THE BLUE RIBAND IS BACK

Poole's showcase individual meeting, the BLUE RIBAND, is back for 2025, with the event scheduled in for Wednesday 24th September.

A meeting that was launched in 1970 was last staged in 2016 when Edward Kennett beating Scott Nicholls in a run-off, claimed the title. But the Poole management has decided to resurrect the event for this year, for what will be the 32nd Blue Riband event to be raced.

The full 2025 Wessex Marine Pirates will feature in the meeting with Dan Ford promising to make it a truly competitive field. "We are working on the invitations currently by want this to be a tough meeting to win. There have been some notable names on the honours board for the Blue Riband  and it is great to be able to run the event again this year. With the gap in the fixture list having run our home legs of the KO Cup and the BSN Series it is the perfect time for us to run this showcase event. I can confirm that our regular seven riders are all included in the line-up and over the course of the next few days we anticipate confirming the full sixteen man field. Tickets for the event are now on sale."
 
Blue Riband winners: 
1970 - Barry Briggs, 1971 - Ole Olsen, 1972 - Ray Wilson, 1973 - Anders Michanek, 1974 - Ole Olsen, 1975 - Malcolm Simmons, 1976 - Malcolm Simmons, 1977 - Malcolm Simmons, 1978 - Malcolm Simmons, 1979 - Bobby Schwartz, 1980 - Dave Jessup, 1981 - Bruce Penhall, 1982 - Bobby Schwartz, 1983 - Erik Gundersen, 1984 - Mitch Shirra, 1985 - Stan Bear, 1986 - Kevin Smith, 1987 - Mel Taylor, 1988 - Steve Schofield, 1989 - Steve Schofield, 1990 - Chris Louis, 1991 - Marvyn Cox, 1992 - Mitch Shirra, 1994 - Lars Gunnestad, 1995 - Lars Gunnestad , 1996 - Lars Gunnestad, 1997 - Craig Boyce, 1998 - Jimmy Nilsen, 2001 - Tony Rickardsson, 2013 - Darcy Ward, 2016 - Edward Kennett