PIRATES have suffered an injury blow before tonight's clash at King's Lynn where they will be without Bjarne Pedersen who was hurt in a crash while racing in Poland on Thursday night.

The Dane, who sustained back injuries, hopes to be back for Poole's home clash with Coventry on Wednesday night but faces a late fitness test. Pirates will now use rider relacement at number four tonight.

Pirates chiefs Matt Ford and Mike Golding will be hoping they have pulled off a masterstroke by bringing Isle of Wight rider Adam Shields in as a guest for tonight's Elite League clash.

Poole Meridian Lifts' Polish rider Tomasz Chrzanowski is ruled out because he is attending a court case in his homeland this week.

So the British Speedway Promoters' Association have given Pirates use of the guest facility after Chrzanowski was deemed not to be in "the right frame of mind mentally from a riders' safety point of view" to race tonight.

Shields, a fast-emerging Australian talent and a Poole asset, currently tops Premier League Isle of Wight's averages with a figure of 9.08.

And on a guest appearance for Elite League Coventry at King's Lynn last week he notched up nine points from five rides in the heat leader number three berth.

Poole, aiming to gain revenge for their 49-41 defeat at the Norfolk Arena in May, will be hoping Shields can deliver the same goods from the number six position tonight.

Shields, who won two races, helped Coventry to a massive 58-32 victory over King's Lynn, but the Knights are bound to be a different proposition tonight.

They only lost 46-44 at home to league leaders Eastbourne in midweek and that defeat only came after Eagle Joe Screen forced his way past Nicki Pedersen on the final bend of the last race.

Screen's dramatic late move to secure third place earned Eastbourne a match-winning 4-2 in front of Sky Sports' cameras, so King's Lynn will be determined to get straight back to winning ways against Pirates.

Shields follows in the tyre treads of Dave Watt, who guested so well for Poole in their 50-40 home romp over Oxford on Wednesday.

Watt, a Pirates asset who lives in Poole but rides for lower division Newcastle, looked impressive as he chalked up four paid seven against the Cheetahs from a reserve berth.

The Australian beat Lukas Dryml and Mark Lemon and did enough to suggest he could be in Pirates' plans for their 2003 team already.

Mariusz Staszewski will drop to number seven again because the new green sheet averages for June come into effect.

The meeting is a B fixture as Pirates have not yet entertained King's Lynn at home in the league this year.

Knights' A fixture visit to Wimborne Road is on Wednesday, July 31 and the B visit has just been confirmed as Bank Holiday Monday, August 26 with a 4pm start.

In another fixture update, Poole visit Eastbourne in an A fixture on Sunday, June 9 at 6pm instead of on the original date of the meeting, which was August 11.

Tonight's line-ups, Pirates: 1 Gary Havelock, 2 Grzegorz Walasek, 3 Hans Andersen, 4 rider replacement, 5 Tony Rickardsson, 6 Adam Shields (guest), 7 Mariusz Staszewski.

King's Lynn: 1 Nicki Pedersen, 2 Tom Madsen, 3 Travis McGowan, 4 Freddie Eriksson, 5 Sebastian Ulamek, 6 Artur Pietrzyk, 7 Emil Kramer.

Coventry will be without Billy Janniro and Tomas Topinka for their visit to Wimborne Road on Wednesday.

The Bees will use rider replacement at number two for Janniro, who is in America competing in United States Championship rounds.

Shields will guest in place of number six Topinka, who is competing in a Czech Republic Championship semi-final.