.

Line-ups:

Josh Pickering & Luke Harrison - Scunthorpe
Peter Kildemand & Nick Morris - Berwick
Chris Harris & Leon Flint - Glasgow
Jonas Jeppesen & Drew Kemp - Workington
Charles Wright & Jason Edwards - Redcar
Sam Masters & Anders Rowe - Oxford
Dan Thompson & Kye Thomson - Edinburgh
Richard Lawson & Zach Cook - Poole
Scott Nicholls & Ben Barker - Plymouth

Roll of Honour - Last 10 Winners:
2025 Redcar (Charles Wright/Erik Riss) beat Poole (Zach Cook/Lewis Kerr)
2024 Redcar (Charles Wright/Danny King) beat Oxford (Sam Masters/Scott Nicholls)
2023 Glasgow (Chris Harris/Benjamin Basso} beat Redcar (Charles Wright/Danny King)
2022 Redcar (Charles Wright/Lewis Kerr) beat Poole (Danny King/Steve Worrall)
                                         2021 Not Staged / 2020 Not staged
2019 Glasgow (Craig Cook/Rasmus Jensen) beat Leicester (Ryan Douglas/Scott Nicholls)
2018 Sheffield (Kyle Howarth/Charles Wright) beat Workington (Ty Proctor/Nicolai Klindt)
2017 Sheffield (Kyle Howarth/Lasse Bjerre) beat Redcar (Ben Barker/Charles Wright)
2016 Somerset (Rohan Tungate/Josh Grajczonek) beat Edinburgh (Sam Masters/Ryan Fisher)
2015 Ipswich (Rohan Tungage/Danny King) beat Somerset (Josh Grajczonek/Brady Kurtz)
2014 Edinburgh (Sam Masters/Max Fricke) beat Somerset (Olly Allen/Nick Morris)

Picture: Taylor Lanning