Shock news NOT Poole Speedway has yet again won the race for one of Britains' hottest racing talents, having secured the signature of Cooper Rushen for the 2026 season. The teenager who is making great waves in the sport is known as much for the stylish tassels on his racing suit as he is for the immense talent that he has on a bike.  Cooper turns 16 on March 29th 2026 and will step in at reserve to join Will Cairns who made the leap up to Championship racing last season with Poole. Confirming Cooper as a starter, Dan Ford, promoter, said "We were intent on bringing Copper to Poole, like most of the speedway world, we've been monitoring his progress over the past few years. He's a stylish, charismatic young British rider and I'm delighted he'll be a Pirate for 2026. There is no doubt he has an incredible future ahead of him and we are delighted to have, arguably, the best two teenage British riders turning out for us this coming season. The Poole side is now complete for 2026 and falls within 0.28 of the 40-point limit Richard Lawson (9.58); Zach Cook - capt (7.34); Lewi Kerr (6.77); Fraser Bowes (5.63); Dan Gilkes (4.59); Will Cairns (3.81); Cooper Rushen (2.00). Latest news

I think the fact they didn't speaks volumes....

And it is that ignoring "the inevitably" rather than embracing it and planning for it, that is the most frustrating thing for many fans...  As soon as 20 teams got hit then I would suggest "one league" should have been the plan.. One season in the planning of it, and then a complete reset and relaunch of the sport... With the aim of every team being competitive for the restart of the sport... Maybe they will do it in 2026 for 2027?...

I’d love to see your workings for this. There will be 63 Championship riders this season, plus from last season, Kemp, Borke, Gusts, Heeps, Knudsen, Nagel, Boughen, Starke, Klindt, Polis, Bowtell, S Worrall, Z Kennedy, D Kennedy, Voulas, Hook on the sidelines. I’ll remove the unlikeliest ones and you’ve still got around 74 Championship level riders. We’d require 98 for 14 x 7 man teams. 24 riders to find, a few Premiership will drop down to the one big league, riders like Iversen who aren’t good enough in Poland anymore. Say that leaves 20 spots, 10 to be foreigners coming in on assessed averages, and 10 NL riders moving up seems fair, but you could easily get 20 Aussies/Americans/Danes to come who aren’t involved in the top leagues, this is presuming we stick with 7 man teams, we may go 6 and then suddenly you’ve only got 10 spots to fill (14x6=84 - 74 riders =10). So no, why on earth would Jack Smith on a sub 3 be a second string, stop over dramatising, Championship riders aren’t going to leave the Britain. 

It’s been inevitable the last few years what was coming for UK Speedway but certain Premiership Promoters want to hold on to the TV Money as opposed to reconstruction.There was no way Worlds top riders would want to ride for money on offer in Uk. League reconstruction should have been done years ago .

Shame Oxford didn’t choose to run in the PL and NDL ……..