Sunday April 23, 2023
KING’S Lynn will be without skipper Josh Pickering for their KO Cup clash with Sheffield at the Adrian Flux Arena on Monday (7.30pm).

Pickering was involved in a Heat 1 crash at Berwick on Saturday when racing for his Championship team Edinburgh, with the accident ironically involving his MacInnes Stars team-mate Thomas Jorgensen.

Whilst the Dane was able to walk away and continue in the meeting, Pickering was not so fortunate and had to withdraw with shoulder damage.

He was due to visit hospital on Sunday in order to assess the full extent of the injury, which comes just as he was about to drop to reserve for the Stars.

It means Lynn will need to book guests in that position during Pickering’s period of absence, and former Lynn racer Simon Lambert comes in on Monday against the Tigers, whilst Nicolai Klindt will take over as captain.

With Frederik Jakobsen moving up into the main body of the team, he now forms the middle-order pairing with Krzysztof Kasprzak, a maximum man in his last home meeting.

Sheffield go into the meeting with a 58-32 advantage from their first leg victory earlier this month, and have a proven record in Norfolk, but they too are one regular man down as Polish star Tobiasz Musielak is currently sidelined with a broken collarbone.

The Tigers are led by Speedway of Nations winner Jack Holder and former British Champion Adam Ellis, with former Stars captain Lewis Kerr a high scorer at reserve in the early weeks of the campaign, and they operate rider replacement for Musielak.

Stars co-promoter Dale Allitt said: “It’s all about building momentum at home after our win against Wolverhampton last time out.

“We certainly haven’t given up on the tie as anything can happen on the night, and hopefully we can make a good start and push on from there.

“Losing Josh would be a big blow at any time with what he brings to the team, but especially now as he was going to be dropping to reserve, and we’ll have to wait and see what the hospital say about the injury.”

As announced earlier this weekend, all under-16s will now be admitted FREE – and a reminder that there is no home meeting this Thursday at the Adrian Flux Arena as the Stars visit Leicester.

KING’S LYNN: Nicolai Klindt, Thomas Jorgensen, Frederik Jakobsen, Krzysztof Kasprzak, Michael Palm Toft, Simon Lambert, Jason Edwards.
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Kyle Howarth, Tobiasz Musielak R/R, David Bellego, Adam Ellis, Lewis Kerr, Dan Gilkes.