THE Basingstoke Bison will have four pre-season challenge games ahead of the start of their English Premier League campaign, which begins on the weekend of September 12 and 13.

The Herd will face the Milton Keynes Lightning and Guildford Flames, with a home game against the Lighting on Wednesday September 2 (7.30pm) their opening game and the return in Buckinghamshire exactly a week later.

In between these games with the Lightning, the Bison will face their traditional pre-season weekend double-header against local rivals Guildford.

The first game will be at the Basingstoke Arena on Saturday September 5 (6.30pm) with the away game at the Spectrum the following night.

Milton Keynes finished seventh in the table last season, but with Pete Russell their new man in charge, they have also made a number of changes to their line-up.

There are three new imports, with forwards Rene Jarolin and Markku Tahtinen joining from the Elite League, while Marko Luomala has arrived from Italy.

Other new faces on the British side of their roster are Bobby Chamberlain, James Griffin, David Clements, Josh Cook, Jack Watkins and Jordan Marr.

They certainly have a lot more depth to their line-up and the former EPL champions could be back in contention for top spot.

The Herd’s other opponents are last season’s runners-up Guildford.

They have also had a big change of personnel during the summer, with David Longstaff, David Savage, Branislav Kvetan and Neill Liddiard all departing the Spectrum.

They have signed top British defenceman Kevin Phillips from Belfast and former Bison shot stopper Stephen Wall from the Lightning.

The Flames, like Milton Keynes, have also signed three new imports in Eric Piatak, Matic Kralj and Jens Eriksson.

As ever, they will be right in the thick of the title shake-up.

Looking ahead to the season’s opening four games, Bison head coach Doug Sheppard said: “A lot of people are tipping Telford and Milton Keynes to be the front runners and MK certainly will not be a seventh place team this time around, so they will give us a good test.

“You know Guildford will also be up there with the best and so we have four games which will really test us and give us a good bench mark as to where we are.”

Sheppard added: “I will also be using the four games to look at the younger players on the team. Having the extra games will make us even sharper for the start of the season.”