Lewis Kerr will take his place at No 1 as Berwick Jewson Bandits make the trip to Cab Direct Championship favourites Poole Pirates on Wednesday.
Kerr crashed out of the victory over Plymouth Gladiators ten days ago, his first home outings after five weeks on the sidelines with a fractured ankle.
Hospital checks confirmed no further bone damage and, after physio treatment, he has been given the OK for the trip to the south coast.
The Norfolk-based racer – who rode a handful of meetings for the Pirates in the top tier in 2017 – is one of four ex-Poole riders in the Berwick side.
Skipper Rory Schlein and Danyon Hume were in the Pirates’ 2021 double-winning side while Drew Kemp also won league and cup honours with the Dorset club the following years.
Poole No 1, Richard Lawson, produced a match-winning ride to split Schlein and Josh Pickering – guesting in place of Kerr – in a last heat decider when the teams met at Shielfield Park earlier this month.
And Poole are unbeaten at home this season. In fact, they have lost just one home league match since rejoining speedway’s second tier in 2021.
That was to a Leicester side in 2022 team managed by Stewart Dickson who fills the same role with Berwick on Wednesday.
Drew Kemp played a starring role for Scunthorpe last year when he returned to his former club to mastermind draws at Wimborne Road in both the play-offs and Knockout Cup Final
Dickson said: “We have riders with experience of Poole and need them to use it. It is a tough place to go, but we need to be positive and battle for every point, do our job and not worry too much about Poole’s reputation. Having Lewis back is a boost as he was in great form before his injury.”
Poole: Richard Lawson, Tobias Thomsen, Tom Brennan, Zach Cook. Ben Cook, Sam Hagon, Max Perry
Berwick: Lewis Kerr, Danyon Hume, Jye Etheridge, Drew Kemp, Rory Schlein, Freddy Hodder, Bastian Borke
PICTURE: Drew Kemp on the slide. Picture by Taz MacDougall
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