PETERBOROUGH are looking for the rain-clouds to stay away as they race back into Elite League action at Eastbourne Saturday night (7.30pm).

PETERBOROUGH are looking for the rain-clouds to stay away as they race back into Elite League action at Eastbourne Saturday night (7.30pm).

The Readypower Panthers have seen their last two meetings called off due to adverse weather, meaning it’s over a fortnight since they last competed as a team.

Good Friday saw them collect home and away wins over King’s Lynn in their only two league matches so far, whilst Eastbourne’s Easter fortunes were in direct contrast as they lost both of their fixtures against Lakeside.

But that was a rare Arlington setback for last season’s Elite League runners-up, and they responded with a comfortable home win over Wolverhampton last Saturday although they did then lose the return at Monmore Green.

Panthers are forced into lower-order changes for the trip to the South coast, with all four of their doubling-up riders otherwise engaged with their Premier League clubs. Rider-replacement therefore operates in the top five for the Lasse Bjerre/Rene Bach combination, whilst up-and-coming Australian Rohan Tungate, who rides regularly for Ipswich, steps in at reserve for Richard Lawson and Kyle Newman.

Eastbourne are still without the injured Joonas Kylamkorpi, and have booked Coventry’s Edward Kennett to guest, but Simon Gustafsson is due back having missed their Wolverhampton matches after a crash in Poland.

Panthers star Olly Allen is keen to get back to racing after the recent break, and he said: “I felt Good Friday was an important day for us because we had been knocked a bit before a wheel was even turned, so it’s nice for us to silence our critics early on.

“Even Peterborough fans probably had a few doubts but hopefully we’ve dispelled them now. We can’t get complacent and I know that Jan (Staechmann) won’t let us do that. We will be 100 per cent focussed.”

EASTBOURNE: Edward Kennett, Lukas Dryml, Simon Gustafsson, Cameron Woodward, Lewis Bridger, Denis Gizatullin, Timo Lahti.

PETERBOROUGH: Kenneth Bjerre, R/R, Olly Allen, Jesper B Monberg, Linus Sundstrom, Rohan Tungate, Michael Jepsen Jensen.