PIRATES co-promoter Matt Ford has admitted he feared Gary Havelock might have been a spent force who had no future with the club.

Ford took time out while attending the British Speedway Promoters' Association's annual conference in Edinburgh today to air publicly for the first time his concerns about the former World champion.

But the Poole co-owner was also quick to stress that he was pleased the experienced 32-year-old British rider had proved him wrong.

Ford, who confirmed that Havelock was in Pirates' 2002 line-up earlier this week, said: "Gary showed truer form last season than he did in 2000.

"I think if Havvy had continued in the vein of form he had been in in 2000 it would possibly have been his last year at Poole.

"However, he came back admirably and became a force to be reckoned with again. In particular, I was very pleased with his form away from home.

"We visited many clubs last season and Gary claimed the scalps of the heat leaders which he hadn't been doing in 2000."

Ford added: "Gary was extremely keen to come back and is very popular with the fans. That made it much easier to seal a deal with his agent for 2002.

"In fact, the whole package was put together in five minutes.

"Gary is also very popular with his team-mates and is the one rider no one else has a problem with in the team.

"Year after year he has been very popular and his time is still right with Poole. He is by no means a spent force and I genuinely think we can see Gary improve in 2002.

"In an Elite League which hopefully will see one new team - Sittingbourne - join us next year to increase the number of clubs up to 10, our reasoning for signing Gary so quickly was that he will be worth his weight in gold.

"With only one Grand Prix rider per team set to go through, Gary is a much sought after commodity.

"In one week I had three other clubs, King's Lynn, Peterborough and Wolves, showing interest in him, but his name was always in my thoughts.

"I didn't want there to be any form of unrest and to delay a decision on his future, so that's why we snapped him up so early.

"Gary was bought for next to nothing in 1999 after spending a few months on loan with us the previous year.

"Now we can look forward to seeing Gary as team captain and in our number one position next season.

"Hopefully, he is the man to lead this club to silverware because we really want to become league champions."

Pirates, who have also completed the signings of Tony Rickardsson and Bjarne Pedersen for next year, will probably confirm Hans Andersen as their fourth rider.

However, they will not be bringing talented Tomasz Chrzanowski to Wimborne Road despite his spectacular performance in the Mark Loram World Select meeting last month.

The 21-year-old Pole, who scored 12 points from five rides against Poole, was believed to have opened talks with Pirates.

But the rider is now out of the equation because of his own personal circumstances.

l Speedway could return to the Weymouth area next season for the first time since 1984.

Plans are being drawn up for a new track called Weyport Warriors to ride at Kings Barrow Quarry on Portland.

Prospective promoters Delwyn Rowe and Brian White hope to get the go ahead to stage the sport.

They have already forwarded a letter of intent to the British Speedway Promoters' Association.