Perfect Night for Speedway – Eagles v Scorpions tonight!
The Eastbourne Fineprint Eagles face The Scunthorpe Scorpions this evening in a Championship league speedway match at Arlington Stadium.
Everything is looking absolutely great for a perfect night at the Speedway
Sunny ✅
Warm ✅
Little wind ✅
Reduced admission ✅
Free car parking ✅
Holly Blue goodies giveaway (free meals and a few J20 sunglasses) ✅
There’s no excuse: come on down. ✅
The action starts at 7.30pm but come early to soak up the atmosphere (gates open 5.45pm) visit the pits (closes for the bikes to warm-up at 6.45pm) and have a great summer’s evening out. New to Speedway? Learn all about a night at Arlington here
SATURDAY UPDATE
Scunthorpe will be upbeat after a massive victory last night at their home track where they defeated the much-fancied Sheffield outfit 55-35.
Teams: No changes notified
Weather: Perfect
Traffic: No known problems
The Kevin Ling preview
The retro feel is sure to be all present and correct for the Eastbourne ‘Fineprint’ Eagles at Arlington stadium on Saturday evening (7.30 pm start time) as yet another rivalry from a bygone era is rekindled.
North Lincolnshire’s finest sons Scunthorpe make their first visit to Sussex since the heady far off days of 1978, 41 long years ago. Known now, and have been for many years, as the Scorpions back in the day it was the Saints who the Eagles had regular dealings with.
While it would be true to say that the South Coast dwellers generally had the better of the exchanges from those far off days, times certainly change and, with the Scorpions now effectively having some seniority over their Sussex hosts in the modern day Championship section, under no circumstances will the Eagles be taken their challenge lightly.
Though the visitors may not contain a Scott Nicholls or Craig Cook figure to head their offensive, a scan down their line reveals a team of racers, all of whom either have or are considered capable of putting in a fine performance around the Sussex circuit.
Number one Josh Auty is a multi-experienced campaigner and one who certainly possesses the ability to test Eastbourne’s heat leader trio of Richard Lawson, Lewi Kerr and skipper Edward Kennett.
All eyes are sure to be on the man dubbed as Speedway’s own Mr Showman, Danny Ayres who has enjoyed a superb run of form for the Scorpions since his signing in the early weeks of the season.
Always a popular visitor to Arlington with such teams as the Kent Kings, Cradley Heathens and the Mildenhall Fen Tigers, as well as a multitude of guest appearances for teams in need, during their four season tenure in the National League, Ayres has often been cast as a pantomime villain character in his dealings with the Sussex faithful.
As ever an out and out trier, 100% competitor and all round great character Ayres will no doubt invoke passion and polarize opinion as he makes his return to the venue.
Another popular returnee is sure to be that of Richard Andrews (now plying his trade with the Plymouth Gladiators) who makes a guest appearance in the Scorpions reserve berth.
A free scoring member of Eastbourne’s treble winning side in 2015 Andrews was rewarded by being handed the captaincy at the start of the following campaign.
Alas his position was to be short-lived as a horror opening day of the season witnessed not only a double defeat by local rivals Kent but worse than that, injuries to both Andrews and Kyle Hughes, neither of whom were destined to ride for the Eagles again.
Sheffield’s Broc Nicol also makes a guest appearance for Scunthorpe, his only previous visit to the circuit seeing him take an after meeting spin, one that raised eyebrows among those who remained to watch it and prompted calls for the Management to sign him up.
The Scorpions arrive in Sussex on the back of an uplifting 55-35 home victory over the Sheffield Tigers at the Eddie Wright Raceway the previous evening.
Indeed that very match up highlights some of the occasional ‘oddities’ that the sport has to offer with Nicol riding against Scunthorpe the night before he will be lining up for them as a guest.
On the reverse side of the coin, Eastbourne’s own Alfie Bowtell will be in opposition to them this evening after scoring a fine 7-points (paid 10) on their behalf as a guest in the win against the Tigers just 24-hours earlier.
The Eagles will certainly be striving to record a confidence boosting victory with which to take to Peterborough’s East of England Showground on Sunday Afternoon when Messrs Kennett, Kerr and Lawson, together with Kyle Newman travel to contest the Championship Four Team Tournament competition, Bowtell completing Eastbourne’s own ‘Famous Five’ as they attempt to wrest the silverware.
Teams: (in alphabetical order)
Eagles: Alfie Bowtell, Edward Kennett, Lewis Kerr, Richard Lawson, Ben Morley, Kyle Newman, Georgie Wood.
Scorpions: Richard Andrews (Guest), (Rider Replacement for) Jake Allen, Josh Auty, Danny Ayres, Ryan Kinsley, Broc Nichol (Guest), Stefan Nielsen.
Image credit: Tiffani Graveling Photography and Mike Hinves