PIRATES chief Matt Ford has hinted that Friday night racing could be on the cards at Wimborne Road following this evening’s postponed fixture against Eastbourne.

A waterlogged track saw the Elite League meeting rained off before it had even started and Poole must now wait until Sunday for their next action – the three-way showdown with Piraterna and Esbjerg in Poland.

Ford is keen to avoid a clash of fixtures with the Swedish top-flight play-offs - in which Darcy Ward is involved - when the Eastbourne tie is rescheduled and revealed that a Friday night head-to-head was an option.

He told the Daily Echo: “The Swedish play-offs are happening on Tuesdays and Wednesdays now and that’s why I always wanted to get the meetings done before this point.

“It’s not quite as simple as it sounds to rearrange it but hopefully we can. It may be that we have to ride on a different night to Wednesday, which is the only problem.

“That could potentially be a Friday but I will keep everybody informed.”

Despite dry weather for most of today, a downpour around an hour before tapes-up put paid to hopes of the meeting going ahead.

This was a disappointment to Ford, who had hoped to see his side continue their superb unbeaten run stretching back to mid-July.

He continued: “We were checking the forecast all day and we could see it coming. It was just such a shame because the rain came at absolutely the wrong time.

“It is the biggest bugbear for the whole sport and the one thing that holds it back.

“We’re seven unbeaten having won six and drawn one and it is a shame, but that’s life, you can’t beat the weather.”

Manchester-based Pirates star Josh Grajczonek also voiced his disappointment at the rain-off.

He said: “I drove four and a half hours to get here but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

“I looked at the forecast last night and it didn’t look very good but sometimes it can change.

“It’s unfortunate but you just have to take the good with the bad.”