POOLE Pirates are ready to give up on their quest to get Ondrej Smetana on track, with promoter Danny Ford admitting they have reached a "dead end".

Smetana was signed up to replace Zane Keleher as number two earlier this month, after the Aussie was dropped by Pirates following an underwhelming start to the season.

However, the Czech rider has never made it to the track in Poole colours, with quarantine issues preventing him from travelling back and forth from England to his home nation, where he also has speedway commitments.

That has meant riding guests for the past two meetings with Kyle Bickley and Alfie Bowtell filling in, scoring just 2+1 between them from seven rides.

Youngster Jack Thomas is set to take the number two spot as a guest for Pirates tomorrow when they head to Kent in the Championship, the first of three meetings this week.

Poole are also faced with four meetings next week, but Ford is expecting no quick fix to filling the void in the septet. However, he does insist the club are working on a solution.

Asked if there had been any progress in finding a way to track Smetana, Ford told the Daily Echo: "We’re very much looking elsewhere now. It seems because of the travel restrictions, it is kind of a dead end that we just keep finding with Ondrej.

"There seems to be no loopholes around what we can do in terms of him and having to quarantine when he goes back each time and he’s got his Czech commitments.

"We are working on something. It’s not going to be an instant thing, but hopefully everyone just bears with us for the next week or two.

"But in that time, we’ll hopefully be able to give some news."

Neil Middleditch will take charge of the team at Kent, after Gary Havelock stepped in for Saturday's Leicester meeting.

Pirates: Rory Schlein, Jack Thomas (guest), Steve Worrall, Stefan Nielsen, Danny King (c), James Wright (guest), Danyon Hume.