DARRYL Ritchings will lead the Swindon Sprockets in their National League Challenge match with Coventry Storm at the Abbey onThursday.

Purton's Ritchings, in the town, has been named skipper by club co-promoter Colin Pratt for the meeting which the club are using to test the response ahead of the 2017 season when they may enter a second team in the third tier of the sport.

Another Swindon-born rider Lee Smart, currently riding for the Isle of Wight, is also in the side.

Pratt said: “I’m sure it’s a nice gesture to hand Darryl the captaincy, it wasn’t so long ago he was a young lad practicing at the Abbey after meetings and this is good for him.

“I know the Ritchings family are very supportive of him in his career and it will be nice for them all to see him in action at his local club on Thursday.”

Swindon will have a powerful spearhead in Danny Ayres, the Kent and Glasgow rider who starred in a Sky Sports meeting in Scotland this summer.

Coventry include title-chasing Birmingham star Tom Bacon as a guest which means he will be up against his Brummies colleague Ritchings.

Admission is £10 for adults and concessions, £5 children over 11, while under 11s go free and a souvenir racecard will be handed out on entry to the stadium. Season tickets are not valid.

SWINDON SPROCKETS: Danny Ayres, Danno Verge, Lee Smart, Ben Hopwood, Darryl Ritchings, Luke Clifton, Nathan Stoneman.

COVENTRY STORM: Mitchell Davey, Conor Dwyer, Ryan Terry-Daley, Tom Bacon, Liam Carr, Callum Walker, Henry Atkins.