INJURED Mark Baseby is targeting a June 7 return for Buccaneers at Buxton but insisted he won’t risk further problems by coming back too early.

The 21-year-old Bournemouth star admitted he made that mistake last year, when he returned from an ankle injury too soon and ended up sustaining a back injury which kept him out for three more months.

Baseby, who sustained ligament damage in his left knee when he fell at Rye House on Sunday, said: “There’s no point pushing it, I’ve got to make sure I’m 100 per cent fit before getting back on the bike.

“I’m hoping I’ll be back for Buxton, but I’ll have to make sure everything is right.

“I fell on the last lap of my final race at Rye but got up and remounted to finish. I only did one corner after that but felt my knee was hurting then.”

Baseby added: “I didn’t realise it was that bad at the time because of the adrenaline, but for the next few days I was in a lot of pain.

“I’m gutted to miss the Weymouth match because I’ve been going really well at Poole.

“But I’m confident the lads can beat Wildcats without me because everyone in the team is hitting form.”

Matt Ford is surprised Wildcats chairman Phil Bartlett is incensed at “unsubstantiated” remarks he attributes to Buccaneers riders that his side will be “trashed” at Wimborne Road.

Ford, who promotes Bournemouth and Poole, said: “You can bet your bottom dollar Phil will have his boys up for this Dorset derby.

“But I can guarantee our riders will be made aware they’re going out representing the Buccaneers and what that means to our supporters and everyone connected with the Poole-Bournemouth club.”

Bartlett told the Dorset Echo: “There has been some banter from Bournemouth’s end saying they’re a proper club and they’re going to trash us, but we just have to take no notice of that rubbish.”

Bournemouth: 1 Danny Warwick, 2 Andrew Aldridge, 3 Jay Herne, 4 Rider replacement for Mark Baseby, 5 Kyle Newman, 6 Jerran Hart, 7 Aaron Baseby.

Weymouth: 1 Mark Burrows, 2 Terry Day, 3 Matt Wright, 4 Lee Smart, 5 James Cockle, 6 Tim Webster, 7 James White Williams.