Birmingham v Poole

The Sky Sports camera's head to the Midlands tomorrow for the first live televised Speedway meeting of 2011 which see's the Birmingham Brummies take on Poole Pirates.

Birmingham have moved up to the Elite League this year, a place they haven't been since 1983 so this is a big meeting for them. Spearheading the Brummies is Pole Krzysztof Kasprzak who had a great season last year winning the title with Coventry, joining him as heat leader is Danny King who made the switch to Birmingham after Ipswich opted to drop down to the Premier league and will be a great back up to KK. Daniel Nermark makes a return to British Speedway after missing out last year. Like King, Ales Dryml also lost out on his place at Ipswich after having a good season with them but I think this year will be the same with the Brummies. The last place in the top 5 goes to 2 doubling uppers, Ben Barker and Rene Bach who are both capable of being full time elite league riders. Their reserves are Claus Vissing and Kevin Wolbert/James Wright, however Birmingham have already been dealt a blow with Claus Vissing out injured before the season properly started, this means they have been using their number 8 Theo Pjiper whilst Vissing recovers, as Theo is unavailable tomorrow, Dakota North will step in. Birmingham haven't had the most positive start to their season losing 3 out of their 4 first meetings but they'll be hoping they can bounce back from that.

Their opponents Poole finished top of the table by 20 points last year but lost out to Coventry in the grand final (sorry to remind Poole fans). This season they'll be hoping to go one better but they havn't got off to the best start after Darcy Ward broke his shoulder and wrist in a motorcross accident and they've had to replace Rafal Dobrucki due to Poland's ban on the new silencers but they've brought in Jason Doyle who I think can do a solid job for them. The top 2 Aussie duo of Chris Holder and Davey Watt will definitely be one of the strongest in the league. The pirates have signed Russian Renat Gafurov and so far he has shown signs that it was worth going through all the work permits and english tests to get him there! Young Swedish prospect Dennis Andersson makes his Elite League debut tomorrow and after seeing him race at Eastbourne last week, he's one to watch! Such a talent with potential. Kyle newman joins him at reserve and after riding at Birmingham last year it could prove beneficial for Poole. I think the pirates have strength in depth to secure a sneaky away win.

Team Line Ups:

Birmingham

1. Krzysztof Kasprzak

2. Ales Dryml

3. Ben Barker

4. Danny King

5. Daniel Nermark

6. Dakota North

7. Kevin Wolbert

One to Watch: Ben Barker

Poole

1. Chris Holder

2. Renat Gafurov

3. Jason Doyle.

4. R/R for Ward

5. Davey Watt

6. Dennis Andersson

7. Kyle Newman

One to watch: Dennis Andersson

Prediction: 43-47

Elite League Begins!

Arlington Stadium in East Sussex tonight plays host to Eastbourne v Wolverhampton for the very first Elite League meeting of the 2011 season.

Both teams took part in pre-season meetings last week with Wolverhampton beating Birmingham to the West Midlands trophy 103-80 on aggregate (see photo), whilst Eastbourne came out on top (96-87) in their challenge meeting with Poole.

Eastbourne acquired a new number 1 over the winter months in ex Poole Pirate Bjarne Pedersen. It's a shock for many people to see Bjarne in Eastbourne colours as he was at Poole for so long but it's a signing that definitely strengthens the Eagles side. The rest of the Eastbourne team is the same as 2010 apart from Lewis Bridger returning to Arlington after a year away with Peterborough/Coventry and should benefit from winning the league with the Bees last year. Over the winter we also saw experienced Swede Peter Karlsson make his way back to his 'home' Monmore Green after a year up in Manchester with the Belle Vue Aces. Wolverhamton also signed 2 American's in Tyson Burmeister and Ricky Wells. Tyson is new to British Speedway and Ricky has made the move back up to the Elite League after a year with Stoke in 2010.

Line Ups:

Eastbourne Eagles:

1. Bjarne Pedersen

2. Lukas Dryml

3. Simon Gustafsson

4. Cameron Woodward

5. Joonas Kylmakorpi

6. Lewis Bridger

7. Dawid Lampart.

Rider to watch/ Key rider: Joonas Kylmakorpi

Wolverhampton Wolves:

1. Freddie Lindgren

2. Ludvig Lindgren

3. Ty Proctor

4. Tai Woffinden

5. Peter Karlsson

6. Tyson Burmeister

7. Ricky Wells.

Rider to watch/ Key rider: Tai Woffinden

Prediction: 47-43

Weekend Round Up

This weekend saw a lot of teams get their first bit of Speedway action of the 2011 season.

Last week I wrote a blog about the Ipswich v Rye House meeting. It looked pretty one sided, however it was a good meeting. The Ipswich team definitely shone like most predicted, while the Rye House team was depleted with the absence of Captain Chris Neath (personal issues) and Steve Boxhall (Arm Injury). I predicted the score to be 51-39 and the final result was 56-39, pretty pleased with that! The return leg at Rye House on Saturday was a bit of a closer score line with the Rockets more on the gas round their home circuit. Rye House were still without their top 2 duo of Neath and Boxhall but had Joe Haines & Jason Doyle guesting. Ipswich were also not at full strength with Morten Risager suffering ligament damage on Thursday, witches had to use R/R. Both reserves, young Brit Jerran Hart (12 points) & young Aussie Tyson Nelson (14) top scored for their teams. It was the first time I'd seen Nelson race and it's fair to say I was impressed, everyone one has said what a great rider this kid is and how big he's going to be but you don't believe it properly until you see it, he's definitely one to keep an eye on, he's got a lot of potential, another young Aussie coming through! The final result was 49-41 to the Rockets but the Anglian cup went back to Suffolk with Ipswich winning on aggregate (97-88)

The Prince of Wales trophy took place in Newport on Saturday which saw American Ryan Fisher take the crown. Ryan has been rumoured to be in the Coventry team, so this result is encouraging for us Bees fans, he beat Niels Kristian Iversen, Leigh Lanham and Daniel Nermark to the Chequered flag in the final. Also on Saturday, Berwick entertained Newcastle at Shielfield Park, this saw Newcastle sneak an away win (43-50). Newcastle lost one of their riders before their season even started with Jason King sustaining a knee injury but Newcastle have replaced him with Czech rider Lubos Tomicek, who scored 6 points on his debut for the diamonds. These 2 teams are quite evenly matched with Newcastle just slightly winning the return leg at their home track by 5 points (49-44)

On Sunday I made a last minute decision to head to Arlington Stadium to check out Eastbourne Eagles v Poole Pirates and I think it's fair to say Eastbourne sunk the pirates ship. The Eagles were out trapping the pirates from the start, they definitely had their gating gloves on. Joonas Kylmakorpi top scored for Eastbourne and he's really starting show what an impressive heat leader he can be. Poole endured a nightmare meeting, they went into it without Darcy Ward (broken wrist and shoulder) and Rafal Dobrucki (Polish commitments) but it got worse, they lost captain Davey Watt after heat 4 after after sustaining ligament damage, then Renat Gafurov withdrew with suspected collarbone injuries so they were down to 4 riders in which their reserves played a massive part, especially new signing Dennis Andersson who top scored with 12+2 points. Most Poole fans were excited about this signing, he's new to British Speedway so some people might not be aware of his talent but he had a superb season last year especially in Sweden, so much so that he was called up to be reserve at the Swedish GP in Gothenburg and was part of Sweden's U21 World Cup team.

Ipswich v Rye House

On Saturday 12th March, the 2011 Speedway season got under way with the Ben Fund Bonanza taking place at Scunthorpe, which saw new Coventry Bee Hans Andersen victorious ahead of new Birmingham & Belle Vue signings Ben Barker & Chris Harris.

On Thursday, a challenge match will take place between Ipswich Witches & Rye House Rockets.

Ipswich dropped down to the Premier League this season, for some fans it was hard to take but others saw it coming as the witches have been struggling in previous seasons, however this year their luck might change. The Ipswich line up this year is incredible, most have tipped them to be Premier League champions or thereabouts and that's great to hear. I just hope the great team they have on paper will prove to be just as great on the track. I first went to Foxhall Stadium back in May 2008 and since then I've tried to go as much as possible, it's a great place with a family atmosphere, great promoters and fans! They deserve some success.

Rye House Rockets team doesn't look as great on paper but Speedway is so unpredictable you don't know what can happen. there has been a lot of speculation this week about the Rye House team, nobody knows the facts yet apart from there was an unfortunate incident there on Friday and Steve Boxhall won't be in the team this week, ex Rye House Rocket & current British U21 champion Joe Haines will be taking his place. This will be his first big competitive meeting since his horrible crash in Australia on 11th December which resulted in him losing his place at Redcar.

Not many of the riders will be familiar with Foxhall as it's been an Elite League track for so long, also for the past 2 seasons it has had a lot of work done to it, including a big re-shape, most riders will adapt to it quickly but the likes of Ben Morley & Tyson Nelson might take a bit longer to get dialled in.

Team Line Ups:

Ipswich Witches

1. Kevin Doolan (Captain)

2. Taylor Poole

3. Lasse Bjerre

4. Morten Risager

5. Chris Schramm.

6. Jerran Hart

7. Chris Mills

Rye House

1. Jordan Frampton

2. Luke Bowen

3. Ritchie Hawkins

4. Joe Haines

5. Chris Neath (Captain)

6. Ben Morley

7. Tyson Nelson

Ipswich Key Rider: Morten Risager

Morten has Elite League experience and would have ridden the Foxhall track most.

For Ipswich to do as well as people think, he needs to live up to everyone's

expectations and prove he's an Elite League rider and the 2010 season was just a down year.

Rye House Key Rider: Ritchie Hawkins.

I've picked Ritchie because he was Ipswich's number 8 last year and shone quite a bit in the meeting's he rode for them, he needs to use that to his and Rye House's advantage.

Prediction: Ipswich 51-39 Rye House