PIRATES SET TO COMPLETE AWAY LEAGUE PROGRAMME

The Pirates are scheduled to complete their away league programme this coming weekend with back to back meetings against northern sides Edinburgh and Berwick.

Currently in a position that sees them stretching to grab hold of an automatic play-off semi-final claim, the defending champions will be hoping to keep the travelling league points flowing. Only once this season have they left a venue, other than Wimborne Road, without any reward for their efforts - when, at the beginning of May, they were soundly defeated at Plymouth.

Regular team manager Neil Middleditch will be hoping that his northern stand-in, former world champion Gary Havelock, can maintain his record and ensure the Pirates return with something to show from these final two fixtures. With the Pirates having collected their first victory in four matches on Wednesday when they defeated the Chris Harris-led Berwick Bandits, Middleditch has assessed his side's recent form claiming, "Our biggest problem lately has been that we've not been making the starts and that has just made it hard work for ourselves, especially over the first few heats. We need to get that sorted, especially in the early part of the meetings. We need to make those starts and get the advantage so that, if they have got to make a tactical, they make it early, and then we can get on with the meeting. 

Philosophically, 'Middlo', who will be watching the Pirates progress this weekend on the BSN Livestream service as both fixtures are being covered, insists Poole's hopes of defending their crown are, however, not totally reliant on this weekend's results. "Obviously it is a long way to go, and to come back with nothing wouldn't be ideal so there is no doubt we will be looking to try and get a couple of wins under our belt, especially as we are keen to try and secure one of the top two places, which would see us go directly into the semi-final places. Our recent dip in form has made achieving that a little bit harder , but, whilst I know the lads will be determined to go out and get the best possible results, we just need to make sure that, at the very minimum we reach the play-offs come the end of the season. Then anything can happen. We have seen it before that teams can win titles from just getting in the play-offs. We have done that ourselves before and of course we have been on the other end of topping the table but losing the title, so we have to remember there is a lot of speedway still to come this year. Nothing has been won at this stage."

The mini-tour takes the Pirates to two venues where the current league pacesetters - Leicester and Glasgow - have both recorded victories at. The weekend action begins on Friday (July 8th) at the Armadale venue in the Scottish capital, the present home, until the end of the season, of the Edinburgh Monarchs, who have just revealed plans for a new community based stadium to be built in the Livingstone area. 

Around Armadale, the Monarchs' number one, Sam Masters, has been in imperious form of late, where he has suffered just one race defeat by an opponent in his last twenty rides and they have recently welcomed back both Lasse Fredriksen and James Sarjeant from injury lay-offs to become a full-strength side again.

Although the Pirates managed to inflict an eight-point home win over the Monarchs on June 1st, that victory came just prior to the three meetings in which they failed to secure a victory, a period they ended last Wednesday with a defeat of Berwick, where they head to on Saturday (July 9th). Besides having home defeats inflicted on the by the top two sides, the Bandits have also been beaten at Shielfield Park by the Redcar Bears and the Borders' side, who recently introduced Dane Jonas Knudsen, a rider that caught the eye on Wednesday, currently occupy the basement berth in the league table, after the demise of the near neighbours Newcastle. 

The Pirates, who do not have a home fixture this week, currently sit in third place, two points behind Glasgow - a side that visits Birmingham (9th) on Wednesday night - and have a three point cushion over west country rivals Plymouth who travel to Oxford (8th) also on Wednesday. The introduction of the new averages for July sees Steve Worrall and Danny King switch places in the team whilst Drew Kemp will move into the number two position and the previous incumbent, Zach Cook, switching to number four as his brother Ben drops into the reserve berth.

Weekend Line-ups:
Edinburgh: 1 Sam Masters (capt); 2 Lasse Fredriksen; 3. Kye Thomson; 4 Michele 'Paco' Castagna; 5 Josh Pickering; 6 Jacob Hook; 7 James Sarjeant TM Alex Harkess
Berwick: To be Confirmed:

Poole (both meetings) : 1 Steve Worrall; 2 Drew Kemp; 3 Danny King (capt); 4 Zach Cook; 5 Richard Lawson; 6 Ben Cook; 7 Nathan Ablitt TM Gary Havelock
Photo: Jack Cupido 2021