Sussex star Alan Mogridge will try to beat the odds when he goes to the tapes with the big guns next week.

Mogridge has been drafted into the line-up for the British final at Coventry on Saturday as the replacement for injured Eastbourne ace Joe Screen.

Among his rivals will be a trio of world-class per-formers, reigning British champion Chris Louis, world title-holder Mark Loram and British Grand Prix winner Martin Dugard.

It is a tall order for Mogridge, who is currently enjoying a renaissance with second division Swindon some four years after he turned his back on the sport.

One thing is certain, though, and that is you should never write off the rider who, to coin a phrase, has had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus.

At the last count, it was 14, but Eastbourne boss Jon Cook knew what he was doing when he signed him. "Riders like Moggo are like gold dust," he was quoted as saying at the time.

Mogridge helped Eagles to victory in the cup and second place in the league.

He and Dugard formed one of the most potent pairings at Arlington, but Mogridge quit the track at the end of the 1997 season while on the crest of a wave.

One of the club's most popular riders, he became a regular spectator at East-bourne matches, and when-ever Eagles were in trouble there were rumours of Mog-ridge launching a comeback.

In the event, that did not happen, although to this day you have to say that only Petri Kokko and now Brent Werner have filled a similar role with any degree of success.

When Mogridge was even-tually lured back into racing, he rode for Berwick before switching to Swindon at the start of this season. Typically, he has been tearing up more than a few trees.

Mogridge earned the right to take Screen's place by beating world long-track champion and one of Eng-land's most capped riders, Kelvin Tatum, in a run-off at the semi-final at Newport.

Since then, he has been on a hot streak, scoring maxi-mums in the last two home matches at Swindon and winning a last-heat decider at Arena Essex.

Whatever happens on Saturday, riding in the British final will mark a new mile-stone for Mogridge, who at 37 has spent most of his career spanning 21 years in the lower echelons of the sport.

Individual highlights in-clude British championship quarter-final triumphs at Mildenhall in 1987 and Ips-wich three years later, but riding in the final will be breaking new ground.

Points at Coventry, where the other leading contenders will include Scott Nicholls and Carl Stonehewer, to say nothing of Eagles present and past David Norris and Dean Barker, Gary Havelock and Paul Hurry, will be at a premium for riders like Mogridge.

If past history has anything to do with it, however, Mogridge will be in there scrapping, and every race will be a new adventure.

How could it be any diff-erent for a rider whose philo-sophy is summed up like this: "You're only as good as your next race.

"If I finish last, I just go out to try to win the next one. If I win one, that means nothing in the next race. I've got to do it all again then."