PREVIEW: POOLE PIRATES v SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS

BSN Finalists Poole 'Wessex Marine' Pirates begin the defence of their league title on Wednesday (24th May) when they host the visit of the 'Attis Insurance' Scunthorpe Scorpions at 7.30pm.
 

Like the Pirates, the Scorpions were the group winners in the BSN Series, but unlike Poole, the North Lincolnshire hopes of reaching a major final were dashed when they lost out to Glasgow, the team the Pirates will now meet after their own semi-final success at the weekend.
    
Scunthorpe have two away wins under their belt this year, both at Birmingham and apart from their twenty point defeat at Glasgow on Friday have hit at least forty-one points on each of their six journeys with number one Ryan Douglas hitting double figures on each occasion achieving a total of 73 points from 31 rides. 
    
Fresh from their resounding performance in the north-east on Saturday, where they defeated the Scorpions near neighbours Redcar, the Wessex Marine Pirates will be eager to put in a similar all-round team performance on Wednesday when they welcome back Anders Rowe who missed the BSN semi-final trip due to an international engagement. Rowe narrowly missed out on qualifying for the SGP2 championship when he was one of five riders who finished on eleven points in Vojens, losing out in an elimination race-off, but a chest injury sustained by Richard Lawson on Monday whilst riding for Leicester in the SGB Sports Insure Premier League, has ruled The Rocketman out and Justin Sedgmen guests.
"We will be looking to get our Cab Direct Championship league campaign off to a positive start" claimed Poole promoter Dan Ford. "If we put in a stint like we did on Saturday then our fans can be certain of having plenty to cheer. As I said after that meeting, it was a good team performance with everyone chipping in and that is what we intend on building on. 
"I guess some may take a look at the Scunthorpe side and consider a lack of fire-power, but they have put some good results together this season so far and so we will need to be up for it, there is no room for complacency in this sport."

The Scorpions were forced into an early team change this season after hopes of Zaine Kennedy returning to the UK after injury failed to materialise and so they have introduced Max Clegg and 2022 Pirate Nathan Ablitt to their fold. With Dane Michael Palm-Toft engaged in a Danish league match on Wednesday the visitors will operate rider replacement with his four programmed riders being able to be shared between any four riders, including Douglas who is currently the division's top performers when all competitions are included.
    
Ahead of the meeting on Wednesday, the Pirates support group, REF, will be making their first presentations of the season with Ben Cook and Kyle Newman, the nominated beneficiaries.
    
Teams
Poole - 1 Steve Worrall (Capt) 2 Anders Rowe 3 Ben Cook 4 Zach Cook 5 Justin Sedgmen [Guest] 6 Kyle Newman 7 Adam Roynon Team manager Neil Middleditch
Scunthorpe - 1 Ryan Douglas 2 Rider Replacement for Michael Palm-Toft 3 Simon Lambert (Capt) 4 Max Clegg 5 Jake Allen 6 Nathan Ablitt 7 Connor Mountain Team manager Rob Godfrey