HISTORY will be made at Wimborne Road on Wednesday night when Workington face Poole for the first time in a league match.
The only previous meetings between the side was in May 2003 when the Comets faced the then top league Pirates in an inter-league challenge match.
Carl Stonehewer and Simon Stead led the Cumbrians that night and on Wednesday they have an equally strong-looking, and GP-experienced top two of Craig Cook and Troy Batchelor.
Workington travel on the back of an aggregate bonus point win over Glasgow Tigers at the weekend and having qualified for the BSN Series semi-finals after winning the northern group containing Scunthorpe and Redcar.
German Celina Liebmann attracted much of the pre-season publicity but it has been fellow British speedway debutants Tate Zischke and Annti Vuolas who have really hit the ground running along with the vastly-experienced Dane Claus Vissing.
For the Comets it Wednesday marks the end of an intensive period of four meetings in six days.
For Poole this will be only their third home meeting of the season and they are keen to add to their Cab Direct Championship account having won at Berwick in their only other outing.
Poole promoter Dan Ford said: “It was great news for British Speedway when Workington re-opened their doors last season and even better when they decided to make the step up to the Championship this year.
“Workington qualifying for the final stages of the BSN Series tells a story, so there is no question of this being an easy fixture for us.
“But we have seen the spirit in the Poole side come to the fore in our matches this season, not least in our three away meetings where we have found ourselves very much on the back foot in the early half of the meeting but gone on to force last heat deciders.
“I really think we could be in for a very entertaining contest.”
Poole: Richard Lawson, Tobias Thomsen, Tom Brennan, Zach Cook, Ben Cook, Sam Hagon, Max Perry.
Workington: Craig Cook, Tate Zischke, Antti Vuolas, Claus Vissing, Troy Batchelor, Celina Liebmann, Sam McGurk.
Words by George Dodds.
Images by Taylor Lanning.