cradleysaddler

Heathens Fans Forum. Concerned fans of The Cradley Heathens Speedway Team, are urging all supporters to attend a Fans Forum, to be held at The Netherton Conservative Club, 1 Halton Street, Netherton, Dudley, DY2 0PJ on 9th January. 7.30pm start time. The meeting has been arranged by supporters , to gather opinions and thoughts on the short and long term future of the club. Concerns have been raised again, following difficulties to obtain a permanent home in the area for the world famous team. The club have continued to track share at Monmore Green and Perry Barr over the last few seasons, but with uncertainty over available dates, they can only commit to a reduced race schedule The fans want to see how they can influence the situation and work together with all parties, to secure a long term future for the Heathens. Everyone is welcome to participate, air their views and ideas, which will in turn hopefully spark some much needed impetus and generate further appetite, for fans to get involved. The event has been warmly received by the Heathens Management, who are keen to listen to the fans ideas and work together to find a solution to the long running saga. It is hoped that the Heathens faithful turn out in force, to what could be another turning point in the history of the club. Organisers: Tracey Robinson-Rivers, Jacky Mcnaney, Jackie Mason, Grant Marks and Simon Priest.

http://www.supporters-direct.org/news-article/a-first-for-speedway

Nigel has been in touch with me tonight and said the following,"He is happy to have a chat with you on Tuesday before the Belle Vue match in the pits".

I doubt that.

My point was not about the critisism of the riders or team it was about making accusations that there are problems within the club. Please dont give me stats, I was there and saw what happened at the meetings. Regarding Royno, he may have come back to early, but he did win 3 of his rides for us to win the Fours, no one was complaining then! Yes we want to win but sometimes we need a reality check, We have achieved so much in two years and now it is the time for the fans to stick with the club through the difficult times. Its easy for lots of fans to turn up when we are winning but the club and riders need them now more than ever to give them their support. I have no doubt that a majority of fans will do this and we will move on. If we were racing at a higher level I could understand the critisism but at this level its tough for the lads and they need support imho. I know most of the team and we have a bunch of decent lads who want to do well not just for themselves but for the club, they understand the desire to win and they were very disappointed last night. But I know that they will go out tonight and do their best, what more can we ask for.

Can I just say that messages such as this do the club or anyone any favours, stop looking for problems within the club. If all was that bad we would not have won the Four team tournament despite people having written us off before the meeting had begun. As for the ommerin's, well we can discount the BV one for starters, because we ended up with only three fit riders. I take no pleasure in reading comments like this when the person writing it, has seen very little Heathens meetings and can only comment on what others have seen. You may not like what I am saying but it is the truth and you seem to be trying to create issues when there are non. We were beaten by a better side, like it or lump it, move on.

I have highlighted the two pieces above refering to Dudley fans causing trouble. These two people have absolutely no idea what the situation was regarding what happened and really need to keep their comments to themselves. The incident was not split up between the security guards and there WAS NO TROUBLE. You really need to start getting facts correct here, No punches were thrown and the two people were having a heated discussion yes. The reason for this was the ill conceived comments from Mr Howarth, who was being interviewed. His comments were out of order and caused a response from the fans. Some of the responses were in my opionion out of order and one fan was reminded of this and was told to calm down. This was all in the heat of the moment and after a long discussion things were dealt with amicably. As for the two people on here trying to dramatise things up , Firstly an apology on here from both of you is expected and secondly, as for the comment of louts, you are having a laugh. I was one of the people in the heated incident and I am definately not a lout, do not try and bring my character into disrepute, I have been speedway fan since 1983 and never been in any trouble whatsoever. GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT Last night at Monmore Green, We had a grippy track to ride on and an entertaining meeting was had, yes it was a good win for the Heathens but it was an entertaining night, Tonight was totally different, it was an embarrasment to our sport, by the way, after Heat 6 the heathens fans just wanted to go home, they could not care less about the result and many didnt want their money back, just wanted to ensure that our riders came back safely with us. Sadly that was not to be.

I understand where you are coming from but Billy, Greg etc did earn alot more than the current bunch, ANyway lets agree to disagree, good bit of TV publicity tonight for the club and speedway in general.

I think the above is harsh on the Dudley riders concerned. Both riders have been committed to the club throughout the season and in fact Jake has been an ever present along with Ashley Morris. If a situation appears to help all and it makes common sense and all parties agree, then where is the problem here. Ok the paying public could not see the riders for one last time but the public were aware that they were not going to appear in advance of the meeting being staged.I am sure that had we been involved in any finals the duo would have been there. We all want common sense in speedway this was one occasion it happens and riders still get criticised. More concerning is riders only able to ride at home and a facility is used for them because they cannot make away meetings. Now this does really annoy fans, especially when we hear constantly that young riders are not given an opportunity to race. It also affects the team lineup, becuase aforementioned rider does not get a new average and therefore retains his old average and stays in the main body of the team allowing other riders to take his rides. I am not having a go at the promotion of the club in particular because it is within the rules and fair play to them for using it to their advantage, and in light of the Charles Wright situation who can blame them. However, this facility really needs to be looked into along with countless other issues.

Can we drop the Dudley thing please. No one complained when Jake Anderson took over from Adam McKinna or Jon Armstrong ( Older Brit ) took over from Ben Taylor. At least Dudley gave James an opportunity at the start of the season. Whats the difference between that and the start of the season, when other teams included Aussies in their original line up. Surely it all adds up to the same thing, taking places of young British Riders. So blame the BSPA and not the Heathens, they are giving themselves the best opportunity to be successful, which hopeully may bring a new track and consequently give riders more opportunities in the future.