BROTHERS AT ARMS....LENGTH

After the Pirates racing schedule was interrupted by the weather last Friday with their scheduled trip to Scunthorpe called-off early, the Dorset side resume their push to climb the league on Wednesday night (4th August).

The Wimborne Road speedway fare will have an international flavour about it as the Pirates take on Scotland's capital club the Edinburgh Monarchs in a SGB Championship league encounter. 

The Monarchs are on a mini-southern tour, having been scheduled at Plymouth on Tuesday, and they make the trip in the knowledge that they have one of the better away set of statistics in the division, having picked up 60% of the available points from their five trips (prior to Tuesday).

For the fourth successive home meeting the Pirates will be up against opponents who boast a former Pirate as their cornerstone, in the shape of Sam Masters, who spent time in 2012 doubling up with the Pirates and his first British club Somerset. Since then Sam has become a Monarch stalwart for all bar one season since 2014, having made well over 150 appearances for the club from 'Auld Reekie'. Masters is not alone in the role of the prodigal son as more recent Pirate Richie Worrall makes his first return since his 2019 campaign as a Pirate and will find himself in opposition to his brother, Poole's ultra-reliable Steve.

The twins are team-mates in the Premier League with Belle Vue but brotherly love will have to be set aside for the evening and promoter Dan Ford is eagerly awaiting the showdown.
"I am really looking forward to the match-up between the Worrall boys. Richie was solid for us between 2017 and 2019 and I know that Steve will be happy if he can emulate what Richie did for us. He has been awesome so far this season and seems to have his sights set on trying to wrestle the number one jacket from Rory."

Schlein will continue to have a guest partner with him on Wednesday as the recently announced addition to the Poole side, Benjamin Basso, is not eligible, although will be installed in time for the northern tour that follows. Kyle Bickley will take the number two jacket for a second guest appearance and Poole will be keeping it in the family at the lower end of the team as Zach Cook guests for his injured brother Ben.
That northern tour begins on Friday with the return fixture at Armadale, followed by Berwick on Saturday and then back down to Newcastle on Sunday.

Wednesday teams:

Poole - 1 Rory Schlein; 2 Kyle Bickley (Guest); 3 Steve Worrall; 4 Stefan Nielsen; 5 Danny King (Captain); 6 Zach Cook (Guest); 7 Danyon Hume - Team manager Neil Middleditch

Edinburgh - 1 Sam Masters (Captain); 2 William Lawson;  3 Kye Thomsen; 4 Josh Pickering; 6 Richie Worrall; 6 Luke Crang; 7 Nathan Greaves - Team manager John Campbell