21st century heathen

To answer tbe original question - n o, not if Bomber doesn't qualify. Although Scotty id British Chanpion there is nobosy truly worthy of the full season wild card at the moment. I take no pleasure in saying it, but that's just the way it is ansd we shouldn't shy from admitting it.

I meant to say in my previous that I thought I'd seen Auty and Haines at 14 on the 500's in the British U18's whereas it's usually 16-18 year old's and wonder whether you might be able to do the same. I just wasn't very clear. In any case thanks for the reply and best wishes with the transition to 500's. Oh dude and just when I was starting to warm to the lad. Why would he want to get involved with a crash-happy dirty doghead?!! (someone explain the rivalry to Nathan so he doesn't get the wrong idea please - cheers ) Cheers. Lets hope the BSPA are noticing the handful of very young riders coming through and equally lets hope they put their hand in the pockets to help them out (best way to spend a few quid of the Sky money).

I know, but why mention it here. Just thought it was a little unnecessary. I have my gripes too, but I wouldn't mention them on threads that are unrelated.

Thanks for the reply Nathan. What sort of time line do you have planned in terms of jumping on a big boy's bike? Not too soon and not too late - It must be quite difficult to know when the time is right to make the transition to a 500cc. I'm pretty sure I saw Joe Haines and Josh Auty ride in the U18's at Monmore on 500cc bike with special dispensation for their age given their ability on the bike. Certainly somebody did because I remember a forum discussion about whether they should be allowed too - with the majority coming down on the 'if you are good enough you are old enough' side of the debate.. I wonder whether you may be able to follow a similar path.

Oh Bryn, why bring your soap box mate?! Nobody here is criticising Nick or Kyle.

Another day another thrashing. Congrats to the IoW. I was gutted to read about Kyle last night but delighted by the update this morning. Frankly, that was the most important thing. I sincerely hope Nick is okay too?

I thought he looked a really good prospect. He handled that 250cc with all the confidence and ease that Crump handled his 500cc - no mistakes to speak of and full throttle into the corners. I can't believe anyone could have jumped on it and got much more out of it than he did. It will be interesting to see how he makes the transition to a 500cc. How old is he?

Yeah it's a shame it's taken an injury to see Kyle in a Heathens race jacket again, but good to have him back in the team for the last few meetings.

It's absolutely shocking that such a simple looking fall, I wouldn't even call it a crash, could result in such an injury scare. As I said on Updates last night it should serve as a reminder to us all, and I include myself, that if a rider doesn't jump up straight away there might be a good reason for it. Best wishes Armo. Hope to see you back up on your feet soon.

Porky was in fine form until Armo's fall. I think because it looked like nothing but resulted in what seems to have been a nasty injury, and a scary one I would imagine, he was completely thrown for the last part of the meeting. I think he was expecting to go over, chat to Armo and report he was just winded or something like that. The Heathens website is reporting that Armo was stabilised when he got to hospital last night, and more will follow.

ha ha you're just upset because it turns out your mob aint all that and we're just crap.

Well we were beyond crap once again. The odd bright spot with a few good rides here and there but overall we thoroughly deserved to be beaten out of sight on own shale once again. At least nobody can accuse us of having a win at a all costs attitude though. Huge congrats to Buxton. Fully deserved. And most importantly tonight my best wishes to Armo. Hoping for some good news soon because it didn't sound good and Porky seemed shaken by it to me.

The honest answer is that we don't know. The loss of form has been spectacular. The margin of defeat on a number of occasions now has been staggering and should not have happened even given a few injury problems. C'est la vie. We just have to move on to Buxton next week and hope that, with respect to them, we give them a right good 'ommering to restore some pride and regain some confidence ahead of the last two league fixtures.

So there isn't a single rider free that fancies a run out in this challenge? Would like to see 7 v 7 please!!

Cheers, hadn't seen the fixtures.

I was thinking that. Stoke are so strong that surely they could give someone a chance at reserve and promote Isherwood to the top 5? Even without Lambert (why's he missing?) Stoke have 3 riders in heat leader form, arguably 4 as Sarj is going well.

To be honest mate I don't think having Rich and Danny all night would have made a great deal of difference to the score anyway. The top 5 only managed two heat wins between them so it's difficult to see where any additional significant points would have come from. I'd still have fancied Stoke to get 60. Hey-ho, Cradley started in '47 and didn't win a major trophy 'til '79(?) so these lads have already beaten that record.

Well I'm pretty much speechless. There was no excuse for taking a beating like that. We still had our top 5 in tact but they were completely outclassed. I s'pose the only real highlight was a much improved score by Ash, but what was he doing getting the race stopped when on a tac ride. He was only ever going to get himself discluded. Silly mistake, not that it made any real difference. Tom rode okay as well to be fair to him but you can't afford to have bike problems against table-toppers, and he was unlucky to twice lead a race only to miss out at the third attempt to run it. Apart from that there was a race win for Armo and nothing else worth a mention. Congrats to Stoke. The boys did their job, and then some, right throughout the team. ----------------------------- Re: Announcing looking out for changes - I heard on the terrace last night that Rich had a broken shoulder so I'm quite sure the Management team knew that. So while on the face of it it seemed an unnecessary kick in the teeth to the riders I would suggest the statement probably related to this. *edit* Confirmed on the website - Rich is out for the season. Gutted for him because after a difficult start to the season he had contributed some good scores in the last few weeks. ATB Rich.

On reflection I regret my choice of words because it gives the wrong impression of my feelings. In saying "pick and choose" it gives the impression I'm accusing Tim of doing this. I apologise for that. It was not my intention. I could just as easily have used Jason Garrity missing last week as he was, according to a post I've read, on holiday. Why should a club get a facility for a rider that goes on holiday during a week that his team has meetings? And just to clarify this so it's not misunderstood - I don't know for a fact why Jason was missing last week. The issue I have is with the rule as quoted above. It gives clubs/riders an easy option that should not be there. I feel it's open to exploitation and is a loophole that should be closed or at the very least tightened and more clearly defined in its application. I hope that's clear?

So with the heavy rain having slipped away a little further east we will have a meeting for me to comment on then. I must say I was impressed by the Heathens' bounce-back-ability last week and with Armo continuing to talk-the-talk this week I hope to see a similar level of passion and determination from the Heathens camp tonight. We are certainly going to need it. Everyone can take an r/r ride. Monmore Wood holds no fears for the top four of Lambert, Pickard, Atkin and Sargeant so we're going to have find something at the top end to match them and hopefully clean up at reserve, where we're stronger on paper I feel. I expect another close one and something very much along the lines of the KOC meeting a few weeks ago wouldn't surprise me. Win, lose or draw if tonight's combatants serve up something akin to last week's epic encounter I would suggest everyone will go home with a broad smile across their face.

Unfortunately the NL allows riders to pick and choose their meetings. 18.1.2 A Team may utilise a "Facility" to cover the absence of a Rider(s) who: K in the NL only, is absence for any reason

Cheers

Agreed. No foreign riders in the NL this season so these 'Aussies' have obviously chosen to ride for GB, the same as Woffinden. On current form and in no particular order I would say the following: Heeps Howarth Newman Worrall Worrall Garrity Pickard Perry/Sarjeant

What a meeting. If every meeting produced that much exciting racing and desire, passion and will to win then win, lose or draw you wouldn't get too many complaints. There are clearly still things to work on for the Heathens, mostly gating it must be said, as in the final analysis we have to acknowledge we only stole a home win by the very narrowest of margins in the last heat. We have to be looking to score maximum league points from our home meetings. But, there were so many positives to come out of this meeting that it's those we should concentrate on this week. After the poor results lately where we appear to have waved a white flag this was the Polar opposite with riders showing a real fighting quality and determination. Armo led from the front this time with a authoritative first ride. He took care of Howarth with an elbow in to the first turn and then made short work of rounding Bekker. He was easily beaten by McKinna once but his only other defeat came in heat 13 when Howarth held him off by mere inches in what was to prove a preview to his heat 15 burst from the back. A true captain's performance and surely an inspiration to his younger team mates to get stuck in. In the context of how important this meeting was given what has gone before over the last 6 weeks I think this is Armo's best performance to date in a Heathens race jacket. Darryl Was in the thick of the action all night but even the random flying starts he was making seem to have deserted him. He is, though, not in first choice equipment at the moment so that could be a factor. He such a good little racer though and was earning vital points from the back. So close to nicking 2nd off Mason in heat 10 which was his race of the night. He's having a good first season and is nearly always very good value for his points. He's certainly one to keep and eye on in my opinion. If he can sort out some better starts he could make a big step forward in the next 12-24 months. Perry had one pretty poor ride, his second, on Tue, but that apart he was very good entertainment value as usual. There's rarely a dull moment when he's on track and he had a couple of good battles with Mason early on. He also entertained with a good hard chase after McKinna. He got as close as anybody could at that stage. Had the finish line been 10m further away he might have just got there. After a difficult start to the season he seems to be finding his feet again and has largely looked pretty good again. Morris is suffering a lack of confidence at the moment. In a weird way it's nice to hear him say that - in the sense that there's nothing physically or mechanically wrong. I think he just needs one good meeting under his belt with no crashes or close calls just to remind himself he's a good rider at this level and can win races with ease. You don't have to be a biased Heathens fan to acknowledge Ash is so much better than 3 points. chin up Ash - it'll come good. Courtney came in with plenty of pressure but not much expectation if the truth be told. His record does not compare with Royno or Newman at this level but we must have carried him to another level because I thought he was superb, all things considered. He made a pass in his first heat and was closing on McKinna, although never anywhere near him in truth. He followed that with one of the home riders' best starts of the season and did well to hold on to the win under pressure. Splitting a strong looking McKinna and Howarth pairing was crucial and he backed that up a couple of heat later with a stormer to reel in McKinna and pass him right on the line in heat 13. And finally another vital 3rd, beating the impressive McKinna, in the last heat decider. Cracking Heathens debut and I humbly apologise for only expecting about 6 points. Franklin proved his overall improvement in form in the last couple of months with a double figure sore which included some good points from the back along the way. He was always in the thick of the action and led a heat that was stopped only to end up third in the re-run so it could easily have been a bigger score. I think the heat 14 win holding off Bekker was probably his ride of the night as it set up heat 15 with the scores level. Stoneman came back to Monmore Wood to a warm welcome and rode better than his score card suggests. He made a good start in heat 2 but from the outside he got pushed out wide and was filled in. He lost a lot of ground trying to grab a tear off on the back straight but set about chasing down Richardson and was easily the faster of the two. As he set up and outside pass around turn 1 and 2 for the last time Richardson made a slight error and straightened up a little which accidentally took Danny out and ruined the line he had worked so hard to set up. He was again chasing Richardson down and looking likely to pass when he steel shoe made a bid for freedom. Unfortunately it was half on and half off leaving no choice but to retire from the heat. He was out paced in his other ride but somewhat 'robbed' of a chance of grabbing a couple of points from the back. Good effort by Danny on his return and his interview after the meeting showed a real maturity when discussing being dropped and subsequently brought back in. More of the same will bring it's own reward I think. I hope this season's experience will set him up nicely for a decent season next year whether it's with us or not. For the visitors McKinna was unbeatable early on but the contrast when he missed the start was stark. Overall though I think everyone would have taken 12 points from him before the meeting so in that regard it was job done. Howarth was very good value for his points and impressive throughout after heat 1. From the front or the back he was involved in some terrific action. Like wise Bekker and Mason were a source of constant annoyance from a Heathens point of view and should be rightly proud of their contribution to a superb night of racing. Widman and Richardson were there or thereabouts and certainly not embarrassed. Their 4 points were as vital as any in the visitors coming so close to a draw/win so they too should have walked away with heads held high. More of the same next week would be a treat...

Your answer may lie in a glance at last season's final table. Three teams were separated by race points difference. Unfortunately the most exciting end to a season that anyone could remember didn't really get much coverage so it may have slipped under the radar for many. http://www.speedwaygb.co/nltable10.html -------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no requirement to name a number 8 squad member this season. Tyrer would have been the other type of number 8 nominated to offer cover where r/r is in use. I think something should be done to differentiate between the types of number 8. It's unnecessarily confusing to any casual supporter. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Ritchings has made his 'effective' debut this season. He did have an odd run out for the Heathens last season as our squad number 8, but this is his first full season of league racing in a team's 1-7. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Personally I would rather see r/r than any body on a bike. If you're got a rider that's up to speed then the chances are you're either using him or loaning him out to another club to get some racing under his belt. I hate doing this (naming names) but who wants to watch teams using riders like Portwood every time a rider is missing? With the best will in the world the lad is just not ready for league racing, and it would be a similar story for other clubs. What I want from a rider like Adam is for him to take the knock of being dropped on the chin, like Stoneman did, and for him to turn up at Monmore Wood every week watching, learning, listening and getting track time in after-meeting practice sessions at every opportunity. The lad can ride a bike but he's nowhere out of the start and does not yet have the pace to chase anyone down. But with the right attitude and plenty more practice under his belt he might just get his chance some time in the not-too-distant future.