Gladiators v The Bandits. Preview

Nothing but a victory will do for team manager Garry May tonight as his Plymouth Gladiators get back on track and resume their stop-start season against the Berwick Bandits at the Coliseum.

After yet another postponement seven days ago – that is six in succession for the Gladiators now – they have not ridden together since a 48-41 loss at Redcar in June. Their last meeting at home was on June 20, so it is now six weeks since speedway fans last saw their team on home shale, but the forecast looks good for tonight.

Many riders have ridden for their other teams during that time, but feel for Ben Barker, who has had no track time due to him having only one club this year. It is also worth remembering that, in an attempt to address their misfortunes – the Gladiators have lost their last nine meetings, winless since beating Scunthorpe on May 2, and in danger of missing the play-offs – May and promoter Mark Phillips have mixed things up, which will hopefully bring about a change in fortune.

One of those riders coming in is Aussie teenager Dan Thompson. Regular watchers of the Elite League coverage on Eurosport will have seen him turn in some impressive performances for Ipswich Witches, especially last Monday when their ‘Rising Star’ scored a superb 9+4 from five rides as his team secured an impressive 53-37 win at Leicester.

He is yet to debut at the Coliseum but will do tonight, weather permitting. “Dan has been riding really well and I just hope he brings that form to us,” May said.

“I think it is a really good signing and he is a better rider than Ben Morley and I think we are as strong as we can be now, looking to get into the play-offs and with the points limit, the riders available. It’s as strong as we can go.

“James Pearson rode really well at Redcar and I think we are strong all the way down now. Hopefully he rides well on Tuesday, but they haven’t ridden at the Coliseum. But Dan has been flying everywhere and I know he can’t wait to get started – he keeps sending me texts!”

Now, all eyes will be on the weather after four successive postponements which have hit the club hard, financially. One of those call-offs – the Berwick meeting – was called off at the last minute after Mark Phillips had done everything he could to get the meeting on.

The club have made no secret of the fact money is tight right now and are urging everyone attending to bring a friend along to the Coliseum to both swell numbers and bring more revenue into the club.

“Mark tried so hard to get the Berwick meeting on and that ended up costing him three or four grand,” May said. “It’s a lot of money and people don’t understand all that, you still have to pay the referee, you still have to pay the riders, you still have to pay this and that – it’s hard and he desperately wanted to put it on to get things going again.

“Last year, we had a meeting that we couldn’t get in before the cut off and so we ended sixth. We won it and actually finished fourth, but because it was after the cut-off, we had to ride Poole in the play-offs when we would maybe have had Redcar.

“Maybe they need to do away with the BSN Series, but I know it’s hard. You used to have a meeting scheduled every week! You can’t predict the British weather, can you? Now, we have all these matches and we have to cram them into three weeks.”

Tonight’s meeting is actually the first of six in 21 days for the club, who are currently bottom of the nine-team Championship. All is not lost, though, with Plymouth behind in their meetings and a win tonight would push them towards a top-six finish.

“Other teams are doing us favours by beating the teams we have to ride against, but we have to win,” May added. “And we have to get the bonus points when we go away.

“I am going to get the riders together tomorrow and just drum it into them – we have to hit them big and we have to win big to get the bonus point. Berwick have strengthened with Hans Andersen and (Steve) Boxall, who used to ride at Plymouth – and Hans did too, so he will be up for it. But we have to beat them. That’s all we have to do – beat them and if we lose, we are out. That will be it, done.”

Gates open at the Coliseum at 5.45pm (pay at the gate, cash only) with the first race scheduled for 7pm.

Teams:

Plymouth Prow Park Gladiators

1.Kyle Howarth 2. Dan Thompson 3. Ben Barker 4. Dan Gilkes 5. Richie Worrall 6. James Pearson 7. Ben Trigger.

Berwick Bandits

1. Rory Schlein 2. Jonas Knudsen 3. Jye Etheridge 4. Leon Flint 5. Hans Andersen 

6. Steve Boxall 7. Connor Coles

Image credit: Dan Westlake