Eastbourne stars head to Plymouth for speedway's long-awaited return

The club’s season was due to get under way at the beginning of April but the sport was red flagged because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now the first few meetings of 2020 are being held and the HG Aerospace Eagles jumped at the chance to send a team to Plymouth to contest a three-team tournament at National Development League level.

The Eastbourne Select quartet features regular Eagles Tom Brennan, Jason Edwards, plus Jake Knight, who rode for the club in 2016 and 2017, and youngster Connor King, who comes in as a guest.

It will be something of a reunion for the Eagles in Devon where they will face former Eagles – Richard Andrews and Alfie Bowtell on track and Matt Bates, who is co-promoter and team manager for Plymouth.

Bates also had a run out at the Devon track on Saturday at a practice session attended by Eagles youngsters Nathan Ablitt and Vinnie Joe Foord, who also impressed everyone.

Bates commented: "It will be great to see some old friends over from Eastbourne on Tuesday night.

“I'm sure they will be impressed with all of the Stadium improvements made by Mark Phillips and some great volunteers over the winter.

“The track is in outstanding condition, and is the smoothest I've seen it in all my time riding and promoting here.”

The third team in the tournament, the Isle of Wight, track former Eagles Ben Morley and Connor Coles.

One man who has a foot in two of three camps in action on Tuesday evening is Ian Jordan. He is director of Eastbourne Speedway Ltd and commercial director at Plymouth.

Jordan said: “Everyone is looking forward to seeing some live speedway and three strong teams have been put together. “This is an attractive fixture and it is no surprise that it is ‘sold out’.

“The Covid-19 restrictions meant Plymouth had to restrict the attendance and now all the tickets have gone. I know that quite a few tickets have been sold to Eastbourne fans and that will help build an atmosphere for the match. However, for Eagles fans who can’t get to Plymouth a live stream is available.”

The meeting is over 15 heats and there is a specially sponsored "Dash for The Cash" 16th heat sponsored by Danish-based GP Speedway spares supplier, KL Support.

How to access the live stream

Visit “The Speedway Chat Show" on Facebook and follow the simple booking instructions.

A small fee of less than £4.00 will give access to all 16 races (Live and available to watch at any time after the event) and also interviews and further features during the evening.

* On Saturday, September 5, GB finished third in the World U-21 team championship in Denmark.

Helping the British to the bronze medal were Eagles Tom Brennan (seven points) and Drew Kemp (five points).