Krzysztof Cegielski will have plenty to prove at Arlington Stadium tomorrow night when he rides into town with Poland, one of the World Cup favourites.

The former university student from Gdansk has only ever ridden the Sussex circuit twice, scoring 26 points, winning seven races and shooting down Eastbourne Eagles on both occasions.

His 16-point debut included wins over Eastbourne big guns Martin Dugard and Joe Screen as Poole Pirates sunk the home side 46-44 in the Elite League.

Then later in the season he again hit double figures as the Sussex club's Craven Shield hopes bit the dust in alarming fashion with a 54-36 defeat.

Altogether Cegielski scored more than 300 points in his first season in British speedway, was voted Poole's rider of the year and won a place in this year's world championship Grand Prix series.

No wonder then that the Pole shot to the top of Eastbourne's winter shopping list when Poole had to choose between Cegielski and world No. 1 Tony Rickardsson in order to comply with regulations on team strength.

Eagles duly swooped, and Cegielski was unveiled as the man to spearhead the club's bid for glory in 2002.

The publicity machine went into overdrive, and the fans were told to watch out for Eastbourne's rivals to be Pole-axed by the latest Arlington sensation.

Little did anyone know he would go down in speedway folklore as probably the only rider to have been axed before appearing in a race.

Somewhere between the announcement of Cegielski's arrival at Arlington Stadium and the start of the season, the deal stalled, and the Pole was replaced by Mark Loram.

Cegielski spent three days in England when relations between the rider and the club apparently reached an impasse. How or why has never been fully explained.

Eastbourne boss Jon Cook said at the time: "If I'm honest, I was never totally happy with the decision to sign Krzysztof. Something didn't seem quite right about the whole situation. And that was it."

All of which subsequently left Cegielski on the outside looking in on British speedway.

Now he is back to cross swords, maybe with the Eastbourne management off the track, but certainly with the best the Americans, Russians and Slovenians can throw at him on it.

Cegielski is one cog in a crack Poland team who could well give world champions Australia, who won the title in Poland last year, and Sweden a run for their money come Saturdays final at Peterborough.

Tomorrow's meeting also sees the return of Tomasz Gollob, arguably the best rider of the modern era not to have won the world title.

Gollob's last appearance at Arlington, where he has always been a prolific scorer, was two-and-a-half years ago when he scored a paid 16 points for Ipswich against Eastbourne.

The main opposition to the Poles, who also have Sebastian Ulamek, Grzegorz Walasek and Piotr Protasiewicz in their line-up, will come from the USA.

The Yanks include former world champions Billy Hamill and Greg Hancock, Brighton Bonanza winner Ryan Fisher, ex-Eagle and small-track specialist Brent Werner and Billy Janniro.

Former Eagle Roman Povazhny rides for Russia, so does Sergei Darkin, who failed to complete four laps in three attempts on his only previous Arlington escapade.

Slovenia's main man is Matej Ferjan, while there will be plenty of interest in how new King's Lynn signing Jernej Kolenko performs.

Only the winners will be guaranteed a place in the final. The runners-up will go to Peterborough on Thursday for the repechage. The next team might get to the last-chance saloon as well but only if they are among the highest scoring third-placed sides in the tournament. The start at Arlington is at 7.30.

Saturday's match between Eastbourne and Coventry was called off because the Arlington track was waterlogged.