IPSWICH Evening Star Witches travel to Swindon tonight without Poles Jarek Hampel and Piotr Swiderski.

Mike Bacon

IPSWICH Evening Star Witches travel to Swindon tonight without Poles Jarek Hampel and Piotr Swiderski.

Both men are required to take part in the Polish Championships - a GP qualifier - after the meeting was rained off on Tuesday night and re-arranged for tonight.

It's a big blow for the Evening Star Witches who were hoping to hit back in Wiltshire after their demoralising defeat to the Robins in front of the Sky cameras on Monday night.

However, they have called upon Poole's Chris Holder as a guest for Hampel, and will be using rider replacement for Swiderski, with Holder's very low average meaning he, Steve Johnston and the two reserves can have extra rides.

It's not ideal, but Witches team manager Pete Simmons remains optimistic.

“We are very much hoping Chris (Holder) can do a good job for us,” he said.

“Obviously not having Jarek and Piotr is hardly ideal, but there is nothing we can do about Polish qualifiers which the riders must ride in.

“We need to get Monday's meeting out of our system. I think everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Two tapes exclusions, falls; it wasn't what the doctor ordered at all.”

And Simmons has said there will be pairing changes to the Witches line-up in time for the Eastbourne clash at Foxhall next week.

“We will definitely be swapping some pairings about,” he said.

“We have built up too many good leads and seen them thrown away near the end of the meeting. It has got to stop.”

Meanwhile in an effort to get the most from his side, Robins boss Alun Rossiter his switched Travis McGowan and Mads Korneliussen in the riding order.

That will mean in in-form Korneliussen will ride at No.5.

Tonight's teams

Swindon: 1. Leigh Adams 2. James Wright 3. Troy Batchelor 4. Travis McGowan 5. Mads Korneliussen 6. Cory Gathercole, 7. Seb Alden.

Ipswich: 1. Robert Miskowiak 2. R/R, 3. Chris Louis 4. Steve Johnston 5. Chris Holder, 6. 7. Chris Schramm.

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