Scorpions swoop for Danes

HENDERSON INSURANCE Scunthorpe Scorpions have swooped for two Danes, Michael Palm Toft and Andreas Lyager, and both will make their seasonal debuts for the Scorpions in the home match against local rivals Sheffield Tigers at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Sunday (6.30pm).

Palm Toft started his British career with Scunthorpe at 2011, and was a pivotal part of the Scorpions’ Premier League championship winning side of 2012. In the run-up to the title, he scored a paid 21 maximum at the Eddie Wright Raceway in a play-off match against Workington. It remains the only seven-ride-maximum in the history of the club. He left Scunthorpe towards the end of 2013, and went on to race for Plymouth, Belle Vue and Peterborough.

He was unfortunate to be released for Peterborough recently, to enable Panthers to fit new signing Craig Cook into their line-up.

18-year-old Lyager had a four-match spell at Scunthorpe at the end of 2015, and won his first-ever race at the Eddie Wright Raceway. He has been knocking up some fine scores on the continent this season.

The Scorpions had already announced that Ashley Morris’ short-term contract would be coming to an end to accommodate the new signings. In addition, the Scorpions have now also released the Czech Republic’s Zdenek Holub from their declared 1-to-7.

Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey says: “I’m delighted to welcome back Michael (Palm Toft) and Andreas (Lyager) to our club.

“Michael is a quality performer, I don’t need to tell our fans that, and it’s great to have him back.

“He was actually at the Eddie Wright Raceway recently, because he’d been having a few early season mechanical issues and he wanted to come to practice and sort them out. Michael knows our track inside out.

“Andreas impressed us here at the end of last season, and we always intended to bring him back – we’d committed to that.

“Ex-Scorpion Thomas Jorgensen, still a good friend of our club, has competed against Andreas this season and said he’s flying.”

Godfrey thinks Scorpions now have a very solid side once more.

“The key has been putting together the side so that Carl Wilkinson goes back to reserve”, states Godfrey.

“We’ve seen how well Wilko has been riding in recent weeks, and his drop down to reserve should give us a big hitter in the No 6 position. That’s crucial for the way this team has been built.

“It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to release Zdenek Holub, because we saw his potential from his couple of home meetings last season.

“There’s a strong chance he would have come good, and who knows what might have been had he not been injured at Peterborough earlier this year.

“I’d loved to have the luxury in giving him more time but, at the moment, our season is still very much alive and Wilko should give us a guaranteed big scorer at reserve, and that can be the difference between winning and losing meetings.”

ABOVE PHOTO: Andreas Lyager winning his debut ride for Scorpions last season.