Hammers hit by Jed blow

LAKESIDE Hammers preparations for this Friday's home local derby match with rivals Eastbourne in the Sky Sports Elite League have suffered a blow with the news that Polish star Tomasz Jedrzejak will not be in their line up for this week's action.

The Hammers, who also race away at Coventry on Thursday, expected the popular Pole to make his season's debut this week as a replacement for the injured Joonas Kylmakorpi but the Club will now have to revert to using a facility for the Finn as Jedrzejak was unable to travel to England after complaining of a sickness bug that has seen his form over the last fortnight drop alarmingly, culminating in a failure to score for his Swedish club on Tuesday night.

Team manager Jon Cook commented on this news by saying: "Tomasz is a super bloke and hopefully he will be back to his best soon. I appreciate his honesty in this matter and we will just have to plug on for the time being until Joonas is back.

“Obviously this is a far from perfect situation to be in but Tomasz has a great regard for his clubs and did not want to come over when not at his best, especially at a time when he has to concentrate his efforts on getting back to full fitness and form to help Wroclaw, his Polish team and main employers, get over their poor start to the year."

Any further change of line up has to be for a minimum of 28 days from Friday, but the Essex-based club fully expect Kylmakorpi's return to be well within that time frame.

Popular young Brit, Robert Mear, will return to the side at reserve for both matches this week, with Lee Richardson and Kauko Nieminen swapping riding numbers for the away meeting at Coventry.

Hammers team at Coventry tonight: 1. Adam Shields, 2. Jonas Davidsson, 3. Kauko Nieminen, 4. R/R, 5. Lee Richardson, 6. Robert Mear, 7. Stuart Robson.

Hammers team at home to Eastbourne tomorrow: 1. Adam Shields, 2. Jonas Davidsson, 3. Lee Richardson 4. R/R, 5. Kauko Nieminen, 6. Robert Mear, 7. Stuart Robson.