WEYMOUTH Wildcats are set to ride at Wimborne Road, home of the SGB Premiership champions Poole Pirates, to complete a return to Dorset.

The move was confirmed following discussions between Weymouth Wildcats’ co-promoters James Tresadern and Martin Peters, Pirates’ owner Matt Ford and son and co-promoter Danny Ford.

The move is a fine finish to a frustrating couple of years for the Wildcats, who have struggled in getting a place in Dorset to ride and have had to ride elsewhere, with spells in Devon at Plymouth, and in East Sussex at Eastbourne last year.

In a manic week and a half, Weymouth Wildcats have filled their roster once more, following the departure of three riders, before their return to Dorset was announced last night.

The two clubs have a close history, no more so than in 1985.

Poole were forced into liquidation that year, so Mervyn Stewkesbury and Peter Ansell moved the Weymouth Wildcats, whose Radipole Lane home had been sold for redevelopment, to Wimborne Road.

A name change two years later from the Poole Wildcats back to the Poole Pirates followed, and the rest is history, albeit Poole’s.

The Wildcats were resurrected 17 years after the move to Wimborne Road, but they lasted just seven years before their track was re-possessed for failure to pay rent.

Tresadern and Peters have been helping the return of the Wildcats since 2015, with the team riding in the Southern Development League last year, finishing with the wooden spoon.

With the merging of two development leagues the Wildcats this year will compete in the Midland & Southern Development League.

Full reaction to follow tomorrow.