Pirates Make Change at Seven

The 'Wessex Marine' Pirates have made a personnel change at number seven with teenager Max Perry giving way to a former Leicester Cubs team-mate of 2023, Vinnie Foord.

Announcing the move, Poole owner Matt Ford said, " we have taken the decision to bring Vinnie into the team. Being on a two-point figure gives us the opportunity to try other riders and we have spoken at length to Vinnie and detailed our expectations of him, and he understands that this is an opportunity for him to make an impression. We have agreed with him that we will have things like race suits made when he has shown what he can do.

"So far, things have not quite worked out with Max as he has struggled to get near to the minimum two point average. Of course, he has been very unfortunate not to have had more meetings, due to the heavily interrupted schedule that the weather has caused and also, due to the structure of the NDL, has had far too few meetings at that level which would undoubtedly have helped build his confidence, but I will stress that it is not necessarily the end of the the line as far as his Poole career is concerned and we will see how things pan out in the near future.

"But with Vinnie joining us for the first time on Wednesday, against Redcar, all I can ask of our supporters is that they embrace Vinnie in the manner which they showed with Max. He is another young rider, just nine months older than Max in fact, and he showed what he is capable of by finishing in sixth place in Sunday's British U21 final, having scored a very creditable 11 points and making the repercharge. We hope that he is made welcome at Wimborne Road and given all the encouragement to find his feet. I am sure that the other riders will give him the support and advice with the same level of enthusiasm as they invested with Max."