Workington Comets manager James Denham admits the ongoing absence of Craig Cook has been detrimental to recent results.
Cook has been sidelined with a shoulder injury, in addition to the Comets having issues at reserve, and they suffered two defeats in the Cab Direct Championship over the weekend including at home to Plymouth.
Denham said: “It’s not ideal trying to find guests week in week out, we need to sit down after this, and figure out where we go now.
“Craig is a massive miss, it’s not just what he does on track, it’s what he brings off track.
“But Craig is making positive progress this week and hopefully he’ll get a practice in before the weekend, because we do need him back.
“I’m quite confident that if we get Craig back going to Glasgow and at home to Oxford that we will have a strong top five to get a result.”
Meanwhile the British Speedway Promoters’ Ltd have announced weekend dates for the Championship’s two major events this season.
The Championship Pairs will take place at Poole on Saturday August 8 (6pm), whilst the Championship League Riders’ Championship returns to its traditional home of Sheffield on Saturday September 12 (5pm).
As usual, the Pairs will feature all nine clubs from the Championship, with Redcar having established themselves as kings of the event in recent years.
The Bears have reached the final in each of the last four seasons, taking the trophy in three of them, with Charles Wright and Erik Riss victorious over Poole duo Lewis Kerr and Zach Cook at Workington in 2025.
The CLRC will be staged at Owlerton. The South Yorkshire venue became the established home of the meeting in the early 2000s right up until the Tigers joined the Premiership following the Covid break.
The last CLRC to be staged at Sheffield was in 2019 when Riss took the honours, representing Redcar, whilst last season’s event took place at Scunthorpe and was won for the first time in his career by Glasgow skipper Chris Harris.
- CHAMPIONSHIP PAIRS: Poole, Saturday August 8, 6pm
- CHAMPIONSHIP LEAGUE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP: Sheffield, Saturday September 12, 5pm
