greyhoundp

My mistake it was a long day Lols, Bradley Wilson Dean or as we have become acustomed to saying in the NL BWD, he is a very impressive new talent in the NL and a rider who seems to have it all, he would definately bolster your bottom end, though its pretty apparent you quickly need The Fish to find some of his old form.

We will just have to wait and see 2 + 2 = 5 http://www.cradleyheathens.co/upcomingevent I hope a few from Eastbourne can support this event seeing as you seem very interested in what Ellis does.

I hate to say it, but even at this early stage of the season its looking like that 25-1 by the bookies was far to short, what on earth has happened to the Fish ? he really is the biggest let down for you guys so far this season, Young Ashley is holding his own but the guy you really need to try and get to guest for Sam Chapman is Bradley Wright Wilson, though he says he doesnt want to miss any Eastbourne meetings that shouldnt stop you trying..he would in my humble opinion be good for 6 per meeting, and is one of the best young prospects i have seen in a long time, he has a big future ahead of him.

Without commenting on the rumour thats flying around its rumoured Ellis picked up an injury on Monday, and though he rode in several more races he was limping heavily when he walked away from his Ht 2 crash.

Query, If Harris is unfit will it be possible for Cradley to use a guest, and seeing as Matt Williamson is riding for Scunthorpe tonight at Edinburgh, will Matt be riding at Buxton or will Ellis be available, I think there are going to be lots of program alterations.

Then we have to agree to disagree, you stick with your ideas of Bumper and Massive, i will stick with what my eyes saw, which was more than half of the Grandstand empty, compared to 2 years ago when it was bursting at the seams, you work for Kent I am neutral, so you give me your estimate, and if you say 5/600 then your talents are wasted you should be working for one of the Political Parties with all the B******t propaganda that they come out with. .

I stand by My estimate of 300, and speaking to a fellow Cradley fan, he agrees it looked around abouts that figure, but if 300 is described as a bumper crowd then so be it, but what should be of concern is the amount the crowd appears to have dropped off in just 2 years. I understand there will always be a dropping off after the 1st season at any Team, but when i went 2 years ago the Kent crowd was comparable with our own Cradley support, now there seems NO way with these numbers they could support anything above NL level Speedway. However if the rumours are to be believed thats is whats going to happen from next season onwards.

Mr Cearns may well be correct in his description, to some 100 may be a bumper crowd, I will stand by assesment of not more than 300 with many more empty seats than occupied seats.

I have seen 4 Teams so far this season, The Brummies, Coventry, Eastbourne, and Kent, without saying which in my opinion is strongest, Kent will struggle to beat any of those at home.

My view of the crowd in the Grandstand was from the back straight, therefore i can only see what is outside and not in the concourse, i would estimate as around 300, there were far more empty seats than occupied seats, as for the crowd numbers scattered around the 1st bend maybe 10, the back straight perhaps another 10 of us. Two years ago it was difficult to get a good view or even a seat in the Grandstand.

A riders new average is 7 Days after he has completed 4 League meetings, at least that was the last i knew, it used to be 3 home and 3 away but when the League dropped to was it 8 Teams ? last season, that meant if anyone had a strong reserve they could ride maybe half a season with an unfair advantage. http://www.speedwaygb.co/nlteamissues15 and this is from last season http://www.speedwaygb.co/nlteamissues14

Another meeting to show Cradley are NOT going to have it all there own way this season, personally I thought Ben got a flyer in Heat 1, but it gave us a good race, Ht 2 i never thought would be completed LOl, some good races during the meeting, especially when James Shanes was invoved, dont the Kent crowd just love him, I think a perfect night for them would be Kent to win, and Shanes to miss the gate every time. I thought Cradley made hard work of this win, they seem to have got into the BAD habit of throwing points away, when in points scoring positions, Perks, Williamson, Neale and Harris all did this again tonight, however as i thought Cradley had the greater all round strength, 18 points from 11 rides from the Cradley reserves, against 5 points from 8 rides for the Kent bottom end, 32 Kent top four, 27 Cradley Top four, i think that says it all. For Cradley Arron Mogridge continues to show big improvement, Matt is doing a fine job as 3rd Heat Leader, Max never knows when he is beaten, and Mike is showing not only Ellis can grab vital wins from reserve. For Kent, James Shanes showed what a racer he is, Ben did what Ben does best, gates and goes except for Ht 10 when he passed both Verge and Perks on the final bends, Baseby should really be scoring more at this stage of his career, Verge Ht 10 showed that Danno can do it, but when he misses the gate sometimes he looks a shadow of what he did in that race, he really needs to get some confidence down at reserve, but Kents reserves are not strong enough to allow that to happen. Two final points i was surprised to see how much the crowd has dropped off since i was there 2 years ago, Cradley fans sometimes Im embarassed by there attitude which is why i always stand away from the bulk of them, some of them really need to grow up and realise respect is earned not given, i had a good chat during the meeting with a couple of Kent fans on the far side. apparently they are Lakeside season ticket holders, but the Kings are on there doorstep. I stopped and asked directions whilst i was on the Industrial estate from 2 young guys who were about 25, they didnt seem to have any idea where the Speedway Track was, though as it happens i was about 1/4 mile from the Stadium, that seems to indicate to me there aint a lot of promotion of the Speedway going on, which has always been a weakness of Len Silver Promotions, he gives me the impression he is anti promotion/publicity.

Dear me, that looks a poor line up from Kent, even weaker now without Baseby.

I thought Matty Bates had been signed, has that fallen through ? You could always re-declare and put Tim Webster in on 8-74 in place of Danny Warwick, then replace Marc Owen with a rider up to just over 4.00, by the way we know what injury problem Danny has, but Marc Owen seems to have been forgotten in all of this, apparently he has an head injury, the last time Marc had an head injury and it was NOT so long ago, he was out for a long time, what is the injury situation with Marc ? does anyone know.

Cant see Kent having the all round strength to stop Cradley from taking the points here, think it will be damage limitation.

Take the lot of luck with a pinch of salt, i was there, it may have been ever so slightly to the Heathens disadvantage, but i know Georgie and Richard had EFs, on the other hand so did Ellis, as for riders falling well usually thats down to mistakes rather than luck. In the end the result was about right, but Eastbourne deserved a point for there efforts.

I think maybe Connor with assitance from what he said on Fb from Laurence Rogers.

Signing Matty Bates is a good move by Eastbourne, they have to move pretty quick as once they have ridden 4 meetings BWD will have a new average, and as we can see it will be far higher than his present 5 point average. Matty Bates is a decent rider and when he gates can be pretty quick, as for missing mid week meetings, if the Eagles are in with a shout of Silverware which they are, then i expect Bates to do far more mid week meetings than previously, and utilising RR away from home sometimes is NO disadvantage as i recall Buxton utilising that to good affect when they won the League a few years ago and had Garrity & Branford at reserve.

Funny you should mention counting, i said to CVS jokingly as i walked past, are you counting us in

I have to say i agree with you. After a steady 4 hour drive for my Home meeting here is my humble opinion on the meeting.of the current League Champions Cradley Heath against the Challengers from the South Eastbourne Eagles. The Heathens gained an early 6 point lead after just 2 Heats which could have been 8 points but for a fall for Michael Neale, this quickly laid to rest any nerves (including mine) about the outcome of the meeting, but then in Heat 3 ex Cradley Heathen Daryll Ritchings gave a hint it was NOT to be all one sided with the eagles first heat win over Matt Williamson, game ON, Then in heat 4 we had the highly anticipated and acclaimed youngster from the isles of New Zealand Bradley Wilson Dean up against another bright prospect from the Southern Hemispere in Ellis Perks, he was riding with the 17 year old highly regarded British Heathens Heat Leader Nathan Greaves, Nathan gated followed by BWD who was even more closely followed by Ellis who misjudged the entry into turn 2 lap 2 and fell but quickly remounted, BWD was charging hard around the outside of Nathan who under pressure from the Kiwi, made a mistake and fell, its not often in the NL that Nathan comes under such pressure when in front 5-1 to the Eagles, Then in Ht 5 most Heathens fans were expecting at least a 3-3, but David Mason and Richard Andrews had not read the script, put simply they gated and were gone, for a pretty easy 5-1 to the Eagles who had not only won the Heat 5-1 but edged in front overall 16-14. Heat 6 we had BWD up against OUR very OWN young Captain, the highly regarded British prospect rated by some 2nd only to Robert Lambert in his age group Max Clegg, could Max lower the colours of the young Kiwi, and would Cleggy go for it ? YES he did but destroyed the Tapes and was excluded, Team manager Pottinger IMO correctly decided it was just to much to ask Max to catch BWD off -15 so brought in Ellis Perks to again try to defeat the flying Kiwi, BWD gated and won pretty comfortably followed by the steady Arron Mogridge who could not make any impression on the leader, with Ellis a dissapointing third, that was 4 consecutive Heat winners from the Eagles and a 19-17 lead, Could Nathan stop the rot in Heat 7 ? Nathan gated, and despite heavy pressure from Darryl he held on to take the win from Dazza in 2nd and Mike Neale taking the valuable 3rd place to level the scores, we then had three consecutive Heat wins from two of Cradleys unsung heroes in Matt Williamson and Arron Mogridge who probably had his best ever NL score of 11 from four rides and only beaten by that man/boy BWD, Matt Williamson had the plaudits of being the first Cradley rider to beat Wilson Dean in Heat 9 by gating and holding off BWD despite strong pressure he never made a mistake and proved to the Cradley riders the Kiwi hotshot was beatable. During all of this Clegg and Harris had picked up a couple of 3rd places to edge into a 4 point lead at the interval. Much of the Terrace talk during the interval was could Cradley hold on due to the fact Bradley Wilson Dean would be in 3 of the 5 remaining races and Dazza probably in two of them, also what would Team manager Pottinger do in Heat 14. Onto the 2nd half of the meeting Heat 11 Young Nathan Greaves against BWD we saw the best of Wilson Dean he completely missed the gate and was at the back exiting bend 2, he quickly passed Neale and Mason, and set off after Nathan, for two laps he stalked Nathan until coming down the home straight out of bend 4 he went past Nathan going into the last lap, Mason held off a determined challenge from Mike Neale for third place 4-2 the Eagles. Then we had an eventful Heat 12 Cradleys duo of Williamson & Perks gated on a 5-1 until the 3rd bend when Georgie Wood in 3rd place took a nasty fall into bend 3, Dazza quickly laid his bike down Wood excluded. In the rerun as often happens this time Dazza gated and led from the tapes then Perks fell and was excluded, then there were two, Ritchings gated again and took a routine win from Matt who though never far behind couldnt get a telling challenge in 3-2 the Eagles 36-35 to Cradley, three races to go all to play for. Heat 13 saw three of the NLs brightest young prospects up against each other, we had BWD only beaten once up to that point, Cradleys Captain Clegg without a win until then, and Nathan beaten twice by BWD previously, the race was made up by the NLs highest ever points scores the veteran and Captain David Mason. The race didnt dissapoint the many Heathens fans present; 2 races in one, Cleggy gated BWD second, Mason 3rd, and Nathan out of bend two in last place, up front there was never much in it,but captain Clegg held enough speed and rode the right lines to keep a determined Wilson Dean behind him who try as he might could not find a way past, meanwhile behind this the action continued with David Mason trying to hold off a hard trying Nathan, the wily old campaigner did his best to out smart the youngster but on lap two Nathan had just to much speed for the veteran and squeezed past Mason to hold on for a valuable 3rd place point 4-2 the Heathens 43-40 overall. Onto heat 14 2 weeks ago team manager Pottinger made what many though was the wrong call by leaving in Young Luke Harris and taking out Mike Neale for Ellis Perks, this time around he made NO mistake and took young Luke out of the firing line and it was Perks and Neale against Andrews and Wood, Perks gated followed Neale looking like a 5-1 then Perks bike momentarily cut out and evreyone went past, but Mike rode a fine line to keep the eagles at bay, another shared heat 3-3 and its 43-40 going into the last, any result was still possible. Ht 15, Cometh the hour cometh the men Cleggster and Greaves against The flying BWD and Determined Dazza, From the gate Cleggy was like a rocket, tight in behind but Nathan came down the back straight in 2nd place and looking good, BWD burst past Darryl, and again had Nathan in his sites entering the home straight and into turn one lap 3 something had to give and it was BWD who fell, game OVER 5-1 to the Heathens and 48-41 overall meaning the Eagles failed to take the point there showing deserved. All in all it was a good nights racing hard but fair worth every penny of the £11 admission, The Heathens showed they will not be giving up the Title without a fight, a good all round showing of strength in depth, the Eagles also proved they will be flying high come the end of season, as for Bradley Wilson Dean, he is a fine young prospect and bodes well for the future of New Zealand Speedway, it wont be long before someone comes along with a cheque book, enjoy him while you have him.

Yes, because this time its Cradley Heathens you are riding against.

I dont like saying it but you could well be correct, those who think The Heathens will win by 8 i think need to be realistic, I can see only one weak link in the Eagles team, and thats there No1 and Captain, he just doesnt do it away from home these days. I dont underestimate my Team (The Heathens) but i am a realist, Yes we can win this, but we need everyone to be on TOP form, we have two weaknesses at the moment, the first is the young newcomers are proving to be inconsistant which is not unexpected from young riders, secondly and this is putting pressure on the rest of the Team is Nathan Greaves, i have a lot of time for Nathan but sometimes he is his own worst enemy by riding when not fully fit, currently he is not 100% fit and his scores are reflecting that, we badly need the real Nathan Greaves to show up on Wednesday, then Him, Cleggy, Matt, Ellis and Co can put some pressure on the young Eagles, but and this is what makes Eastbourne slight favourites, if ONE of those 4 riders has a poor night on Wednesday then i dont think the Heathens have the strength in depth to make up for it. However i do think it will be a cracking meeting, with nails being bitten come heat 15.

From what i have heard some of the Cradley riders have not been overly happy with the Track for the first 2 home meetings, they would like more dirt to be on the Track, whereas Tony Mole (Birmingham) seems to think the young riders wouldnt be able to handle more dirt, my reply to that scenario is put the dirt on for Cradley meetings, and take it off for Brummie meetings, i have been told that there is a racing line somewhere out wide, but i have yet to see it, every time i have seen a NL rider try out wide, they just seem to lose ground, so therefore it means as there is only an inside line, the riders behind have to rely on other riders making a mistake. I will be happy with a win by any margin. Dont forget the reborn Richard Andrews, this will be the meeting where we see if his form is an early season flash in the pan, or he really has found the habit of winning. You could well do more than nick a point, we really need Nathan to get 100% fit again, and start scoring double figures, to take the pressure off the rest of the Team.

Lets have a look at 2 of most supporters favourites for the League Title, who meet in an early season fixture on Wednesday. Firstly it looks from an Eastbourne point of view that it has been spoiled slightly by injuries, however it has does NOT in my opinion weaken them on Track providing they choose the right guests, and there are 3/4 riders who could do a job for Eastbourne. Cradley themselves have Nathan Greaves carrying an injury which does appear to be hampering his scoring so lets compare. Clegg V Mason, clearly Clegg at home clearly will score more than Mason away. Harris v RR, usually RR is used at No2, so i think RR will outscore Luke who is still learning both the Track and the art of Speedway. Williamson v Guest, This will be a key battle Matt has started the season well at PB, i believe Matt will have the edge over whoever the guest will be. Arron v Andrews, really difficult to predict, Arron is proving inconsistant, and Andrews is scoring way above anything i have ever seen from him over several seasons racing. Greaves v BWD, a fully fit Nathan would give BWD a race for his money however he isnt, so the Kiwi flyer will outscore Nathan. Perks v Wood, this is clearly going to be a key area i have a pretty good idea what Perks can do, having never seen Wood its difficult but i have to say Perks will outscore Wood. Neale v Dugard, again difficult to predict which Michael will turn up, and never seen Dugard, so i will give this as a slight home advantage. I can see this coming down to another last Heat decider, Eastbourne have been impressive so far, but thats mostly down in the South East, this fixture will give a far clearer idea as to where they are. I really hope the 2 injuries that Marc and Danny have picked up are not so bad as first feared, as for Cradley we are NOT the unbeatables that many thought we may be, and Eastbourne are faring much better than many people thought, Yes we were made aware of BWD, but did ANYONE think Andrews and Wood would score the points that they have done so far this season ?. this can only be good for the NL, and i look forward to a fiercely competitive meeting on Wednesday. I hope all the riders stay safe, and The Heathens take the 3 points.

Best wishes and heres to a Speedy recovery for Marc and Danny. Im not 100% sure, usually its a guest for a missing No1, and then RR for other missing riders, but as you have 2 riders out i believe you can go with a guest and RR. So using a Guest for the highest of the 2 riders ie James Shanes or Tom Stokes then RR of which 1 ride from an average above, and 3 rides from riders below, this should mean Shanes or Stokes, BWD, Andrews and Wood can take the RR rides, realistically IMO it makes you stronger, though its always preferable to track your own riders.