BigDave1

Bolly, I certainly hope the Rye promotion do not go on your thinking that Mellgren should replace Bunyan instead of Hawkins or Bowen as Buyan will clearly up his average whereas Hawkins & Bowen will struggle to do so. As i metioned before on another post Bunyan will score points both home & away, whilst Bowen & Hawkins will find it tough going away from Rye.

I notice on the Rye House website that admission is £12. I was led to believe all Raiders fixtures were £10, obviously the £2 extra is to pay for Garrity & Hawkins although It states that they are riding in this fixture as they both wish to test their equipment. So really its just a glorified training session for them both that we are asked to pay extra for.

I agree with your statement that Rye have a strong middle order but only at Hoddesdon. If you take Bowens current average it is (4.97). It shows how poor a rider he is away from Rye as he usually scores 8-10 points at home which means he nets only 1-2 points away, whereas Hawkins whose average is (5.16) is the opposite with a poor return at home but slightly higher scores away. When and if Nelson does get his visa and comes back into the team my choice would be to drop either of them and keep Mellgren who could do a job both home and away.

In my opinion Shane Hazelden was very fortunate with his paid maximum tonight with 2 decisions going in his favour. Marc Owen was wrongly excluded in heat one and was clearly nowhere near Shane when he cleanly took him on the 1st bend with a forceful ride. Shane then fell once again unaided whilst leading into the first bend of heat eight resulting in a rerun with all four riders. If i was him i'd buy a ticket for tomorrows lottery as clearly luck is on his side.

I hope that many Rye House supporters will get behind the Raiders this season as they are the stars of the future. Although these young lads are learning & may not be as fast as their Elite & Premier League counterparts they are just as competitive and need as much support from everyone. They try hard to entertain for little reward, bearing in mind that their equipment cost's a lot of money to maintain and many do it for the love of the sport and the thrill to compete with the backing from their parents and friends. On the whole the Rye promotion have helped by making at least 5 of the Raiders fixtures double headers, which means it will cost fans nothing extra to watch the youngsters progress and give them the support they deserve. Obviously it's everyone's choice to come along or not but every rider from novice to World Champion have cut their teeth in lower tier racing & I for one can remember the likes of Michael Lee for Mildenhall, Mark Loram for Hackney & Jason Crump for Poole making their debut's in second half racing back in the Seventies / Eighties. So you could be watching a future World Champion in the making.