SHEFFIELD'S Speedway riders open their Premier Trophy group at Owlerton on Thursday against neighbours Scunthorpe (7.45pm).

And they're up against some familiar faces with no less than three of the Scorpions side on-loan from Owlerton!

It's the first of back-to-back meetings between the two sides with the return at Normanby Road on Friday at 5pm.

Scunthorpe are new to the Premier League after three successful seasons at Conference League level and the Tigers assets are Andrew Moore, Richard Hall and Benji Compton.

Tigers boss Eric Boocock said: "This is a tought test for us, just because Scunthorpe are new to the standard it doesn't mean they'll be easy to knock over.

"They have riders who know our track very well and I don't just mean the three Sheffield assets. I know Magnus Karlsson well from our time together at Hull and he knows how to ride the Owlerton track."

Ricky Ashworth has reverted back to the number one racejacket he occupied last season with skipper Andre Compton moving back to number three in the riding order.

OWLERTON LINE-UPS:
TIGERS: Ricky Ashworth, Joel Parsons, Andre Compton, Paul Cooper, Ben Wilson, Sam Martin, Lee Smethills.
SCUNTHORPE: Andrew Moore, Carl Wilkinson, Magnus Karlsson, Andreas Bergstrom, Richard Hall, Byron Bekker, Benji Compton.