Double-header for Rye on Saturday.

Racing will start precisely at 7pm at Hoddesdon this Saturday when the Rockets take on the Newport Wasps followed by a Conference League clash between the Raiders and the Newport Mavericks.

Usually on a Saturday night, 7pm signifies the start of parade, but in order to ensure that the racing is as Len Silver said: "We will start things off dead on 7pm with the tapes going up on the first race and then we will push the heats through as quickly as possible."

"We will then have a very brief interval to tidy up the track before getting on with the second match. There will be a slight price increase for the double header with adult admissions being ?12, Seniors ?8 and Children ?3, but we will be serving up 31 heats of speedway - 2 matches plus the Bronze Helmet - so it still represents great value."

Rye's fluid fixture list noted some more changes away from home this week. The match against the Peterborough Panthers in the British League Cup has been put off for a second time and will not take place this Friday. Instead it has been rescheduled to Wednesday August 6th which means that the Rockets will complete the group stage of the BLC with three away matches on successive days.

They go to the East of England Showground to take on the Panthers on the Wednesday, then to Foxhall Heath to race Ipswich on Thursday August 7th followed by another trip to Arena Essex on the Friday. That will leave just one more home meeting against the Hammers to complete their group matches. The Hertfordshire team is actually top of the Southern Group table at present although only Ipswich has ridden more matches.

The Raiders go into Saturday's double header at Hoddesdon knowing that they must win to close the gap at the top of the Conference League table which rivals Mildenhall have extended. Having already beaten the Mavericks in south Wales this season, there are three points on offer with the Raiders looking to claim their third bonus point of the season as well as the two league points.

However the team will be without influential heat leader Barrie Evans who is riding for his Premier League club Hull in a British League Cup clash at Coventry on the same night. To cover his absence, the Raiders will use rider replacement and draft young James Theobald into the lineup.

Theobald has been a long servant of the second halves at Hoddesdon and has begun to emerge this season with outings for the Raiders, the Fen Tigers and ironically the Mavericks. And a fortnight ago he was in scintillating form to win the Vic Harding Memorial Trophy at Sittingbourne with five straight wins in the qualifiers plus a victory in the final.