Preview: Oxford Cheetahs v Poole Pirates - Wednesday 21st June 2023

There will be no speedway action at Wimborne Road stadium this week but Poole promoter Dan Ford is hoping that his travelling 'Wessex Marine' Pirates will have great vocal backing at Oxford on Wednesday night, when two in-forms side meet in the quest for league points.
 

With both the Cheetahs and the Pirates vying for top spot, Poole's third visit to the Oxford Stadium becomes a vital clash, with the Dorset side eager to maintain their unbeaten start to the league and Ford believes the terrace backing can be a big factor.

"Oxford have been attracting some good crowds since they relaunched last season and I am sure that there will be a good turnout again on Wednesday, including I hope, a number of Poole fans making the relatively short trip up the A34. In previous visits our riders have certainly been aware of the encouragement from the Poole faithful and with Oxford in the midst of a rich vein of form, just like we are, then this meeting could swing on small margins, and seeing a sea of Pirates on the third and fourth turns, where our fans have tended to congregate will undoubtedly be a huge boost to our boys."
"This is going to be a difficult one to call. I truly believe that we can do better than our two previous visits this year, when we won the BSN by three points and lost the first leg of the KO Cup by just two. I know that Stevie [Worrall] has a good more in him than his five and eight paid nine returns of those past visits suggest and likewise Anders [Rowe] and Adam [Roynon] are more than capable of scoring better than their combined total of paid eleven from ten rides. With Oxford going really well then we can ill-afford to throw any points away, so the more encouragement our boys get then the better."
Should Oxford pick up a result at Plymouth on Tuesday then they would be on a run of four unbeaten matches since losing to the Pirates in the second leg of the KO Cup semi-final on the last day of May, whilst Poole themselves are on a four match unbeaten run after losing in their last trip to Sandy Lane on May 30th.

Teams 
'Monarch' Oxford Cheetahs - 1 Sam Masters 2 Cameron Heeps 3 Lewis Kerr 4 Jordan Jenkins 5 Scott Nicholls (Capt) 6 Henry Atkins 7 Ryan Kinsley Team manager Peter Schroeck
Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates - 1 Steve Worrall (Capt) 2 Anders Rowe 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Richard Lawson 6 Kyle Newman 7 Adam Roynon Team manager Neil Middleditch