PETERBOROUGH launch their defence of the Championship KO Cup with a home and away double against Lakeside on Sunday.
The T.Balfe Construction Panthers travel to Rye House, the new home of the Hammers, for a 2pm start before hosting the return leg at the East of England Arena at 7pm.
Panthers defeated Ipswich in the Final last season to take the silverware, and it was the Witches who were overcome by the Hammers in the first round of this year’s competition back in early May, with Peterborough receiving a bye to this stage.
The winners of the tie will face a semi-final clash with Scunthorpe.
Panthers bring in Ben Barker for both meetings to guest for injured No.1 Scott Nicholls, whilst Jordan Stewart stands in at reserve for Tom Bacon. Captain Simon Lambert is back after missing last week’s trips to Workington and Hoddesdon to get married.
Promoter Ged Rathbone said: “These meetings now are all big ones. Every meeting we have between now and the end of the season is going to mean something.
“Both ourselves and Lakeside, and indeed Workington, can all say we can still do the Treble, and we want that to still be the case for ourselves after this tie.
“We know it’s not always going to be the same at Rye House as last Saturday, but it’s still a circuit that many of our riders are very comfortable on.
“I’ve also been in touch with Ulrich (Ostergaard) this week, he’s been practising in Denmark to get things sorted out, and hopefully we’ll see the Ulrich that we all know back this Sunday.”
Lakeside are without Nick Morris, who scored an 18-point maximum at Hoddesdon last weekend.
Morris is racing for Rzeszow in the Polish Division Two play-off Final, and the Hammers will be using Aaron Summers as a guest.
Adam Ellis rides after shoulder trouble but Kyle Newman and Zach Wajtknecht are both ruled out injured, with Broc Nicol coming in to guest.
Rathbone said: “I do think it’s time we acted to protect British Speedway, and maybe we should be saying that if you ride in the Championship, you don’t ride in Poland.
“That would then end any arguments over whether teams have a guest or no facility when there’s a clash.
“We’re told the rules have changed, which we have to accept, and because Nick Morris has ridden for Rzeszow longer than he has for Lakeside, Poland have priority and Lakeside can now have a guest.
“I’m fully aware that we did something controversial last year with allowing a rider to race in Poland, and certainly I paid a massive mental punishment for that for many months when I was doing it for the right reasons for the club.
“But I do think the way forward is to give riders the choice of riding either here or there, and stand up to protect the sport in this country.”
LAKESIDE: Richard Lawson, Ben Morley, Adam Ellis, Kyle Newman R/R, Aaron Summers, Broc Nicol, Alfie Bowtell. PETERBOROUGH: Ben Barker, Emil Grondal, Bradley Wilson-Dean, Michael Palm Toft, Ulrich Ostergaard, Jordan Stewart, Simon Lambert.