Dudley Heathens Vs. Isle Of Wight Islanders

[willp 0]

DUDLEY Heathens aim to continue their push for the National League play-offs when they face Isle of Wight Islanders at their adopted Monmore Green home on Tuesday (7.30).

The former Cradley club are unbeaten in five outings on home shale and the meeting signals the start of a hectic spell for the team.

They head to Newport on Friday, then face Stoke in the Knockout Cup Semi-Final on Sunday with the return at Wolverhampton next Tuesday and a league trip to King’s Lynn the next night.

That’s five meetings in nine days for the Heathens in a vital phase of their season.

Boss Will Pottinger said: “We need to start this busy spell for the boys with a win on Tuesday and we will be going for it.

“We made really hard work of our last home meeting against Hackney and we cannot afford a repeat of that.

“The Islanders have some good riders with lots of experience like Nick Simmons and Lee Smethills so we will have to be on our toes.

“If we can get three points from this meeting then we will have plenty of confidence to carry forward to Newport on Friday.”

Admission is just £10 adults, £6 concessions and £2 children and the programme is £2. It includes a feature on the Dudley-Wolves Trophy, plus a look back at a memory meeting and columns from boss Pottinger and chairman Nigel Pearson.

 

HEATHENS: Jon Armstrong, Richard Franklin, Tom Perry, Ashley Morris, Kyle Newman, Darryl Ritchings, Danny Stoneman.

 

ISLE OF WIGHT: Paul Starke, Rob Smith, Lee Smethills, Brendan Johnson, Nick Simmons, Ross Walter, Gary Cotham.

[Brummie Kev 519]

Massive Heathens win, would imagine it will be a bit tricky for the Islanders to adapt to the tight and technical Monmore Green track. Its only slighty different to Smallbrook.

[heathen79 6]

Would be nice to get an easy win for a change instead of making hard work of it! The confidence boost would be good too, especially with some tough fixtures ahead over the next week.

[BobC 664]

Start of a very busy time for Kyle.

 

Tonight at Dudley,Weds Poole v Swindon,Thurs Ipswich v Dudley,Friday Newport v Dudley and Sunday Stoke v Dudley.

 

However,he has been drawn to ride in Poland this weekend for the World U21 Championship,as 1st reserve. He is actively trying to get permission to not travel.If he has to attend or is upgraded to a top 16 place,Kyle will miss the trips to Newport and Stoke.

 

Dont understand why Dudley arranged the Stoke fixture while knowing about the U21's before he signed.

[Fourentee 987]

Start of a very busy time for Kyle.

 

Tonight at Dudley,Weds Poole v Swindon,Thurs Ipswich v Dudley,Friday Newport v Dudley and Sunday Stoke v Dudley.

 

Ipswich v Dudley? Getting above themselves a bit?

[greyhoundp 990]

Any updates on this meeting tonight ??

[BobC 664]

Ipswich v Dudley? Getting above themselves a bit?

Ooops,just testing.Well spotted!

[21st century heathen 220]

Updates should be available.

 

http://www.speedwayupdates.co.uk/

 

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I wouldn't say Ips are getting above themselves. We would allow them to grace the same shale as us.

 

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I'ts a busy period we're heading into and some tough meetings to come so with all due respect I'm hoping our boys turn it on tonight, all click on the same night for the first time and post a big score. It would be a nice boost ahead of what are, on paper, some tricky looking meetings.

[Fourentee 987]

Ipswich v Dudley? Getting above themselves a bit?

 

 

Ooops,just testing.Well spotted!

 

Actually I was referring to Ipswich...

[heathen79 6]

Great win from the Heathens. Good form from all the lads. Picking up maximum points at home is important as most top teams do, but what's really standing out for us again so far is our percentage of league points picked up away from home (see MiniMax League table), so it's off to Newport for an important one on Friday with some confidence.

 

[deathbymilkfloat 12]

Start of a very busy time for Kyle.

 

Tonight at Dudley,Weds Poole v Swindon,Thurs Ipswich v Dudley,Friday Newport v Dudley and Sunday Stoke v Dudley.

 

However,he has been drawn to ride in Poland this weekend for the World U21 Championship,as 1st reserve. He is actively trying to get permission to not travel.If he has to attend or is upgraded to a top 16 place,Kyle will miss the trips to Newport and Stoke.

 

Dont understand why Dudley arranged the Stoke fixture while knowing about the U21's before he signed.

any news yet on where kyle is racing,seems pointless going all way to poland and maybe not get a ride,surely his services would be of better use for the heathens.

[BobC 664]

He will ride at Newport,then make a mad dash through the night to get there in time for the meeting.

 

We did the same last year,leaving Somerset just before 10pm and getting to a track (Landshut) a similar distance away by 3pm. Didnt get a ride in the meeting,left there at midnight-ish and drove all the way back through the night and got to Newport for the Sunday afternoon meeting!

 

Then promptly got stuffed in the fence in his first ride and had to withdraw from the meeting!

 

It is possible to do it all,but it will be very,very tight.

[21st century heathen 220]

Good on ya Kyle and you too by the sounds of it Bob.

 

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Cracking all round performance by the lads last night. Finally we got to see something akin to the best of them all on the same night. It was particularly pleasing to see 'Fred' back to his best. He looked unlikely to be beaten by a visitor last night and it was certainly his best performance of the season so far. Sport can be so cruel though and ironically it probably ended up costing him more than he's made so far this year. It looked a big blow up rather than something like ignition or fuel related. MOTM must be nice for the riders and it's a great gesture by the sponsors of course but a new tyre doesn't really stack up against the expense of rebuilding an engine. Gutted for Tom but there were plenty of positives to take from the meeting. I wonder if any PL scouts were in town? The fact that Tom was unbeaten apart from an engine failure but ended up 5th in our score chart shows that the points were gobbled up and shared around well between the Heathens. Armo didn't look particularly quick but only dropped a point, Rich had a very solid night from start to finish but was rather sucker-punched on the last turn of heat 15 (well done Nick though), Ash rode well throughout but typical of the lad he was annoyed with himself for not forcing a way past Nick when dropping his only point of the night, Kyle was superb and looked quite quick and aggressive when it was needed (leaning on Starke to prevent himself being forced out) but a couple of sluggish gates might have cost him against the very best heat leaders in the league (something to work on for the big meetings - should we get that far in the league/cup), Darryl rather tailed off whereas we generally see him get better as the night goes on so that was a slight disappointment on the night (to himself in his post-meeting comments as much as the fans) but 6 from 4 is a solid score for a lad in his first full season of team racing and finally Danny did well to chip with paid 4 from his 4 rides and continues to show improvement (got to get to the first turn with the rest on a consistent basis to score more IMO though).

 

For the visitors I will start with a special mention for their best performers Smith and Cottham. The former had a cracking start to the meeting, though a little fortunate to get a second chance to win heat 1 when Armo had lead the original staging, but slipped off for no apparent reason (though I'm sure from his POV there was a perfectly good reason ) and then gave away too much at the start of heat 15. Although last he got himself back in the fight in heat 15 though so I hope those just reading don't think he tailed off too badly. His scoring did but his performance didn't really. The only real negative for me was that I felt he could have cleared the track when he fell. He was up quickly, clearly unhurt and made no attempt whatsoever to push the bike to the inside of the track. In fact even by the time to the red lights came on he was still stood by the fence. That certainly won't detract from a good effort as far as the Islanders are concerned though. He was the visitors MOTM for my money. Cottham didn't initially look like turning in a performance worthy of any particular comment but improved after being comfortably left in heat 2 by Darryl and being beaten by Danny in his 3rd outing. I rather suspected that was going to be about as good as it got for him, but fair play to him for ending his night with two good rides. He was certainly improved late on. Whether that was getting to grips with the track or tweaking his set up I don't know but something worked out nicely as he shot out the start in heat 12 and made Tom work for a couple of laps. Simmons was a disappointment for me. He's a nice bloke and a very solid and steady rider at this level so he was the one rider I said before the meeting I'd like to see ride well against us. I just thought his gating might be better to get himself in a stronger position more often. He was doing to the hard way too often and with our boys all 'on it' it was something of a struggle. At the opposite end of the scale was Walter who was simply outclassed, though I understand he has very little experience on a surface with a habit of moving and Smethills. Quite frankly the latter should have no excuses for such a poor show as he has plenty of experience. He really was very poor. Starke was another that annoyed me by not clearing the track and his start to the meeting would certainly have disappointed all concerned with the Islanders I should imagine. He did improve though and was certainly trying and on the pace at the end. The Heathens were just too good for him on the night. That just leaves Johnson who was somewhere in between the lot. There's very little to say about him on the night really. He was solidly in the points without ever threatening to be a real danger to us but never looked like throwing points away either. A disappointing score but a very steady display. I suspect against a weaker team, or certainly not one that didn't have a weak link on the night, he could have ended up with 6/7 points which would have been a very useful score. I certainly wouldn't give him any stick for 4 steady third places last night.

[deathbymilkfloat 12]

He will ride at Newport,then make a mad dash through the night to get there in time for the meeting.

 

We did the same last year,leaving Somerset just before 10pm and getting to a track (Landshut) a similar distance away by 3pm. Didnt get a ride in the meeting,left there at midnight-ish and drove all the way back through the night and got to Newport for the Sunday afternoon meeting!

 

Then promptly got stuffed in the fence in his first ride and had to withdraw from the meeting!

 

It is possible to do it all,but it will be very,very tight.

fair play to the lad if he does,he will be absolutely knackered and sleeping all day monday,thanks for updates bob and have safe journeys.

[greyhoundp 990]

Bob, I heard you and Kyles dad were in line for Jenson Buttons job at Mclaren, any truth in it ?? .