THREADBARE PIRATES NEED TO DEFEND THIRTY POINTS

A threadbare Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates side head for Berwick on Saturday evening and the league leaders may well need every one of the thirty race points advantage that they hold over the Berwick Bandits in the quest for the bonus point at Shielfield Park

With captain Zach Cook in Poland and number one Richard Lawson ruled out due to a mandatory suspension for failing to race at Ipswich on Thursday and both reserves absent through injury, the only familiar faces will be Lewi Kerr and the teenage sensations of Will Cairns and Cooper Rushen.

Poole promoter Dan Ford said:

"A side with three guests and rider replacement is not the side we wanted to take to Berwick, who are pretty much unstoppable on their home patch. We discovered that to our cost in the Knockout Cup semi-final. We are going to have to dig deep. We have Eddie Kennett and Sam Hagon covering the reserve berths, while Sam Masters has agreed to step in for Richard at number one. Rich is a reliable points scorer around Berwick, so he is a big miss, but all things considered I'm pleased with the guests we've been able to bring in. Sam has a strong record at Shielfield, so hopefully he can help soften the blow of Richard's absence. We will go with rider replacement for Zach, which means we can ill-afford to have one of the six suffering an off-night."

Kyle Newman joined Fraser Bowes on the injured list, suffering with rib problems sustained during Poole's home win over Edinburgh. Although he bravely battled on for the Pirates cause he was officially signed out of the meeting and has declared himself unfit to race.

The Bandits are without their regular reserve Jack Smith and Darryl Ritchings deputises, whilst ironically Jordan Jenkins will be cleared to ride after serving a 7-day suspension imposed on him for missing Berwick's fixture last weekend - one in which their reserve Reid Battye was paid for twenty points. After riding at Poole for the Bandits a fortnight ago, Jenkins had been recalled by his local hospital for further scans on the back injury he picked up during the British Semi-final at Leicester in July, but because he wasn't 'signed out' of the meeting he had made a rule infringement and had the suspension slapped on him, thus denying Poole the opportunity to have used him on Wednesday.

Teams Berwick (TM Stewart Dickson) 1 Peter Kildemand 2 Jye Etheridge (Capt) 3 Victor Palovaara 4 Jordan Jenkins 5 Nick Morris 6 Darryl Ritchings (Guest) 7 Reid Battye
Poole (TM Gary Havelock) 1 Sam Masters (Guest) 2 William Cairns 3 Rider Replacement 4 Cooper Rushen 5 Lewis Kerr 6 Edward Kennett (Guest) 7 Sam Hagon (Guest)