JACK THE REBEL

2017 Volvo Cars Poole Pirate Jack Holder will not be lining up for the Pirates for a second successive season after being confirmed as a 2018 Somerset Rebel.

Holder finished his debut top flight season with an average of 5.82 has been snapped up by the Rebels who had hoped to have had him in their 2015 side, but a revision of his average at that time meant he could not be accommodated. Now, three seasons later the Somerset management have finally got their man with co-promoter and team manager Garry May admitting "Jack has made excellent progress since first coming to these shores and has always shown a liking for riding at the Oaktree Arena when he has ridden against Somerset in the past, and I am convinced that he will prove to be a valuable edition to our 2018 septet."

Ironically, Holder missed the Pirates last visit to the Oaktree Arena at the beginning of September last season, as he opted to attend the practice session for the U21 World Team Cup in Poland.

The Pirates who have confirmed four starters for the 2018 campaign are hoping to be in a position to confirm a fifth before Christmas, with Brady Kurtz, Josh Grajczonek, Kacper Woryna and Mateusz Szczepaniak consuming 24.61 of the alloted 42.5 points the team can be built to.