21st century heathen

Don't get ahead of yourself mate. The lads have still got to go out and do the business on track. Remember the Mildenhall fixture at Monmore? ---------------------------------------------------- Another comeback on the road and three welcome points. Just imagine where we would be if the lads could get going from heat 1. Looks as though Richard's withdrawal was nothing more than a precaution which is great news.

That fixture is listed as Wed 8th on the Dudley website. http://dudleyspeedway.com/fixtures10.php Only the KOC fixtures are listed as later than the 12th.

A further thought occurs - Try to announce it with a minimum of a full year notice, preferably more, if you want any significant numbers to travel from Europe. A lot of people plan their holiday a year in advance to get decent prices and to give themselves time to save the pennies.

I think the most realistic way of this coming off would be to effectively have a mini-series in Aus and NZ before the European season gets under way. It would be more cost-effective (shipping of all equipment) for the riders to travel for say four meetings (for eg) rather than a one-off. Run them every two weeks in Jan and Feb before everyone heads back to Europe in Mar/Apr (depending on where they're riding their league racing). It would also be more attractive to European travellers to go all the way to either Aus or NZ for a couple of meetings rather than for one.

Question - Are you still classed as working if you're not paid but have your 'costs' reimbursed?

WOW!! I know that Rye were significantly weakened but I was only joking when I mentioned the sort of score line required to go top. I genuinely didn't expect such a big score. All the lads were in great form and all clicked on the same night. We have a very solid looking line-up and they all delivered a top performance. In that form we'd have beaten anybody so hopefully the Rye lads put it down to experience and don't let it affect them ahead of the next meeting. Smart - In complete cruise control most of the night. Had to turn it on at the last to pass Hughes and was forced to work all the way to the line to stay ahead. Good to see him looking out for Dyer. What I particularly liked was that he wasn't interested in the individual glory of heat wins and backed right off to allow Dyer to lead their first two races together. He allowed Dyer the whole track and just covered him from behind which is smart (forgive the pun) riding with an inexperienced team mate when you're not under a great deal of pressure. He left Dyer in heat 10 but the Aussie was well clear in 2nd and under no pressure anyway. Dyer - Good gating generally (missed one by about a week and a half though ) and looked smooth, comfortable and quick. He's improving quickly and looks like another young Aussie to look out for in a few years time. He's got a great style when he's really on it as well. He deserved heat 15 but it was a shame in the end that he didn't 'bank' the first maximum in British Speedway. Perry - Pah! Gating tart. It's not often 'Fred' can't pick them off when he makes a poor start but we saw it once last night. He slipped up in his second when an okayish start left him boxed in for a lap and stuck at the back. Ironically a really bad start would have probably resulted in more options on the first lap, but that happens. He was all over Mason like a cheap set of kevlars for the full four laps but missed out by half a bike length on the line. His gating in his other riders was better than his average and if/when he finds the key to more consistent starting he's going to become an even greater threat, even away from home. He looked very comfortable and quick in his three winning rides. Andersen - His best home performance for a good while. He didn't look as quick as the rest of the top five but made good starts and managed to string together a lot of laps without any mistakes. He even made Hughes work extremely hard for a rare away heat win. What I was really happy with, despite the fact that Hughes got him in the end, was that he didn't let the extreme pressure force him into a mistake. That's important from Jake. Don't give them anything easy. Make them do it the hard way and if they pass you then take the points and don't fall or make a big mistake that puts you at the back. Evans - Terrific start at home for him and he looked determined to put last Wed behind him. There's nothing to complain about if he is only dropping the odd point to the visitors number 1 (would have been 2 points dropped if Hughes hadn't fallen in heat 13). And he had the balls to face the fans in an after meeting interview and apologised to the travelling support for his poor score at Poole. It's extremely rare you'll hear a rider come out and make an honest apology like that. Top marks and a it was well appreciated by the crowd. Morris - Great night for Ash. Top and tailed his night with very easy wins looking quick and comfortable while leading. Challenged for 2nd in his second outing having come through to 3rd. Great effort in that ride. Almost overdid the effort and came close to blowing it but recovered well to take the odd point. Solid third in his third ride to. Scored in every ride which should give him increasing confidence that despite dropping to reserve he can get on terms with the middle order riders. Franklin - Similarly Rich had a great night. Coming through a couple of times as required but made much better starts in a couple of rides which was good to see. Very solid night for Rich and just dropped a point to Hughes, who he actually led briefly. For the visitors Hughes obviously led the scorers but didn't help himself or the team by falling twice. I'm not sure there was more than a point in it for him in heat 1 but he had two points in the bag in heat 13 so at least 3 points slipped away there. That apart he looked quick at times and kept the Heathens on their toes, and ruined a handful of maximum hopes while he was at it. Mason was the best of the rest as he took a point away from both Perry and Mason. None of the others were able to take any points from the Heathens and rarely did it look as though they had anything like that pace required to challenge. On a positive note I would generalise that the Rye lads rode the track ok and weren't all over the place falling in every other heat.

He was very good value at PB back in the Spring. I reckon there's a fair few Promoters that will be very happy to have the chance to take another look at him with a view to seeing how he progresses over the next year or two.

Shame about the injuries but a chance to see Birks softens the blow a bit. All three points and no silly slip-ups required for the Heathens after seeing Newport and Buxton do the business in their meetings. 65-25 would put us top (I think) but I'll take anything that gives us all the points.

I hard to argue that the system is anything other than ridiculous. We've seen on more than one occasion that a rider can qualify for the semi on 6 points. He could then finish second to make the final with just 8 points. He could win the final to take a total of 14 points from the GP. Another rider could win his five rides for 15 points, take the semi too for 18 points and finish second in the final for a total of 22. The 'winner' takes 14 points toward the championship race and the first loser takes 22 points. Hmmmm... 5 rides each multiplied by 'x' number of rounds would be my preference too.

Or perhaps the Heathens camp have more pressing matters than a piffling challenge against a bunch of wannabes. Hope our boys are reading this. They're dialled in quite nicely at Monmore now. In five official fixtures at Monmore we've averaged 57 points per meeting. Bring it!!

Just been confirmed on the Cricket coverage that the speedway will be on the red button from 6pm on SS1. *edit* there never was much to choose between Cradley and Wolves. We'll call that a dead heat.

I'm assuming, and hoping, it's now on the red button from the start rather than the first hour on SS1 then the switch.

It's repeated in full at 12:30 tonight (tomorrow morning). If you want to record it then set your timer for that one. It's frustrating that it's on the red button tonight because I tend to watch it on time-slip and skip the adverts. Bit of a slap in the face for speedway but I haven't looked at viewing figures this year. Perhaps it's down.

Thanks Bob. Nice to know that the slick conditions were perhaps to blame rather more than bad riding as such. As others have said I was under the impression he had never ridden speedway before. That said, before the season started there was a quote from 'Fred' saying he'd only had about an hour's practice on a speedway bike. I wonder if this has been misinterpreted and he was referring to previous meetings and we, the fans, thought he meant actual practice rather than proper meetings? In any case he came into the season with virtually no speedway experience and has made the switch from grasstrack to speedway very well indeed. It's been a pleasure to watch him improve his track craft at Monmore. At the start of the year all he knew was wide lines and keep the momentum up. He's now learning to turn the throttle both ways and has made a number of inside passes in recent weeks. I would agree with that. Rich needs to get his act together on the road. Not just for us in the short term but I mean for himself and his career in general. I'm sure he is disappointed and is trying though. So chin up Rich. There's always another meeting just around the corner to put things right. That sounds like a contender for cock up of the season. True. But the contrast is almost unbelievable. His home average is 7.81 (8.57) and his away average is 3.14 (3.71). Now he's at reserve he should be turning it around, rather like Ash has. As above though, while he wears a Heathens jacket Rich has my support and I reckon he'll have a good one on Tue. It's only natural to concentrate on what went wrong when you lose and what went right when you win. Some of the lads had a nightmare and have rightly been criticised for it. I haven't seen any comments that are over the top. I think everyone has just been honest in stating where points were lost. There have been plenty of positives throughout the season and I'm sure the lads have enjoyed taking all the praise that's been heaped on them at different times. Equally they need to take it on the chin if they get a bit of stick for a bad performance.

I wasn't there mate but I'd have fancied our boys if there was more dirt on it. The Bournemouth riders must have been asleep if the Heathens were out-gating them. Apart from Smarty, ironically, they are dreadful from the gate most of the time. I've lost count of the number of times Perry has gone from last to first, and Franklin is a different rider on his home track/s. Morris has scored a fair few from the back too. If the track was as bad as comments generally suggest then it's no surprise Perry had his worst meeting of his short career really. A very slick track would be completely alien to him having come from grasstrack.

I reckon the Heathens would be up for a re-match.

Rich has ridden very well at home and he deserves a lot of credit for his performances in those meetings. Equally he deserves any criticism because his away form is shocking. There's no getting away from the fact that it's not just since the crash a few weeks ago. You only have a 3-point average after several meetings if you're consistently struggling. Still, we have a run of home meetings over the next few weeks so we can look forward to some very solid performances by the Heathens if form so far is anything to go by.

Here are the scorers, taken from the Dudley website. BOURNEMOUTH: Mark Baseby 12, Jerran Hart 11, James Brundle 9+1, James Sargeant 8+3, Kyle Howarth 6+1, Danny Stoneman 2+1. Aaron Baseby 2. DUDLEY: Lee Smart 14+1, Jake Anderson 14, Ashley Morris 8+1, Mickey Dyer 6+1, Barrie Evans 2, Tom Perry 1+1, Richard Franklin 0 .

I say that you beat me to it mate. I know Tim Hamblin who does the reports for the E&S so I'll ask him if he could get a line in on the next speedway news that's in the E&S. After losing at Bournemouth last night we could do with nicking a draw at your place if you can find it in your heart to stretch that far rather than narrow win?!! I agree with you. I don't like the play-offs and would rather whoever tops the league take the title. Whether that be Dudley, Newport or even one of Buxton or Bournemouth then so-be-it. Just 3-points separate the top four now but the run-in is somewhat ruined by the fact that ultimately it doesn't really matter what order they finish in as all four look destined for the play-offs, although Rye still have a slim chance with their meetings in hand.

Having not been there to see it myself I don't know whether to be gutted that 'Fred' had such a nightmare, disappointed by a shocking debut for Evans, annoyed by the continuing poor form by Rich (3-point average away ) on the road or proud of the rest for a cracking effort to get back in to the meeting and claim a potential vital point. It feels like another one that got away from us on the road. Surely the win was there for the taking on another day. Hey-ho, we're joint top and I didn't expect that just a few weeks ago. This result probably means we need something out of the IOW meeting and will probably need to beat Newport at home to top the league. Ultimately topping league means little but it would be a nice feather in the cap and a nice bit of positive marketing potential for the club and potential negative media coverage for Dudley Council. Surely if the local tv news/papers/radio report Dudley's most successful sports team has topped the league but had to ride outside the town to do so it would be embarrassing for the Council and may make them sit up and take note (I won't hold my breath though). But all that aside congrats to Bournemouth and a special mention for Sarj. I'm delighted to see him scoring points, even though it cost us the meeting in many respects. Having averaged less than 3 for us I was of the opinion that dropping him was absolutely the right decision. I was also of the opinion that he was giving it everything he'd got and that he was capable of much more, but for whatever reason it was just not working out for him. He was a superb guest for us in our home meeting at B'ham a couple of weeks ago and paid 11 last night is almost half the number he scored for us in all 7 meetings he had in Heathens colours (paid 24 in total). Great effort.

Fantastic gesture. With your permission I would like to copy your post to the Cradley forum. Is that okay?

By NL standards it probably is. Attendances have been good though so having got ourselves into a strong position I think the guys have made the right decision in thinking we might as well go for it now. If it costs a bit more and trims the profit margins then so-be-it. Newport are still the stronger team on paper. Our home league meeting against them could be a cracker and very telling. They're the only team to beat us easily but it was a weakened team that went down there a couple of months ago. ---------------------------------------------- I'm a bit gutted for everyone that made the trip down. But the ref has a job to do and can't take into consideration who has had to travel from where. Safety first etc.

Good news after a night and morning of heavy rain for so many paces around the UK. From the Heathens website: HEATHENS HEAD SOUTH MONDAY 09 AUGUST 2010 DUDLEY Heathens continue their surge towards the National League play-offs with a southern tour starting on Tuesday. The former Cradley club are taking big numbers of loyal fans to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday and then Poole on Wednesday for the meeting with Bournemouth. Heathens hand a debut to Barrie Evans after signing him as cover for the injured Jon Armstrong. Boss Will Pottinger said: "Our big win over the Isle of Wight at Perry Barr will count for nothing as they are a different side on their big home track. "Bournemouth have added Jerran Hart which makes them stronger at the top end of their team so we are expecting two very tough away matches but we'll give it our best shot and look to come away from each meeting with at least a point. "I know there's a lot of Heathens supporters travelling south which should be great motivation for our boys so hopefully we can pick up some points and make it a worthwhile journey for them." ISLE OF WIGHT: Nick Simmons, Lee Smethills, Danny Warwick, Brendan Johnson, Ben Hopwood, Dean Felton, Tom Hill. DUDLEY: Lee Smart, Micky Dyer, Tom Perry, Jake Anderson, Barrie Evans, Ashley Morris, Richard Franklin. I would like to think that the Heathens can continue their run of good form and season-long strong away performances this week. A point from each meeting would be perfectly acceptable, but a win from one of them and the odd point from the other to put us top would be very nice indeed.

No info on the website mate. Contact the club direct would be my advice.

I understand the arguments for and against the various suggestions of names. As long as we maintain the Heathens nickname I think the fans will accept the club as their own. As for the particular point raised at the start of the thread - Meh, old habits die hard. For many it's simply an obvious connection and all too easy to say Cradley but you're right that it's actually Dudley. The bottom line is that after more than a decade we have a team to call our own and to go out and actively support rather than just watching other clubs. I'll take that for now, even if one of 'our' riders wears Wolves kevs.