WELCOME to the latest news from the BSPA, featuring items on all nine competing teams in the Elite League.
BELLE VUE star Jason Crump faces just a week out of action after his World Cup Final injury was confirmed as a broken finger.
Crump said: "It could have been worse than a broken finger so I feel okay that the damage is not much worse than that.
"Everything else is fine so I’ll rest it for a day or two. I’ve been told to strap my fingers together and ride again when I think I can and that won’t be very long."
COVENTRY manager Peter Oakes says he cannot remember a more difficult period with frequent injury problems and also a number of riders displaying inconsistency.
Oakes said: "You almost can't remember people like Billy Janniro and Chris Harris being forced out of meetings because of crashes, and it's happened to them both twice in the last month or so. It's almost unheard of, they've been two iron-men for us.
"But obviously we're not content or happy with the situation, and we've always got to be looking at what we can do in the future."
EASTBOURNE co-promoter Bob Dugard believes his side can still meet expectations this season - helped by a narrow away win at Wolverhampton on Monday.
Dugard said: "We could have had a couple more away wins and that would have put us right up there. The one which sticks out in the memory is when we were winning by ten at Lakeside and let it slip away. We should have won at Belle Vue as well.
"The season has lived up to my expectations apart from those silly slip-ups. Some of it has been beyond our control, because of international fixtures."
IPSWICH manager Pete Simmons says the late-winter signing of Piotr Swiderski - who beat Leigh Adams twice at Foxhall on Monday - has proved to be a key move in their good season so far.
Simmons said: "Piotr has proved that he is not going to be a five-minute wonder by extending his good form into the second half of the season.
"He has settled into the No.1 role better than anyone else, and with Jarek Hampel finding his best touch we are well placed to move further up the table in the weeks ahead."
LAKESIDE's Elite Leage challenge received a further boost with a 51-42 away win at Coventry on Monday - their fourth win on the road this season.
The Hammers are also the only club with an umblemished home record, which therefore puts them amongst the favourites to secure a top-two finish.
During the World Cup break, the club also staged a successful Testimonial meeting for club stalwart Paul Hurry, which was won by former Wolverhampton stalwart Peter Karlsson.
PETERBOROUGH manager Trevor Swales wants his riders to raise their game at a time when the club are without No.1 Hans Andersen due to financial problems at the Showground.
Swales said: "We have to believe in ourselves. What I need from the riders is their 'A' game to make sure we come out of these meetings with our heads held high.
"We can't alter what has happened in the background but we must do our bit on the track to make sure the club goes forward because that is of paramount importance."
POOLE star Davey Watt is looking forward to getting back into Elite League action this week after suffering a disastrous World Cup Final with Australia.
Watt said: "I'm a bit frustrated with the way my meeting went. I crashed twice, had problems with the bike, anything that could go wrong went wrong.
"You were just getting thrown all over the place. When you weren't getting thrown all over the place you were struggling to stay on the bike because it was so slippery."
SWINDON promoter Alun Rossiter feels the club's recent capture of Croatian sensation Jurica Pavlic could turn out to be one of the best-ever moves for the Robins.
Rossiter said: "We've been tracking him for a while, but he's done his schooling now, which is why he didn't come out here at the start of the season. He's got great pedigree and it's an exciting move for the club.
"The club is on the way up, there's a huge amount of potential here and that's down to the way Gary (Patchett) and Terry (Russell) are running it. We're a big club, one that's going forward and we look after our riders."
WOLVERHAMPTON are expected to re-open talks with Lukas Dryml after suffering another home defeat at the hands of Eastbourne on Monday.
Promoter Chris Van Straaten said: "It's been difficult to change things around as we have previously explained but the results are depressing and there were aspects of the performance on Monday which were unacceptable as well.
"In the case of Lukas, his knee injury ended our talks but we will talk again this weekend and see where we're at with it all."
