POSTPONED: Poole Pirates v Edinburgh Monarchs

2/08/23

Poole will maintain their rivalry against Scottish clubs with the Edinburgh Stellar Monarchs providing the opposition on Wednesday night at Wimborne Road.

After two meetings in nine days against the Glasgow Tigers, with Sunday's league encounter ending in a narrow two point defeat, fourth placed Poole will be keen to post some league points on the board against an Edinburgh side that has been troubled with injuries and also head in to the meeting without their Danish prospect Bastian Borke, as the Wednesday fixture clashes with his Danish league commitments.

Italian Michele 'Paca' Castagna is ruled out due to a broken arm which has kept him out of the saddle since  June and then reserve Lasse Fredriksen picked up a wrist injury whilst racing in Sweden, breaking the radial bone on his left arm at the wrist. Whilst Castagna is targetting a return to the saddle this month, Fredriksen's prognosis is still unclear.

But even facing a makeshift side, Poole second string Zach Cook admits "this is a big meeting on Wednesday. Every meeting though is a big meeting, we want to get as many points as we can . Sometimes they have been hard to come by on the road but we always do our best and it will be no different on Wednesday."

Zach will be one of three Cooks on show in the meeting, as he lines up alongside his regular Poole teammate and brother Ben whilst the Aussie duo will be in opposition to Cumbrian Cook, Craig, a rider that knows his way around the Poole circuit only two well.

Poole are forced into a slight team reshuffle on Wednesday, with the August averages seeing Anders Rowe drop into reserve with Kyle Newman stepping into the main body of the team and assuming the number two racing position. Just 0.11 of a point separates the two local members of the Poole team and both go into the meeting on the back of impressive displays at Glasgow.

Whilst victory is the target on Wednesday the Pirates will also have their focus on mustering as many race points as possible as the two teams meet again on Friday when the battle for the aggregate point will be determined.

Teams 
Poole 1 Richard Lawson 2 Kyle Newman 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Anders Rowe 7 Adam Roynon - Team manager Neil Middleditch
Edinburgh 1 Craig Cook 2 Ben Morely (Guest) 3 Kye Thomson 4 Rider Replacement 5 Josh Pickering (Capt) 6 JDayle Wood 7 Jason Edwards (Guest) Team manager John Campbell