21st century heathen

It's got nothing to do with fans of other clubs being jealous or whatever. It's just a case that some happen to agree with my view, and some don't. That's the point of a discussion forum. It's just a view of this particular issue not people having a dig at the club in general or us as fans.

How is not tracking the best possible team doing the right thing for the club? I've not been convinced by the team building strategy this season right from the off and I did suggest Stoke were a threat while most were looking at BV. Not at all. The Heathens have used lost of young Brits. Royno and Newman have ridden in all three leagues this season. Morris and Perry have had PL league meetings during their time with us. I don't see how that's relevant to wanting to win the NL though. -------------------------------- Portwood will join Armo and 'Fred' on the asset list too.

I believe Royno could have replaced any one of Kyle, Jon or Ashley as all three of those have an average higher than Royno (he's still on his start average of 7.70). It would be a like-for-like change, as is Rich returning for Bren I think.

I refer you to an extract of the press release. "We could have kept him and brought Adam back to replace someone else..." Clearly there was some consideration given to keeping Kyle and bringing Royno back in alongside him. The club should have taken up that option in my opinion as Kyle's form in the last few weeks has been superb, and certainly by far and away the Heathens top performer. Assuming we make the play offs we're going to have to beat Stoke and/or Scunfield. Both are stronger than us at the moment. So as I suggested we will need the lads to find another level of consistency and point-scoring now to justify the faith placed in them. To reiterate - the 7 that turn out for us between now and the end of the season have my full backing but I believe the club should have shown a more ruthless side and tracked the very strongest team possible within the rules. *edit* Kyle will be back soon. The knee injury isn't too serious. If he had been retained for the Heathens he may not have been ready for the Fours or our home meeting on Tue, but I doubt he'd have missed any more than that.

Courtesy of the Heathens website - Kyle has done 10 meetings for the Heathens in all competitions. He averaged 8.67 from those meetings. Are you suggesting that everyone with a higher average should also leave their NL teams as the league has done it's job for them? We're getting somewhat sidetracked. My point is that the NL is a league competition not just a training ground. If you're going to enter it you should want to win it. Don't give me any of this it's taking part crap (not saying you have said that here or previously). I hear from people at work that these days kids aren't even allowed to win on sports day because the schools think it will have a negative affect on the losers!! In it to win it or go home. The like of Scunfield and Stoke are looking very strong. We had the opportunity to put out a team to challenge them but haven't done so. That's annoying!! I just hope our boys can all click at the right time and make me look stupid for this post by raising the trophy at the end of the season.

And Kyle is past it?

Cheers mate.

The Heathens will track Roynon, Armstrong, Morris and Franklin. Extract from the Heathens website: ADAM Roynon has rejoined Dudley Heathens after making his comeback from injury. Roynon will make his return for the former Cradley club at Stoke on Saturday in the National League Fours Championship. He'll ride alongside skipper Jon Armstrong, Ashley Morris and Richard Franklin. Tom Perry is unavailable as he is on Grass Track duty in France.

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

Absolutely, there were panto boos of course but both riders were warmly received and roundly applauded. It was a magnificent night when you combine seeing these two ol' boys on track again and the sheer quality of racing that the NL riders displayed. Some of these 'kids' really are fearless.

That's a fair question. If he wanted to Sam could probably have beaten the field last night if he'd gated every time. Had he got caught in traffic it may well have been a different story though because there was some feisty action last night. And it's for that reason that I think suggesting Sam could still compete at EL level is a little over-ambitious. The raw pace is there on a clear track but a cut-and-thrust full EL meeting? It's academic anyway because he said last night that he's not racing competitively because "I don't want the left leg to look like the right one". A bit like Tatum when he packed it in he seems to have got to the point where the pain of injury was greater than the joy of racing. As for Jan O being able to compete at this level I would say that in the main part of the meeting he would probably have scored a few points and finished somewhere in the bottom 4(ish). However, Monmore is not the easiest track to make a competitive comeback on against a track specialist, and arguably its greatest ever rider. After 19 years Jan O rode smooth and steady with the exception of one small mistake on turn 1/2 lap 4 of his last ride which pushed him wide and allowed Sam to go clear after he had pretty much matched him for pace in that heat (having surprisingly missed the start). He was notably quicker in the third heat and I believe him when he says another three months practice would have been better. I think that if he can get enough track time over the next few months and the authorities are sensible with an assessed average for him he will prove worth a punt for a club in the PL. Good post mate. I can't argue with any of that.

I would say it topped the PO meetings but would agree that Sam's meeting was right up there.

Jan O comfortably beaten by Sam but he did admit he really needed a bit more practice but he HAD to have his first race back in front if the Heathens. He made just one small mistake in one of his races. Other than that he was smooth and controlled. If you didn't know better you wouldn't know he is 48 and just back after 19 years on the side lines. What sort of injury average reduction would he qualify for? Good to see Sam not just rolling around too, although he did still have s bit to spare. I feel he could have gone a little faster without being on the limit. Re: the boos when it was announced Dudley Council were in attendance - it was from a relatively small number and quickly smoothered. Perhaps a little foolish but sports fans have been treated VERY badly by the Council so it was understandable. It soon turned to reasonably more applause that at least representatives had come along to ee the support still exists. Re: the crowd size - it was huge! I've been going to Monmore regularly since '98 and this is easily one of the biggest, if not the biggest, crowd in that time. Even Porky said he couldn't remember the last time so many people were there. It was like the good ol' days of Wolves v Cradley meetings when we stood shoulder-to-shoulder with no room to spread your wings. Re: the racing - it was magnificent. There were a number of fantastic races and many a race settled on the last turn, and several on the line. Royno and Herne or Kurtz and Worrall for race of the season? Hmmm I really can't decide.

Oh don't worry I'm perfectly cool and calm. I just think you were a little hard on Kyle by pointing out the number of rides he'd taken. There's many a heat leader would be happy with 30 points from 14 rides. Hmmm... but I bet we won the DWT that year!! ---------------------------------------------------- Gutted for Kyle but Jay is a good replacement.

Hang on a minute. Kyle scored 30 points from 14 rides which converts to an average of 8.57 over the weekend. That compares favourably with his current PL average of 3.80 and the 3.54 he was signed on in the PL. He's in stunning form and is certainly amongst the favourites to take the title tomorrow.

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?

Good luck to all the Heathens and former Heathens in the field, and there are quite a few! I'd have to agree that Howarth, Garrity or Morris are the likely top three but I would keep an eye out for Hazelden too. Okay. Crump got the British GP wild card at 19 and won his first three rides. He won his first GP at 20, though it did take him a while to put it all together and take the title (almost certainly because he was unfortunate to face TRick at his peak). Rickardsson was already National Champion at 20 and won his first world title at 24. I'm thoroughly enjoying watching NL racing and we've got some lads that are great value to watch and some will progress a fair bit over the next few years, but it is certainly true to say we've a long way behind some countries at the moment. Personally, while I understand the reasons, I think the restrictive pay structure in the NL does most of the riders no favours at that level. It must cost most of them more in petrol to get there than they can earn. How can these lads really compete if they're not really earning?! I don't think he was NL level at 12.

So Roynon makes his comeback for the Golden Hammer next week along with Franklin. Both have come through recent practice with no ill-effects. So quite apart from anything else there could be a team selection headache for Will to deal with ahead of the next Heathens meeting. But back to this meeting and the full line-up has been announced as follows: HAMMER LINE-UP: Jon Armstrong, Darryl Ritchings, Tom Perry, Ashley Morris, Kyle Newman, Brendan Johnson, Adam Roynon, Richard Franklin (All Heathens), Byron Bekker (Belle Vue), Jack Hargreaves (Mildenhall), Adam Allott (Buxton), Richie Worrall, Steve Worrall (Scunthorpe / Sheffield), Shane Hazelden (Hackney), Todd Kurtz (Newport). http://www.dudleyhea....php?extend.370 Pick a winner from that lot!!

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.