Previewing: Birmingham 'Curtis Sports' Brummies v Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates

The 'Wessex Marine Pirates will be city-hopping this week with two away meetings, commencing with a trip to England's second city, Birmingham, on Wednesday (19th). Forty-eight hours after that key SGB Cab Direct Championship encounter against the 'Brummies' the Pirates will head northwards to Scotland's equivalent, second city, Glasgow where they aim to secure their first silverware of 2023, the BSN trophy.
 

Focusing first on that Birmingham mission, the Pirates will be up against a revamped Birmingham side that recently appointed shrewd Scot Stewart Dickson as their team manager. Dickson has already made in-roads into strengthening the West Midlands outfit with phased changes. First he brought in the experienced Troy Batchelor and teenager Sam Hagon and then made further tweaks to his one-to-seven with former Pirates Paul Starke and Stefan Nielsen declared. Nielsen resumed his place after recovering from a broken foot, an injury he picked up in the middle of May at Plymouth, in a meeting which saw Starke make his last appearance for the Gladiators before being released by the Devonshire side.  To accommodate his latest changes Dickson had to release the Thompson Twins - Dan and Joe - two riders who he had seen develop through the ranks with his  involvement at Leicester. 

Last Wednesday the new-look Brummies suffered further problems when number one Nick Morris was ruled out of their home clash with Glasgow after failing to comply with the Alcohol and Anti-doping Testing procedures and the Australian is now currently serving a minimum thirty day suspension.

Nevertheless Poole team manager Neil Middleditch is bracing himself for a tough contest on Wednesday as once again he locks horns with Dickson. "Yeah, fair play to Stewart he is a canny guy to go up against and I think Birmingham made a good move in calling in his experience.  They have not been dealt a great hand as far as luck has been concerned, but they have worked very hard to keep the sport going. I genuinely wish them all the best but not until after we have visited on Wednesday of course.  But all joking aside, it is a track where individually many of our boys have gone well in the past and so we will certainly be targeting the league points and a major step towards the bonus point when we meet them down here the following week."

Middleditch one of the fairest guys in the sport, was quick to reveal that after GB international Dan Bewley, winner of last Saturday's GP round in Sweden, had  crashed in to Zach Cook during the recent Wolverhampton v Belle Vue Sports Insure Premiership fixture,  the Cumbrian contacted Cook and offered to pay for any bike damage sustained by the Aussie Pirate in the incident.  "I thought that was a terrific gesture by Dan, the act of a true sportsman. Zach accepted that it was merely a racing incident and refused the offer, but that doesn't take anything away from Dan's generosity."

Middleditch also revealed that there is a possibility he might join the Pirates in Scotland for the concluding leg of the BSN final but confessed "Leicester is about my limit.  Any further north is Havvy's domain, but then again he came down here for the first leg so if business commitments allow then I might go up and muscle in,  but in all honesty I am pretty busy all round at the minute. "

Whilst Poole will field their seven regulars, which includes Anders Rowe who at the weekend finished second in the British U21 final, the Brummies have drafted in guest Danny King to cover for Morris, giving them a top three combination of King, Batchelor and their skipper Justin Sedgmen.

Teams
Birmingham - 1 Danny King (Guest) 2 Stefan Nielsen 3 Troy Batchelor 4 Paul Starke 5 Justin Sedgmen (Capt) 6 Sam Hagon 7 Alfie Bowtell Team manager Stewart Dickson 
Poole - 1 Richard Lawson 2 Anders Rowe 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook  5 Steve Worrall (Capt) 6 Kyle Newman 7 Adam Roynon Team manager Neil Middleditch 

Photo Phil Rose