Workington Comets to make delayed first appearance on home shale this season

Workington Comets make their delayed first appearance on home shale this season on Saturday when they welcome Scunthorpe Scorpions to West Cumbria (3pm start).

The GT Tyres-sponsored Comets go into what is their second meeting of 2026 in a confident mood after a highly encouraging performance by a new-look squad in last Saturday’s BSN Series (Northern) opener at reigning competition champions Redcar Bears.

Under the watchful eye of stand-in manager Baz Collins, Comets took their hosts to a last heat decider and showed plenty of promise during a meeting which the Bears edged 48-42.

Local favourite and former British champion Craig Cook, who has rejoined Workington and is in his fourth spell with the club, showed his class with a 14-point haul at the ECCO Arena. This included four fabulous heat wins from his six rides.

Danish rider Jonas Jeppesen bagged 12 points on his Comets debut, while compatriot and fellow new signing, teenager Niklas Holm Jakobsen, gave a display which deserved more than the two points he scored.

Experienced skipper Troy Batchelor carded seven, with four points going the way of reserve Vinnie Foord.

However, hard-charging teenager Foord suffered misfortune as he crashed out in heat 12 and is now facing an approximate six to eight week spell on the sidelines with a fractured knee, which will be assessed and treated fully in the coming weeks.

“Not the start I wanted for my season!” he posted on social media earlier this week. “At the moment the extent of my injury is unknown and requires further assessment.”

For Saturday’s clash with the Scorpions the Comets management have drafted in highly rated teenager Cooper Rushen as a guest in Foord’s absence. Sixteen-year-old Rushen — who is riding for Kings Lynn in the Premiership this year, and Poole Pirates at Championship level — was crowned 2025 British Youth champion at Workington’s GT Tyres Arena last September.

Other than Rushen’s inclusion, the Comets are unchanged for the visit of Scunthorpe, who already have four competitive meetings under their belts.

They have faced Redcar twice in the BSN Series — winning 50-40 at home and losing 32-58 away. Against Poole in the MAXiCab Knockout Cup first round, they were soundly beaten 61-29 in Dorset before a 50-40 victory at their Eddie Wright Raceway home in what was their last outing, on April 10.

All-action Josh Pickering captains the Scorpions for their trip to the GT Tyres Arena. There are familiar faces in the visitors’ line-up with two former Comets, Luke Harrison and Simon Lambert, riding at three and six, respectively.

Danish rider Michael Palm Toft — who has represented a host of British clubs during the past 15 years including several guest appearancves for the Comets at Derwent Park — is Scunthorpe’s third heat leader, at number five.

Nathan Ablitt is at two, Connor Mountain fills the number four slot and their other reserve is Ryan Ingram.

Temporary team boss Baz Collins once again steps in for the Scorpions clash, and he said: “It’s great to finally kick off our season at home as the weather hasn’t been very kind to us lately so we’re itching to go.

“Running Redcar close last week away from home was a positive start. We could’ve won as we were in some great positions but we didn’t quite capitalise on them. In the end we started to see what some of the lads were about, especially our exciting young Dane Niklas [Holm Jakobsen].

“Scunthorpe have had a few meetings now and it was a great result for them to beat Poole last week at home, so they will have some renewed confidence coming into Saturday.

“They have a strong reserve in Simon [Lambert] and excellent number one in Josh [Pickering], so we will need to hit the ground running and we will take nothing for granted, but I feel we will have the fire power in the middle-order to get a result.”

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