PREVIEW: PLYMOUTH V POOLE BSN SOUTHERN GROUP

The 'Wessex Marine' Pirates will try again to fulfil their first visit of the season to the Plymouth Coliseum, after the proposed trip on 11th April fell victim to the weather, but will do so without Anders Rowe who suffered a shoulder injury in Poland on Saturday.

The two clubs hastily rescheduled their Knockout cup clash to facilitate this BSN Southern Group series fixture and the Pirates will head into it knowing that their place in the knockout stage of the competition is assured.
 
Rowe's shoulder popped out during his Polish club Rzeszow visit to Rawicz and although he managed to realign it he's been advised to rest to allow time for it to heal fully.  So, the unbeaten Pirates will operate rider replacement as they try and maintain their one hundred per cent start to the season, and are only too aware that the task will be far from easy. Team manager Neil Middleditch said "Obviously, after Wednesday night's performance we have a lot of confidence but we all know it is going to be a different proposition on Tuesday, not least because they will be feeling sore from the size of the defeat we inflicted on them, but also because they are going to be strong on their home track. But then again, we have riders that have in the past scored big there so we shall head on down there without any fears. If we make the starts then there is no reason why we shouldn't believe we can keep this run going."

With seven race wins from fifteen starts to his name, Richard Lawson is one four members of the Poole side that has in the past been able to list the Coliseum as a home track. Lawson rode there briefly in 2021 after Eastbourne closed, becoming a team-mate of fellow two-term Pirate Zach Cook, whilst Adam Roynon was a 2022 member of Plymouth's now disbanded National League side and Kyle Newman has scored over 700 (including bonus) points for the Devon side between 2014 and 2016 and recently starred in the Paul Starke Testimonial meeting, leading the way for the Poole Select side with two wins and two second places.

Plymouth, who are looking for their first win of the season having lost out in a last heat decider against Oxford in their opening BSN Southern Group fixture last Tuesday evening, also go into the clash against the Pirates without a full complement of riders as Richie Worrall misses the fixture as it clashes with his FIM European Championship qualifying round at Terenzano, Italy, and therefore they will also operate the rider replacement facility

Teams: 
Plymouth - 1 Kyle Howarth (Capt), 2 Rider Replacement for Richie Worrall, 3 Dan Gilkes, 4 Paul Starke, 5 Ben Barker, 6 Jake Turner, 7 Ben Trigger TM Garry May
Poole - 1 Steve Worrall (Capt), 2 Rider Replacement for Anders Rowe, 3 Ben Cook, 4 Zach Cook, 5 Richard Lawson, 6 Kyle Newman, 7 Adam Roynon TM Neil Middleditch