POOLE Pirates have moved to sign Benjamin Basso, to fill the club's vacancy at number two.

Pirates made a change to their septet last month, letting Zane Keleher go and replacing him with Czech rider Ondrej Smetana.

However, following a change to travel rules, Smetana never turned a wheel for Poole, due to quarantine restrictions meaning he would have been unable to move back and forth from England to Czech Republic to compete.

So to fill the void, young Dane Basso has been snapped up and is set to make his debut later this week.

Basso will not be eligible for Wednesday's visit of Edinburgh Monarchs to Wimborne Road, meaning his first outing in the UK is set to be in the reverse fixture in Scotland on Friday night.

He will quickly have a chance to make himself known to Poole fans, with Pirates also scheduled to ride on both Saturday and Sunday, at Berwick and Newcastle respectively to round off a hectic week.

The 20-year-old followed in the footsteps of former Danish Pirates Leon Madsen, Nicolai Klindt and Frederik Jacobsen when he won the 2016 World Youth Speedway Championship.

Pirates owner Matt Ford told the club's website: "I spoke to Nicolai about Benjamin and he thought he would be an ideal fit, but he thought he had Polish commitments to fulfil which would have precluded him from joining us.

"I then had a conversation with Frederik who gave me the tip-off that Benjamin was so keen to come to the UK that he would give Poland a miss if there was a chance he could ride for us.

"But I have to say, it has not been an easy ride to get the signing completed as there has been a lot of additional hurdles in our way as a consequence of Brexit, including a spoken language test and a personal hearing before he was granted the necessary paperwork to allow him to get the clearance needed.

"Once again, we are hugely grateful to Nigel Leahy who helped steer us all through the process.

"As for Benjamin himself, he won't be eligible until Friday and that means something of a baptism of fire for the lad around the small Armadale circuit.

"We need to be sensible and not put any undue pressure on his young shoulders but I feel that working alongside the likes of Danny (King) and Rory (Schlein), we will be able to bring his career along and given that he currently holds a higher average for his Danish side Fjelsted than both Frederik and Peter Kildemand, we are already starting from a reasonable foundation."