21st century heathen

Adam has rejoined the Heathens in place of Kyle Newman, who agreed when he joined us that he would happily stand down if Adam was fit to re-take his place this season. First and foremost I want to say a big thanks to Kyle for the performances he's turned in for us. He has been superb and every Heathens fan that's watched him race will surely agree his efforts will never be forgotten. Maybe one day some time in the future there will be an opportunity for him to turn out for us again, who knows?! Secondly, a huge welcome back to Adam. I love the new kevs (he has got 'Ommer Um' on his butt cheek) . Adam takes his place in the fours, with Ash, Jon and Rich (Tom has a Grass Track meeting). Here's where the tone is going to change unfortunately. I can't say as much as I'd like on here but if you read the press release on the Heathens website (I'll link at the bottom of this post) there are strong hints as to what I'm talking about. Although there was an agreement in place with Kyle when he joined us the Heathens' averages would have provided an opportunity for us to have brought Adam back in from Aug and retained Kyle's services too. We could have tracked a very strong team, but the club have decided not to track the strongest team possible. I find it absolutely staggering that with the league title on the line we are not going to give ourselves the best possible chance of winning it. It's not just this change either. No disrespect intended here but bringing in Portwood for Stoneman weakened us at the bottom end too. Okay so Danny wasn't exactly pulling up any trees, so-to-speak, but he was clearly improving. We're back to square one now with a rider just finding his feet again. If we're not in it to win it then what's the point?! To end on a positive - I'll back whoever turns out for us regardless, and I'll be there on Tue night cheering the boys to another 3 points (hopefully - not getting ahead of myself). http://www.dudleyheathens.co/news.php?extend.380

The concept of rewarding failure is odd!!

I assume this is a joke. Perhaps there should be half a point for turning up as well?

Dog poo, obviously!!

It is a, in my opinion, slightly unprofessional response to some comments about Dudley having used some older, some more experienced and some foreign riders. The point being made is that we do have a group of young Brits in the team despite having used Armstrong, Smart, Anderson, Dyer and Roynon in the last couple of seasons.

That was early on. I wasn't there but the chances are that the track would get worse before it got better. It's usually the case that it breaks/ruts up when it's ridden on. And stated several times (mentioned again in the quote below) Tom is primarily a grasstracker who is just trying his hand at speedway. By his own admission it's taken him some time this season to get back into the swing of riding speedway again. He's come across as quite frustrated with himself for some lacklustre displays but has looked much improved this month. I suspect a difficult track wouldn't bother him in the slightest as long as we're taking about a track with plenty of dirt rather than a slick hard crumbling surface. Good points made and coming from a neutral too. Sorry mate but you are mistaken. Seeing it live it appeared that way but having seen the video evidence it's not the case. It's just a racing incident and neither rider really does anything wrong as such, but it's Ash that clips Kyle.

Just for the record - I wasn't having a dig I was just wondering which report was accurate so I knew what sort of conditions the riders had to face. The ref will submit a meeting report along with official heat details. These reports and result are supposed to be available to view on the SCB website but only the official results are shown, and sadly not the ref's meeting report. Sadly Dudley Heathens aren't even acknowledged on there. Our meetings are listed under Wolverhampton (Hackney is missing too). http://www.scbgb.co.uk/viewresults.php ---------------------------------- Good to read today that all our boys have escaped with just a bit of a battering but no broken bones.

Really? All I remember is fans, including home fans, complaining about boring meetings with massive home wins. ------------------------------------- I find it strange that on the Updates Forum the track was described as slick, but now it seems it was rough and grippy. So what was the track actually like? Was it hard, slick, rutted with holes and bumps or was it piled high with too much dirt which made it too grippy? I also find it strange that some have said the Heathens boys didn't want to ride it even though it was fine in their opinion. If it was just a case that there was some dirt on it our boys would have been perfectly happy. It's well documented that our gating is inconsistent at best and absolutely awful at times so we rely on a track with a bit of dirt to be able to out-race the opposition. ------------------------------------ Although I don't moderate this section I would just like to offer a gentle reminder to some members on both sides of the debate that we have rules that you've all agreed to when you signed up. By all means debate the meeting and post your opinion, whatever it may be, but no personal abuse please.

Thanks Rob. Obviously I retract that part of my previous. --------------------------------------- Thanks to chad too for the first report from someone that was there.

Well our team could be left in tatters. Tom, Ash and Bren have all been involved in crashes at BV tonight (so have Armo, Kyle and Darryl ). (check out the Updates for more because frankly if I post it here I doubt anyone would believe me!) http://speedwayupdates.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bvc&action=display&thread=8396&page=1 On the plus side Rich did practice after the meeting at Monmore last night. He did quite a number of laps. Hopefully he suffered no ill-effects today so he should be available to ride if needed. I await news on our boys from both a club and country perspective.

I sincerely hope the BSPA launch an inquiry into what's happened tonight. And if the Heathens are found at fault for some riders not taking their place in races then so-be-it. But it seems clear the track was in a poor state and that the meeting only went on long enough to get a result. It was stated on Updates that there was a 10pm curfew but they raced on until nearly half past and then called it off after 12 heats due to the curfew. What price riders' safety?

Well that comment jinxed it!!!

Obviously as a Heathens' fan I'm happy to see a strong representation of our riders taking part (my uncle actually said to me yesterday he was going to try to get out there to see Dudley take on the rest of the world ). It's not the strongest team we could have tracked in terms of looking at names on a piece of paper. But for whatever reasons certain individuals won't be there so I hope our boys (by which I mean Brits) get the fans' support irrespective of club loyalties.

Keep checking the International forum. There's already a thread in there with the (Aus) summer schedule for Pinjar, WA. I was fortunate enough to take in a meeting there last year and can recommend it. That tiny little track, which I'm sure had Kangaroo poo mixed in, is something to behold, especially when you see 1000cc side cars tearing around it!! http://www.speedway-forum.co.uk/forums/index.php?showforum=9

Yes, both Johnson and Bates were off 15m in heat 14. The above wouldn't apply because it was two different riders from two different teams for two different offences. *edit* Apologies I misread the above. It does appear that Newport should not have been allowed to put Bates back in off 15m. The only option should have been to put the reserve in. However, he was both injured and had been replaced in the heat too so he wouldn't have been allowed in even if fit to ride. Newport should have only had three riders. Ultimately it didn't matter as Bates finished last anyway. In the original staging of the heat it seemed to me that both Heathens were a bit too sharp from the tapes for the ref's liking. Neither touched the tapes and neither appeared to be rolling as such, but they were both on the move before the visitors realised what was going on. The heat was stopped and an unsatisfactory start was cited as the reason. Neither rider were warned. In the re-run it looked as though Johnson's clutch was dragging as he was trying to hold the bike back and got to the point he just had to let the clutch lever out a touch and the bike moved forward slightly. As he pulled the clutch lever in again and stopped moving the tapes rose and he missed the start. He was clearly last away from the tapes but the ref stopped the heat again and discluded Johnson for delaying the start even though he hadn't touched the tapes and hadn't received a warning. Frankly a ridiculous decision as the ref was delaying the meeting when he could have easily let the heat go with Johnson having penalised himself. As Johnson had replaced Portwood in the heat the only option was to put Johnson back in off a 15m handicap. The 2min warning was put on straight away for the next re-run. Bates was not at the tapes when the 2 min light went out so the ref discluded him too. He was also put back in off a 15m handicap. It meant that Johnson, who had been moved to gate 4 initially, had to move across one to gate 3 off 15m so that Bates could start from the outside otherwise there wouldn't have been a gate between the team partners.

I wouldn't be so sure about it being a walk in the park for the Heathens. I'm more than a little nervous at the moment. Jon's form has dipped a little, Darryl moves into the top 5 (surely that wasn't in the pre-season plan of action?!) and we have two riders making their debut at reserve tonight. We desperately need Jon back to his very best, the Ash/Tom partnership to have its best night of the season and Kyle to continue his cracking form because we could easily have a very long tail tonight. With a lot of action in recent days and during the rest of this week the table could have a very different look about it in the metaphorical blink of an eye. The Stoke meetings were a real disappointment so we need to bounce back stronger than ever in the league this week to restore confidence and lay the foundations for a big push in the second half of the season. We do have home meetings in hand but it will be a wasted opportunity to put the pressure on if we start catching up tonight with anything other than all three league points. 'Ommer Um'

Good news for our boys. It's all extra experience and raising the bar all the time. Oh, and one to ponder for all those that have had a pop at the Heathens regarding the NL being a league for young Brits.

That's a shame. A late shower too much I guess. Oh well, do we get ½ a point for winning the toss?

No. No. ------------------------------- Line ups from the club website. ISLE OF WIGHT: Nick Simmons, Gary Cottham, Danny Warwick, Rob Smith, Paul Starke, Charlie Saunders, Luke Chessell. HEATHENS: Jon Armstrong, Darryl Ritchings, Tom Perry, Ashley Morris, Kyle Newman, Adam Portwood, Brendan Johnson.

Some of our lads have now done enough meetings to get a new average. One of whom is Darryl. His new average is higher than Brendan's so I assume it will be Darryl at 2 and Brendan at 6. I really don't know what to expect from our new look line-up so I certainly won't be making any bold predictions, especially in light of our recent struggles against Stoke. It would be good for confidence to grab something on the road again though. Hopefully that would set us up to go on another run.

We can't. He needs a storming second half to the season again or he's out on his ear and there's nobody to take his place. ------------------------------ But before people start to slate him and the other Brits too much just take a look at the qualifiers again. How many nations have got a load of youngsters coming through? Most of the qualifiers have either been there before or are older rather than emerging. 'Everybody' goes on about all the Aussies that are coming through but how many qualified?

To say I was in shock reading the updates would be something of an understatement. It's a good job Roo and Ed had the easier round otherwise it would have been truly embarrassing. How would have they even scored a point in the other meetings?!! Who'd have thought James Wright would have been one of our last hopes? (that is actually a question)

Right, I've given myself plenty of time to digest the news. Rich out and Brendan in first. Clearly a change of necessity and I will quickly say best wishes to Rich. I hope the injury clears up quickly and you can get back on the bike after just a few weeks on the sidelines. On paper it's pretty much like-for-like although Brendan has a slightly higher average this season. But I'm not too sure it will turn out that way in the end. Rich has been very good just lately, and even his 6 last Tue doesn't really give credit to the performance. Monmore is not the easiest track for some riders to get to grips with and I've seen nothing from Brendan to suggest he can start scoring freely straight away. It's not his fault but he doesn't have the half a season you could afford a new rider, or a rider struggling for best form, at the start of a season. The season is half over and we need to build toward a big play-off push, starting right now! Something else that's not his fault is that I think signing him disrupts our team balance. Some of our boys have new averages, Brendan does not. With him in on his start average it means Darryl moves into the top 5. I would like to believe that our side was built with keeping him at reserve all season in mind. If not it should have been. All of that said I will support him, of course, as will the rest of the Heathen's faithful. So welcome Brendan. Get out there and prove me wrong! Danny out and Adam in. I've been trying to work this one out since I saw the news break the other day. Put simply I can't. Danny was starting to look a little better and was justifying his place by outscoring his average. I admit I don't know a great deal about Adam but I don't think he's been given the 'wonderkid' tag by too many people. Again, he'll get my support but I'm disappointed for Adam. With Armo suffering a bit of a loss of form, Kyle sometimes required elsewhere, Tom not consistently at his best and losing both Royno and Rich to injury I fear we may not be the threat we could otherwise have been. But we were a long time without our own team to support so win, lose or draw I'm sure the fans will turn out and enjoy the racing. And as long as everyone is giving it absolutely everything they've got they'll get the support from the crowd.

It probably does, and I'm sure he'll learn a hell of a lot if he's watching, listening and asking the right people the right questions when he gets a run out in the EL. I'll stress that my point was from an entirely selfish point of view. I do genuinely believe we'd have won with him, so it's frustrating. But them's the breaks. As a footnote I believe that there's a rule that states where the NL club pays a loan fee it has priority so I assume we're not paying a loan fee for Kyle. Just out of interest I wonder if anyone can clarify this?

How frustrating. Kyle has been superb for us and I would have to say that I believe he could have scored 10 or more last night which would have swung the meeting our way. I'm sure in the long run his EL experience will be good for him on a personal note. But the truth is it's a step too far at this stage of his career. With that in mind, and being entirely selfish, it's frustrating to watch him on Updates struggle for points when he could have been winning the meeting for us instead. Hey-ho, it is what it is. Congrats to KL on doing just enough. Results like this will continue to tighten up the league which is good for it.