WEYMOUTH Doonan Wildcats welcome the nomadic Wimbledon Dons to the Wessex Stadium tomorrow night (7.15pm) in what promises to be a tough test for the home side.
After picking up their first Conference League victory of the new season last week with a devastating 61-31 verdict over the Sittingbourne Crusaders, the Wild-cats must wait until June 14 for their next league action.
But with Trophy ties against the Plymouth Devils and the BSPA Conference League Pairs to come, tomorrow's Challenge meeting will provide Weymouth with an opportunity to maintain their good form going into those clashes.
Once a dominant force in the Conference League, the Dons, formally based at Plough Lane, have been homeless since 2005 when contract negotiations between the Wimbledon Speedway plc promotion and the stadium owners GRA failed to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
Since then, while the plc fruitlessly searches for an alternative venue, Nick Taylor who runs the Wimbledon Supporters' Club has worked tirelessly to keep the Dons' name alive by arranging challenge matches with current clubs using former Wimbledon members.
Tomorrow's visiting line-up is possibly one of the strongest yet with the bulk of the team being ex-Dons, not to mention former Wildcats Nathan Irwin, Terry Day and Tom Brown.
Wildcats' team manager Jem Dicken said: "Not only have they got a strong team, several of them know their way round the Wessex Stadium a bit too well.
"There will be no resting on our laurels after last week's crushing victory over the Crusaders, my boys will not want to be beaten on their home turf and looking down the race sheet there is going to be some cracking encounters.
"Young Jerran Hart showed us what he could do last week when taking the scalp of Jay Herne and Tim Webster in his tactical ride for Sittingbourne, and Andrew Bargh came off 15 metres when riding for the Somerset Giants and did exactly the same.
"Tom Brown, Nathan Irwin and Terry Day know this track as well as any and in-form Lee Strudwick was flying here in the GB Under-21s where he finished third.
"Matt Wright is also pretty handy round the Wessex track so our team are going to have to be on-song to have any chance of pulling this one off."
Provisional Line-ups Wildcats: 1 Jon Armstrong, 2 Brendan Johnson, 3 Luke Priest, 4 Karl Mason, 5 Jay Herne, 6 Tim Webster, 7 Kyle Newman.
Dons: 1 Andrew Bargh, 2 Jerran Hart, 3 Tom Brown, 4 Nathan Irwin, 5 Matt Wright, 6 Lee Strudwick, 7 Terry Day.
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