2:00pm Wednesday 8th September 2010
By Brian Owen
Eastbourne are facing major Knockout Cup problems thanks to a rainy weekend in Poland.
Controversial No. 1 Matej Zagar has ruled himself out of their quarter-final trip to Lakeside on Friday, September 24, due to the re-staging of the European Individual Championship.
The event, in which Zagar has high hopes of a gold medal, was washed out at Tarnow last Saturday and put back to 2pm on Saturday, September 25.
Zagar could not get to the restaged meeting in time if he raced in Essex the previous evening.
Eagles are not allowed to use a guest or rider-replacement for Zagar but have the option of moving the away leg forward a week.
That would give them the advantage of having the second leg at home on Thursday, September 23.
However, if they raced at Lakeside on September 17, they might have to go without track specialist and Hammers asset Joonas Kylmakorpi.
The Finn has been competing in the longtrack World Champion-ship this year and has a chance of taking the title going into the last round.
But that last round is in the Czech Republic on Saturday, September 18, meaning he might miss the Lakeside trip if it is brought forward.
The other option is for one of the riders to give up on his own title hopes and put Eastbourne’s cup bid first. But that seems unlikely to happen.
Eagles boss Trevor Geer is sympathetic to the title ambitions of his riders but admitted: “We’ve got problems.
“I’ve asked Joonas to see if he can get an early flight to Prague on the Saturday morning and whether he can get from there to the venue in time.
“I don’t want to go to Lakeside without Matej or Joonas and we are not allowed a replacement for either.”
Eagles are at full strength as they go to Peterborough tomorrow for their final away meeting of the league campaign.
Lukas Dryml has been given the all-clear following the suspected neck injury which ruled him out of last Thursday’s defeat of Ipswich.
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