Neil H

20 points ahead with one race to go means that all four points come North

Tom picked up a foot injury and limped back to the pits.

Even without Craig Cook and Nick Morris, the Hitmen proved too strong for the Saints and won 50-43. Top scorer was Jason Garrity with 17+3 and the win puts Buxton four points clear at the top of the National League table.

League - Branford, Cook, Cottham, Andrews Trophy - Branford, Cook, Andrews, Cottham

As the saying goes 'money talks' - thats why he left Buxton.

According to the BSPA website, he will be 20 in November.

The only trouble I see for Paul is that very few NL teams can match his Plymouth pay rate. Good choice of guest for any teams visiting Plymouth for the rest of the season.

They are on the Buxton website now - Buxton Hitmen Speedway

He isn't going to be at Buxton, do you know what the grasstrack meeting is? Bournemouth have Byron Bekker in as a guest, which might make them stronger.

If at all possible, Buxton will host one of the rounds. Off the top of my head, they have only missed one year since the comp began.

Excellent pictures as usual. The sequence of Josh Dingle's 'crash' is just like being there Can't help but think that in one of the last one's, he looks like a matador with a bull charging at him. Another close-up for Halifaxtiger on the 4th bend (you'll want that spot every week )

At least you had the best view of Reece's pass on Nathan in Heat 8 from where you were standing or were you too close?

From that forecast, I'd stick a couple of coats in the boot of the car, at least

The fourth round of the British Under 15 Championship is to be staged at Buxton on Saturday July 25th. Start time is the usual 3pm.

I didn't realise until I looked at my programme yesterday that it was all decided on Heat 11 on Sunday. If James had beaten Jason in the race, he would have been Champion. To answer your Questions 1) No idea, I have the same info as you (up to someone who knows him) 2) According to the rules of the comp, it was to do with the number of competitors in the event. 3) James beat Kyle when they met during the meeting whereas Rhys and Daniel met twice with one win each. I think (almost) everyone was gutted to see Daniel slip off when leading in the run-off and I had to smile when the paramedics rushed over to him after he slumped onto the grass after getting off the track. As he got back to his feet pretty quickly, they obviously had a cure for 'disappointment' in their bag

Mr Pearson was sent Buxton's Press Release about the event. This went out on Sunday night to all and sundry, just visit worldspeedway.com to read it .

Results British Under 15 Championship – Round 1. Joe Haines 3 3 3 2 = 11 Ben Hopwood 3 2 3 3 = 11 Adam Wrathall 3 3 2 2 = 10 Brendan Johnson 2 2 3 3 = 10 Ben Reade 2 3 1 1 = 7 Richard Franklin 1 2 R 2 = 5 George Piper X 1 2 1 = 4 Scott Meakins 1 0 X 3 = 4 Jack Butler 2 1 0 F = 3 Sean Patterson X R = 0 Kye Norton X = 0 Amy Carpenter X = 0 Referee : Margaret Vardy Heat 1 – Haines, Butler, Norton (f.exc), Carpenter (f.exc), 58.5 Heat 2 – Hopwood, Reade, Franklin, Piper (f.exc), 59.0 Heat 3 – Wrathall, Johnson, Meakins, Paterson (f.exc) 61.0 Heat 4 – Haines, Hopwood, Butler, Meakins (f.rem), 58.0 Heat 5 – Wrathall, Johnson, Piper, three riders only, 58.9 Heat 6 – Reade, Franklin, Paterson (ret), three riders only, 64.2 Heat 7 – Johnson, Piper, Reade, Butler, 59.0 Heat 8 – Hopwood, Meakins (f.exc), two riders only, Awd Heat 9 – Haines, Wrathall, Franklin (ret), three riders only, 59.0 Heat 10 – Hopwood, Wrathall, Butler (f), three riders only, 58.0 Heat 11 – Johnson, Haines, Piper, three riders only, 58.4 Heat 12 – Meakins, Franklin, Reade (f.rem), three riders only, 65.5 Quarter-Final – Piper, Franklin, Meakins (f), Butler (f), 62.0 Semi-Final – Johnson, Wrathall, Piper, Reade, 59.2 Final – Haines, Hopwood, Wrathall, Johnson (ret), 58.2

Ian, as far as I am aware, Jack and Ben are too old to ride (both 15 before Jan 1st). The young lady in question is Amy Carpenter.

It took all the stick that the boys could throw at it and coped well. From what I could pick up, it was a standard Jawa set-up and you could unbolt the 250 motor and put a 500 in its place. -------------------------- I think the aim might be for these to be a rider's first speedway bike and then progressing to the bigger engine size. Could be a worthwhile project especially for the kids who are physically strong enough to handle the power of a 500 until they are a bit older. Would still like to know what Dan, George, Brendan and the rest thought about it.

At the training session run by the legendary Ivan Mauger at Buxton today, a proper 250cc Jawa speedway bike was tried out by many of the youngsters. Several of those present were wondering if this could become a starting point for the very young kids (9-13 year olds) before they progress onto 500's. Maybe some of the lads could give us their opinions on here as they have had first hand knowledge of how it rides.

Greetings from here in Austria (a very damp one at that) We travelled from Vienna to watch the meeting today and were met with a wet Wiener Neustadt. There had been a thunderstorm there on Friday night and it had rained pretty much from then on. At about 3.30, the track staff had the surface looking pretty good (from the stands) but from then on, the rain fell quite heavily. After all of the presentations (don't they drag on with everyone from the FIM who was there on their 'outing' getting a personal mention) the track looked very wet. It was evident from the first 'race' that conditions were bad and there wasn't likely to be any racing to speak of. After all riders had completed one ride, Lindback went to speak to Mr Steele but came back without the result he (and many spectators) would have liked to have seen - the meeting abandoned and re-run in better conditions. Any passes had been the result of engines 'drowning' or riders making mistakes. When you have race leaders almost crashing when way clear in front then you can guess just how bad it was. One lasting image I have is of Daniel King ripping off 3 tear-offs, one after another, on the first turn and still not being able to see!!!! My opinion is that the meeting should not have run past four races in the conditions that were prevelent. As it was, the rain continued to fall and conditions were getting worse by the race. I can understand those involved trying to get the meeting on but common sense should come into play and the powers-that-be should have admitted that conditions were too bad for the riders to be out in and unfair to the paying public who had stumped up their hard-earned cash to watch what they thought was going to be racing. Considering that this was a World Final, the riders were reduced to looking like second-halfers who were out on their first ever laps. Speedway shot itself in the foot again, if nothing else it showed that even without the involvement of BSI or Sky, a meeting that shouldn't have gone ahead did so without too much regard for anyone (riders and fans) Questions should be asked why it was the total farce that it became. Yes I'm aware of other commitments for riders & officials but isn't this why they specify a rain-off date? The first fans knew of the final decision was when KK was given the bumps in the pits area - so professionally run, this sport of ours ....... NOT. Signing off to get another beer to drown our sorrows at the events of today - CHEERS

Think the point was shown up in the Czech GP as Scott scored 14 and was the best rider yet Jason, who finished 6 points behind Scott, ended the day with 16 cos he did better in 1 race. This time the best rider on the night finished fifth in the scoring. The semi & final can still be run to decide the 'Champion' of xyzland but just have the 20-heats scores counting towards the overall championship. The best rider over their 45 races in the championship still wins the title.

Nearest airports are Verona or Venice. Don't Buxton have a meeting that weekend?

As far as the league is concerned, there will be seven teams of five riders. This means that there will be 21 meetings that will be shared between Elite, Premier and Conference tracks. These will be at weekends or during the school holidays. First meeting is next Monday (May 2nd) at Wolverhampton when the Dinosaurs (led by Josh Auty) take on the Cobras. More will be announced in this weeks Speedway Star. I believe 8 out of the top 10 in the Under 15 Championship won't be elligible this time but there are several newcomers who will make Joshua's life hard but he will start as favourite at Buxton on Sunday.

Actually Phil, there was a at the end of the piece so it wasn't meant as a criticism. Peter and Steve had more important things on their minds and left it to me to sort the riders out - thankfully, they all co-operated without any problems. I am looking forward to this competition as it could be even better than the Under 15's Championship was last year. Almost everyone who watched the kids last year was impressed by just how good they were and how well they conducted themselves in a race situation.