PREVIEW: Cheetahs face oldest rivals in pivotal clash

MONARCH Oxford Cheetahs entertain arch-rivals Poole Pirates in a mouth-watering Cab Direct Championship league fixture at Oxford Stadium on Wednesday evening (7.30pm).

Both teams are currently in the play-off places, with Poole in second place with a 100% record from four league meetings, and Cheetahs in fourth.

Cheetahs have won their all six of their previous meetings at Cowley in 2024, including a thrilling 45-44 victory over Poole in a BSN Series clash on May 8, when skipper Scott Nicholls passed Poole No 1 Richard Lawson in the final race.

Since the Cab Direct Championship campaign started, Cheetahs have picked up stylish victories over Redcar (53-36), Edinburgh (54-36) and otherwise unbeaten league leaders Scunthorpe (55-34).

Of the tracks still in existence over 75 years later, Pirates are Oxford’s oldest rivals. The two clubs first met in May 1949, when Cheetahs were just a month old.

Oxford and Poole were first championship rivals in 1950, when Cheetahs won Division Three, five points ahead of Pirates. Many supporters will recall a more recent battle in 2001, when Cheetahs beat Pirates to the top-flight Elite League championship in 2001, after a titanic battle, when just a single point separated the two sides after both had completed their 32 league matches. 

With Henry Atkins still out with a broken index finger, Jacob Hook will again fill the gap at No 7 for Cheetahs.

Oxford team manager Peter Schroeck said: “We’ll approach the clash against Poole like every other meeting. I know much the Oxford fans love to get one over the Pirates and a bit of inter-club rivalry is good for speedway.

“But we don’t want to give the Pirates too much respect – I feel some teams have beaten themselves even before they’ve turned a wheel against them. That’s not to say we don’t respect Poole, of course we do, but not any more than any other side.

“What a win over Poole will achieve is that it will give the whole team confidence. Once you’ve beaten them, you feel that you can beat anyone.

“It’s an important week ahead for the Monarch Cheetahs, since we’re also at Redcar on Friday, before Workington are here next Wednesday. That takes us to the halfway stage of our Cab Direct Championship fixtures.

“If we score some good points over the three meetings, we can go a long way towards consolidating our place in the play-off places. But we’ll take it one meeting at a time and that starts against Poole on Wednesday.”

Tickets are already on sale on the Oxford Speedway website at https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

Admission is available at the early bird price of £20 for all adults, which increases to £22 on Race Day. All under-16s go free. A reminder that Oxford Speedway is online ticket sales only – tickets remain on sale on the website until the start-time of the meeting.

Teams:

Monarch Oxford Cheetahs: Sam Masters, Luke Killeen, Jordan Jenkins, Cameron Heeps, Scott Nicholls (C), Ashton Boughen, Jacob Hook (G).

Poole Wessex Marine Pirates: Richard Lawson, Joe Thompson (G), Tom Brennan, Zach Cook, Ben Cook (C), Sam Hagon, Vinnie Foord.

PHOTO: Cameron Heeps ahead of Richard Lawson (pic: Les Aubrey)