MattJ81

Thanks, I hadn't seen that

Rumour was that last season would be Max's last in the NL, although I guess that depends on how things go for him with team places in leagues higher up. Would certainly be a massive space to fill, but at least with us starting team building a little earlier this year we can get cracking

I'm sure Cradley could sustain it but I believe it Nigel has already said it would depend heavily on availability of dates at Monmore (obviously) and at present the costs associated with the PL are more than they would be prepared to risk - he quoted the example of Kenny Bjerre coming into the league after just missing out on a GP spot compared to the good old days of teams made up mostly of younger British riders with (mostly) British stars at the top (Stoney/Carr etc), though he also mentioned Long Eaton which shows how long ago he is thinking. With the teams that are looking to drop into the NL it may end up looking very different, although there must be doubts over Cov and Belle Vue as NL starters. I do hope that the traditional long term NL teams such as Buxton don't end up in difficulty as a lot of larger stand alone teams are forced into the league to survive and need to build competitive teams

Club colours that match his leathers?

I was impressed with Bacon around Perry Barr last year, always thought it looked a good signing based on at the very least an increase in his home average but to put the best part of 3 points on is a great result for him and the Brummies

So Cradley's move to bring in Tyler Govier has been blocked His average was too high to replace James Purchase in August so he was due to come into the team in September when it dropped below James' but the deadline for signings is August 31st! Two other teams objected to the move so it was blocked ​Should it take other clubs to object if a move doesn't fit within the rules? Surely it should have been noticed at the time of ratification? Either way we are going to have to stick with R/R for the rest of the season (again) - the club mention in their statement that they will explore the possibility of handing rides to a number 8 which would at least relieve some of the pressure on the reserves

According to Cradley they have not been made aware of any decision/outcome of the investigation by the SCB, which seems very strange

Cradley add Layne Cupitt to their squad after his release from Kings Lynn (he is replaced by Lewis Whitmore in the Young Stars team) http://www.cradleyheathens.co/news.php?extend.1524 I can see the logic with Jack Kingston missing and Layne needing a track closer to home (not to mention other possible team changes) , hope it works out well for him

Sadly I think the only thing that stopped them was Cradley no longer being around to win them They were a highlight of the season though, especially with Hamill and Hancock in the Cradley team who rode Monmore like it was their home track

Cradley last night was a lower crowd than usual, certainly outside, but it was very cold and as we were setting out there was a hail storm (which later found its way to Monmore). Also West Brom football were on the tele which may have kept a few away. The Rye House meeting was switched at the last minute from the Monday night to the Tuesday due to weather but the crowd looked OK and the first meeting was a healthy crowd compared to recent Cradley meetings both at Monmore and especially last year at PB I believe Cradley will have a higher average attendance this season than last and I wouldn't imagine it will be down on previous Monmore seasons, although I appreciate it's all subjective and mostly guesswork

I was impressed with his ride when leading Hopwood, he rode a great line for 3 laps covering the probably moves even though ultimately he couldn't keep him at bay for the whole race A decent meeting with some good races, while as mentioned above I don't think we have the strongest team in the league it is a pretty old fashioned Cradley team with 2 super strong heat leaders, solid back-up (Chessell so far has been more than solid back up) and youngsters who will have good and bad meetings.

There is an extensive and as of January 2016 up to date links page on the long standing cradleyspeedway.co.uk site, with current and defunct clubs as well as many riders individual pages listed

I had a listen to the first episode earlier in the week and enoyed it. Thought Jason Doyle's comment that the money in British Speedway isn't now far off what is available in Poland/Sweden (presumably as theirs in coming down rather than the Elite League going up!) was interesting, he mentioned it in the same breath as a single race night as a way that more of the top riders would return to the Elite League which I guess is a fairly universal opinion from said riders.

It's OK, Cradley are due on tonight so your observations are still valid Whether the track can handle 2 meetings in 2 days after the recent weather is probably another discussion

A shame but not a surprise everything being considered. Was looking forward to a good old fashioned bank holiday double header but these things happen. Hope the meeting at Monmore isn't affected by the weather. Will definitely look to get to the meeting at BV when it is restaged if possible ​

Sadly IOW have solved that possible problem by dropping Perks in a reshuffle due to injury Not a great few days for Ellis going from 2 teams to 0 - hope he gets fixed up somewhere

Terrible news, have been to Plymouth a few times over the years and enjoyed our visit last season for the Edinburgh meeting. The kids enjoyed the bouncy castle and I enjoyed standing so close to the 2nd bend exit that I got covered in shale! Sincerely hope that something can be done to keep the club alive

Yep, just booked the day off work and everything!

Does that mean Cradley are likely to start on Monday 28th, as Wolves are Tuesday 29th? I think the plan was for both teams to have home meetings on Easter Bank Holiday

Cradley could fit him in? As mentioned above Bacon will be a great signing for the team that secures his services

Yep would agree with you there. I think Moggo is buying a house so needs a steadier income, not sure if there is a specific reason behind Mikey's decision but he struggled with equipment damage last year and had a few nasty knocks. Fingers crossed they are both back sooner rather than later

Ash Morris tweeted last week that they have removed the rule about having to leave the NL if a rider gains a PL berth, which removes that potential issue I have read elsewhere that both Mike Neale and Moggo have decided to take a year out

Scratch that re Williamson, with Morris coming back to Cradley Matt will obviously be elsewhere so BV would make sense

That's a proper old school Cradley top 2. Can't see too many teams matching Ash and Max in the big heats, just a case of whether we can make the right signings to back them up I guess

CRADLEY co-boss Gary Patchett has revealed how a rival National League club objected to the signing of Bradley Andrews on a three-point average. At Wednesday's National League AGM, the question was raised by one club over the signing of the Heathens reserve. Despite currently living in New Zealand, Andrews is the holder of a British Passport, British parents and grandparents and has never represented the Kiwis in any form of official competition. The objection was turned down and Andrews will be included in the Heathens side as planned. Said Patchett: "I was very disappointed to see one club in particular seemingly hell bent on scuppering our plans and potentially jeopardising the careers of young British riders. "I won't go into too much more detail, they know who they are, and in my opinion they should be ashamed of themselves. "It was clear to both myself and Chris (Van Straaten - Heathens co-promoter) that this wasn't about Bradley himself, it was just an opportunistic attempt to derail our club plans. "That was the only real negative from the AGM really which saw a few rule changes for the 2016 season. "The Gold Cup was effectively just a competition after the culmination of the league season. "I always felt that our supporters at Cradley never bought into that competition in the same way the would have done had they been the play-offs to determine the league Champions. "The re-introduction of the play-offs wasn't met by all-round approval but it was obviously passed with a majority so that's what we're reverting to. "Scrapping the tactical ride rule was a bit of a strange one because it came out of nowhere right at the end of the meeting. "The proposal came from another club who wanted to re-embrace the traditional side of speedway. "Personally I would like to see all three British leagues working as closely as possible and all working with the same rules. "It's a shame one league goes with a rule and another one doesn't but it's a democracy and in the end the vote in the National League was eventually passed with quite a substantial amount of votes for it to be scrapped. "It's good to see two new teams enter the league in the Isle of Wight and Belle Vue. "I was talking to the Isle of Wight representatives prior to the meeting and they were very nervous to say the least but I think that was always going to be a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's. "A 40-point team limit seemed very favourable prior to the AGM and that was passed almost instantly without hardly any other consideration for an alternative. "We now know for sure which path we want to go down and hopefully we can announce a few more of our team members in the coming days." Meanwhile, Perry Barr was voted Best Prepared Track for the 2015 National League on Cradley racenights. The club would like to once again thank all the Birmingham track staff for their hard work during a difficult season.