BRITISH SPEEDWAY JULY 20, 2022
(SPEEDWAY 1)
POOL’S ‘AWAY’ WIN
POOLE collected a vital away win in the Championship Jubilee League with a 51-39 victory at Plymouth.
Danny King scored his first Pirates maximum of the season with 12 points from four rides whilst Richard Lawson scored 10+1, and his 5-1 with Steve Worrall in Heat 13 effectively secured all four group points for the visitors.
Guest Richie Worrall scored 11+1 from six rides for the Gladiators.
King said: “It just feels great. It has been a stressful time for me at times this season but now that I have got some new engines, I really feel like I’m back to where I should be.”
(SPEEDWAY 2)
OXFORD ran up their biggest win of the season to defeat Birmingham 56-34 and make a positive start to the Championship Jubilee League.
Troy Batchelor scored 13 points for the Cheetahs and was unbeaten prior to Heat 15, whilst skipper Scott Nicholls added 12 and Aaron Summers 10+1. Guest Tom Brennan scored 14 from six rides for the Brummies.
Nicholls said: “It was a good all-around performance. We put in the effort, everyone gave 100 per cent, and we got a great win and that’s all you can ask for.
“It has given us a bit of confidence for the rest of this competition. We’ll concentrate on one meeting at a time. Firstly, we need to make sure that we also win up at Birmingham. After that, we’ll focus on the meetings against Plymouth next week.”
Brummies boss Laurence Rogers said: “The guests there did us proud but apart from that Oxford took advantage.
“We’ve got a strong looking team on paper for Wednesday night and we want, and need, another performance and result like we had last week.”
Josh Pickering joins Brennan as a guest for the Brummies in tonight’s (Wednesday) return at Perry Barr with Alfie Bowtell stepping in at reserve, whilst Jack Thomas is declared in the Cheetahs’ side for his injury comeback.
(SPEEDWAY 3)
POOLE return to Championship action tonight (Wednesday – UK time) when they host Scunthorpe at Wimborne Road in their penultimate regular league match.
If the Pirates win their last two, they will finish on 39 points and force Glasgow to pick up more points on the road to secure an automatic semi-final place.
Meanwhile the Scorpions are still striving to get back into the top six, and they hand a debut to recent signing Adam Roynon. They operate rider replacement for Jake Allen, whilst Jason Edwards guests for Jordan Palin.
Poole star Steve Worrall said: “I felt that we should really have got more out of our Northern tour.
“I should have done better at Edinburgh, that was my fault we lost there but we turned things around at Berwick and then hit Glasgow hard so hopefully that has sent the message out to the rest that we are not just playing anymore.”
Scorpions promoter Rob Godfrey said: “A trip to Poole is never the easiest fixture, and, on paper, we have better chances to pick up some away league points at Redcar and Berwick at the end of August, when hopefully we can put out something like a full team.
“But Poole have slipped up several times at home this season, and we’ll go into the meeting seeing what we can pick up. We got a point at Plymouth earlier in the season when no-one expected us to, so what’s to stop us doing the same at Poole?”
(SPEEDWAY 4)
OXFORD hand a full debut to Jody Scott in tonight’s (Wednesday – UK time) home NDL clash with leaders Leicester.
Scott makes his first appearance as part of the Chargers’ official one-to-seven, and there is also a home debut for Henry Atkins.
Said Scott: “It’s a really good opportunity for me. Peter (Schroeck) is the one who first taught me how to slide a speedway bike at Rye House, so I’m really excited to have him as my team manager, he’s been there since Day 1.
“Jason (Crump) is a three-time World Champion, so you can’t really have anyone better on hand with advice. I’m really looking forward to learning from him.”
The Lion Cubs track Ben Morley at No.1 as a guest for Dan Thompson who is serving out a mandatory 12-day concussion absence.
Manager Dave Howard said: “It’s going to be a really tough meeting and our first aim is to go for a point there.
“We’ll have Dan back with us at Berwick on Saturday, but if we could come away with at least a point at Oxford, that would really help us for our play-off push.”
(FIXTURES)
WEDNESDAY JULY 20:
CHAMPIONSHIP: Poole v Scunthorpe 7.30
CHAMPIONSHIP JUBILEE LEAGUE: Birmingham v Oxford 7.30
NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT LEAGUE: Oxford v Leicester 7.30
THURSDAY JULY 21:
BRITISH UNDER-19 FINAL: Redcar 7.30
PREMIERSHIP: Ipswich v Sheffield 7.30
FRIDAY JULY 22:
CHAMPIONSHIP JUBILEE LEAGUE: Edinburgh v Berwick 7.30, Scunthorpe v Leicester 7.30
SATURDAY JULY 23:
CHAMPIONSHIP JUBILEE LEAGUE: Berwick v Edinburgh 6.30
NDL KO CUP SEMI-FINAL 2nd leg: Berwick v Leicester (follows CJL fixture)
NO PRESSURE ON ZMARZLIK AFTER LATVIAN GP WIN