Drew for and against, Pirates dock, Bears roaring, Comets shooting, breakdowns and averages

Wednesday 30 July, 7.30pm; Poole Pirates v R.E.D Bandits, powered by STS. Buy tickets Watch on BSN

Friday 31 July, 7.30pm: Redcar Bears v R.E.D Bandits, powered by STS. Livestream

Saturday 1 August, 7pm: R.E.D Bandits, powered by STS v Workington Comets Buy tickets

Sunday 2 August, 3pm: Workington Comets v R.E.D Bandits

You’ll be seeing a lot of Drew Kemp this week, especially if you are one of the thousands of BSN subscribers.

Drew, who turns 24 next month, is back in his R.E.D Bandits kevlars on Wednesday night when we take on one of his former clubs, Poole, at Wimborne Road.

He guests in place of Peter Kildemand who is racing in the Danish League on Wednesday. As is Pirates number one Richard Lawson – a touch of KO Cup déjà vu – with Oxford’s Sam Masters stepping into the breach.

A second Pirates guest sees another Cheetah, Edward Kennett named as reserve in place of Fraser Bowes whose season ended when he was withdrawn during last month’s cup tie.

The Pirates have lost just twice this season – at Oxford in the BSN Series and Shielfield Park in the cup semi-final – and dropped only a point in their six Cab Direct Championship outings, drawing at Scunthorpe.

Teenagers Will Cairns and Cooper Rushen are continuing to score freely despite promotion to the main team with Workington feeling the power of the Pirates last week, losing 61-29.

Drew slots his guest appearance between the two legs of the Premiership Knockout Cup Final – alongside Nick Morris of course – the first is at Ipswich tonight and the destination of the season’s first silverware decided at Leicester on Thursday. Both meetings are on BSN with Greg Blair on commentary, as is our trip to Wimborne Road.

Pirates: Sam Masters, Will Cairns, Lewis Kerr, Cooper Rushen, Zach Cook, Edward Kennett, Kyle Newman

Bandits: Drew Kemp, Jye Etheridge, Victor Palovaara, Jordan Jenkins, Nick Morris, Jack Smith, Reid Battye

Jedburgh’s talking head will undoubtedly be at the Ecco Arena on Friday too but only in a Bandits’ supporting role.  Our previous trip to Cleveland this season was a forgettable 31-59 defeat in the BSN Series semi-final first leg.

Since that night Redcar have swapped number ones with Charles Wright returning from injury and Nikolai Klindt concentrating on the Premiership with regular guest bookings – notably an 18-point maximum for Workington in their draw with Edinburgh last weekend.

Oxford and Workington have both come within two points of victory at Redcar in addition to losses against Scunthorpe and Poole.

Workington, bolstered by the aforementioned Mr Kemp, arrive bottom of the Championship pile with the strangely asymmetrical record which has seen them concede 50 points at home to Poole and Glasgow while performing well at Redcar, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

They also want to avenge their KO Cup defeat at our hands, built on that stunning start to the first leg where we didn’t drop a point until heat six.

Ω Don’t forget to stick around after the main meeting on Saturday – and at Redcar on Friday for that matter – as the Berwick Academy are in Northern Junior League action on both nights against the Bear Cubs and Meteors. Teams will be confirmed later in the week but the one thing guaranteed is that there is no such thing as a dull, uneventful NJL fixture!

Ω If you are planning to make the trip to Workington on Sunday please note the 3pm start time.

Still without floodlights, the Comets have been starting at 6pm recently but with a round of the British Youth 125cc championship taking place after the main meeting it is an early afternoon start again.

Ω Work continues this week at Sheilfeild Park to get the electrical system used by the Bandits on match night fully operational.

Landels Electrical spent most of last week on-site but it became clear that we needed to prioritise areas to avoid having to postpone for the second week in a row.

We thank you for your understanding, especially over the lack of toilets on the back straight, and will be working to ensure the problem is solved by the time the Comets arrive.

Although the candlelight ambience which Naiomi and Tekisha created in the Ducket Bar could catch on.

Ω Certainly not a night to remember for the Smith entourage with their van needing careful nursing to ensure they made it to Shielfield Park in time.

But the chances of making it back to Stoke were somewhere considerably south of nil. Recovery and repatriation on a Saturday night in north Northumberland is by no means an instant fix so Jack had already pulled out of Buxton’s NDL fixture on Sunday even before overnight rain washed it out.

Which is just as well because progress on the back of a recovery wagon was far from rapid, finally reaching its destination mid-Sunday.

Ω It’s always good to welcome sponsors into the Shielfield Park hospitality area and Saturday saw another two of our valued backers not only cheering the boys home but also mking the tough call to decide who was our man-of-the-match.

It was another split decision with Simpsons Malt – who also provide the water which attempts to keep dust under control even on the warmest, windiest days, opting for Nick Morris.

But for that matter no-one would argue with those from Berwick Sports and Leisure Centre who plumped for reserve Reid Battye.

Ω Speaking of our popular Aussie rookie, he has now become the proud recipient of an official green sheet average, which after completing the sixth qualifying outing at Oxford, stands at 3.87 made up of six meetings, 31 rides, 30 points.

A couple of official tweaks to the averages, compiled by Dennis McCleary, that we published last week. A slight change to the way averages are calculated means that a rider who falls and is unable to take part in the rerun will have a completed race charged to his account – as happened to Nick Morris against Oxford at Shielfield Park.

The rolling averages come into effect on Saturday.

2026 only

                                  Home                                         Away

Ω Never one to miss an opportunity to celebrate, especially after becoming one of the few riders to successfully pass Danny King around Shielfield, Nick Morris found himself let down by technology in the aftermath of heat 15.

Having returned to his hair-raising best, Nick decided to throw several spanners into the works by calling for a replacement wheel as the two minutes was sounded following. Mechanics and team mates completed the task with about ten seconds to spare giving Nick, quite literally, the edge in the frantic heat.

But it appears they only put on a five-lap chain – it lasted the race and warm-down lap only to come off as he was about to follow Peter Kildemand down wheelie alley.

A speedway rider’s best friend is his back wheel. Picture: Keith Hamblin