POOLE Pirates promoter Danny Ford has been left “happy” with the final version of the club’s 2024 fixture list, admitting: “I’ve done a lot of work on it.”

SGB Championship clubs have now discovered the order of their meetings, Pirates starting at Wimborne Road against Oxford Cheetahs on Friday, March 29.

Poole then have home meetings against Plymouth Gladiators and Edinburgh Monarchs in April, before the first league meeting at Wimborne Road, against Workington Comets, on Wednesday, May 15.

“People can start getting plans in their diaries and seeing what the schedule looks like,” Ford told the Daily Echo.

“The past couple of seasons there hasn’t initially been a huge amount of fixtures, but a lot depends on the progression.

“Thankfully in the past few years we’ve done quite well in competitions. So hopefully, while there are a few gaps, we can see those gaps filled with the latter rounds of the BSN Series and KO Cup.”

When the list was released, Ford said he felt the schedule was more “balanced” this time around.

Expanding on that point, he said: “Well, we definitely don’t have Plymouth three times in the first four home meetings! So that was good.

“To be fair, I’ve done a lot of work on it and I’m happy with the fixture list.

“I think it gives us a good start, then a bit of a gap in June, but that’s where we would slot in any rearranged fixtures or latter rounds of the cup, so June would fill up quite nicely.

“And then it gives us a good run going into the summer.

“Obviously we want to fill a couple more dates in August. But it is very difficult, when you’re working with 11 fixtures and trying to put that into nearly six months, it is always going to look relatively sparse, until you qualify for the latter rounds of things.

“I think we’ve definitely done the best we could and it’s always nice to not be having Plymouth three times at home in the first four meetings. It’s a good mix.”