PREVIEW: Oxford Cheetahs in vital clash with the Plymouth Gladiators at the BetGoodwin Oxford Stadium

SD TIMMO CAR SALES Oxford Cheetahs are looking to push themselves up the Cab Direct Championship, when they host Plymouth Gladiators at the BetGoodwin Oxford Stadium on Wednesday (July 8) evening at 7.30pm.

Victory would take Oxford off the bottom of the table. There’s also an aggregate bonus point up for grabs, since Plymouth won 50-39 in South Devon on June 20. If Cheetahs were also to take that additional league point, they would move up three places to sixth.

Plymouth include Scott Nicholls in their line-up. The seven-times British Champion was Cheetahs’ skipper for three seasons between 2022 and 2024, following the return of speedway to Cowley after a gap of 15 years. The 48-year-old has dropped one or two hints this may be his final season as a professional speedway rider, so Wednesday’s clash could the last chance to see a legend, both of British and Oxford Speedway, in action at Sandy Lane.

For Cheetahs, they have a full side – with a unchanged line-up from the away meeting at Berwick on Saturday.

The weekend also saw the return of Erik Riss to competitive action, winning the German Longtrack Championship. Riss started the season with Cheetahs, but suffered a re-occurrence of his vision problems, and Cheetahs signed Edward Kennett as a short-term replacement. Riss is not ready to plunge into a full-time return this week, while the club are in contact with him.  

Plymouth have named a full side, despite injury doubts over both Danny King and Ben Barker.

Cheetahs’ team manager Peter Schroeck says: “Fortunes can change very quickly in the Cab Direct Championship, you only have to look at the Plymouth vs Redcar result from Saturday night and how that could change the season for those two sides.

“We’re not where we want to be in the league, but again that could change quite quickly. We won our last home meeting to Redcar and we want to continue that run. Against Plymouth, we need to win – we need to do that in all our home meetings. Following that, the bonus point is just that – a bonus – although of course, we will chase that as well. But winning is the main target.

“We’re hugely grateful to the fans for their continued support of skipper Sam Masters and the rest of the Cheetahs. We thank them, and ask them to spread the word, speak to their friends and encourage them along, because we want to turn Oxford Speedway back into a success story.”

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

Admission is available at the early bird price of £21 for all adults, which increases to £23 on Race Day. All under-16s go free. Spectators are also reminded that they will need to pay £2 when booking their ticket if they are planning to park in the Unipart car park. Parking at the Unipart car park is now fully restored and the club thank Unipart for their co-operation.

On Race Day, there is now also the chance to buy tickets by cash or card at the box office from 6pm.

Teams:

SD Timmo Car Sales Oxford Cheetahs: Sam Masters (C), Luke Killeen, Edward Kennett, Mitch McDiarmid, Anders Rowe, Darryl Ritchings, Dayle Wood. Team manager: Peter Schroeck.

OBS Plymouth Gladiators: Chris Harris (G), Joe Thompson, Daniel Klima, Jason Edwards (G), Scott Nicholls, Anze Grmek, Ben Whalley. Team manager: Garry May.

PHOTO by Steve Edmunds