By Ky Capel - Dorset Echo

Weymouth Doonan Wildcats go into their first meeting of the new season tonight without the injured Kyle Newman. The 16-year-old, who put on an impressive display in last Saturday's Great Britain Under-21 meeting, broke his collarbone on Tuesday night riding for the Isle of Wight and will now miss both encounters with the Plymouth Devils in the Devon & Dorset Cup. The Devils' St Boniface Arena plays host to the first leg tonight (7.15pm) before the return meeting at the Wessex Stadium tomorrow evening (7.15pm) and Wildcats' chairman Phil Bartlett said is awaiting a close contest.

He said: "It's going to be a good set of meetings, everyone will be a little rusty from the winter but I'm looking forward to it. It's not a league meeting but it's important because of the psychological advantage on offer. We will go there under no illusions but keen to win. We need to keep things tight at their place and try to beat them at home on Saturday to take the aggregate score. It's a big shame that Kyle will be missing because he was flying last weekend. He has gone to Ipswich for laser treatment so hopefully he will only be out for two weeks as opposed to four."

Captain Karl Mason and Jay Herne are the only two surviving Wildcats of last year's campaign on the bill for this weekend with new recruits Brendan Johnson, Luke Priest, Tim Webster, Alex McLeod and Matt Bates all set for debut outings. Tonight will see Bartlett return to the club he was once part of - a factor he hopes can work in Weymouth's favour. He added: "I did manage Plymouth back in 2006 so I know what they're about which gives us a bit of an advantage because I know the track and the set up.

"They are our rival club and I'm sure they'll want to beat me as much as I want to beat them, however, the rivalry is a healthy one. The meetings will be hotly contested not only because of how close the clubs are location-wise, but also because the teams are equally balanced."

Webster and Bates are both ex-Devils while a familiar face in the Plymouth ranks will be that of former Wildcats skipper David Mason who left the Radipole Lane outfit in the close season.

St Boniface Arena line-up:
1 Jon Armstrong, 2 Brendan Johnson, 3 Luke Priest, 4 Karl Mason, 5 Jay Herne, 6 Tim Webster, 7 Alex McLeod.

Wessex Stadium line-up:
1 Jon Armstrong, 2 Brendan Johnson, 3 Luke Priest, 4 Karl Mason, 5 Jay Herne, 6 Tim Webster, 7 Matt Bates.

Due to Weymouth Football Club's late kick-off against Altrincham on Saturday, April 26, the Wildcats' challenge meeting with the Newport Mavericks, at the Wessex Stadium, has been brought forward to Friday, April 25.