Bojangles 614 Posted May 2 (edited) 10 hours ago, Technik said: Excellent racing all night. Killeen was the match winner in my view. Bougoen looks like a beaten man, A big off in his first race then he backed out going into turn 3 in another his confidence is so low I believe he should return to NDL & learn how to win races. He is still 16 & has a big future theres no need to push so hard in his first full season. Glasgow to be fair other than Harris & Worrall looked poor. The reserves were very bad & both vastly experienced with good family pedigrees. Well done Oxford. It's going to be a headache fitting extra meetings in with 3 teams to run. Lets hope the rain continues to dodge Oxford. A bit of a damning assessment of Boughen based on one meeting in my opinion. Up until last night he had been improving each week. He comfortably beat Anders Rowe twice in his last Spires match, and beat Jason Doyle the week before at Ipswich. Not to mention outscoring Luke Killeen (8pts to 1pt) against Plymouth with two heat wins - and scoring six points and a heat win in the away fixture against Glasgow. He's also beaten the likes of Leon Flint (x3), Dan Thompson and Dan Gilkes, so not sure what else you expect from a 16-year old. He's never going to have consistency at this age, but can only think you've based your opinion on seeing one fixture? Edited May 2 by Bojangles 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheWellBehavedWorrall 338 Posted May 2 (edited) Boughen was poor last night, but I agree with the last post; the bigger picture shows he’s exceeded expectations this season, especially for a 16 year-old. His heat two win at Ashfield was an outrageous display of technical ability. His track craft was as responsible as his speed for his pass of Pijper. Edited May 2 by TheWellBehavedWorrall 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BackInTheDHSS 133 Posted May 2 15 minutes ago, Bojangles said: A bit of a damning assessment of Boughen based on one meeting in my opinion. Up until last night he had been improving each week. He comfortably beat Anders Rowe twice in his last Spires match, and beat Jason Doyle the week before at Ipswich. Not to mention outscoring Luke Killeen (8pts to 1pt) against Plymouth with two heat wins - and scoring six points and a heat win in the away fixture against Glasgow. He's also beaten the likes of Leon Flint (x3), Dan Thompson and Dan Gilkes, so not sure what else you expect from a 16-year old. He's never going to have consistency at this age, but can only think you've based your opinion on seeing one fixture? You could argue Ashton Boughen hasn't been the huge success we thought he would be but we have to remember he's only 16 and - more importantly - only just started his second full season. He's been riding competitive speedway 18 months only. Definitely need to give him time. Last night he was poor and he was poor against Ipswich. He's going to have bad meetings, however he's also going to have good meetings. The fact he can have good meetings means that he's more than good enough to compete at this level. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Paulco 7,149 Posted May 2 Oh well you can't win them all . The heat leaders did their job , but had little or no back up hence the amount of last places and no heat advantages . Think that might be the norm for us this season away from Ashfield . But well done Oxford , hope you go on and win the cup now 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fromafar 10,499 Posted May 2 11 hours ago, Technik said: Excellent racing all night. Killeen was the match winner in my view. Bougoen looks like a beaten man, A big off in his first race then he backed out going into turn 3 in another his confidence is so low I believe he should return to NDL & learn how to win races. He is still 16 & has a big future theres no need to push so hard in his first full season. Glasgow to be fair other than Harris & Worrall looked poor. The reserves were very bad & both vastly experienced with good family pedigrees. Well done Oxford. It's going to be a headache fitting extra meetings in with 3 teams to run. Lets hope the rain continues to dodge Oxford. Big harsh on Ashton,he did have bad night but don’t see any point on him dropping back to NDL which is very substandard compared to previous years will not really benefit him IMO.To be the best you have to race the best.He is a talent. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Fromafar 10,499 Posted May 2 1 hour ago, TheWellBehavedWorrall said: First of all, congratulations to Oxford. Boughen aside, that was an outstanding team effort. Secondly, I think it’s safe to say Glasgow won’t be putting up much of a title defence. Flint is an odd one. He’s putting points on the board, but said points are flattering him; he’s dropped more points from scoring positions than any other Glasgow rider this season. He doesn’t look comfortable in a Glasgow race suit. Aside from his win in heat fourteen, Starke was a disgrace. As was Pearson. Nowhere near being remotely good enough. Guests at reserve are always a toss of the coin, but I genuinely think Cami Brown might have grabbed two punters off the Cowley streets and put two helmets on them. That wasn’t the same Jack Smith who guested at Ashfield on Friday night and Conor Coles genuinely looked like it was his first encounter with a speedway bike. I suppose that’s the downside with being champions, isn’t it? You have standards to maintain and when you fall so short, it requires addressing. Flint is overrated. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SPEEDY69 1,282 Posted May 2 1 hour ago, Bojangles said: A bit of a damning assessment of Boughen based on one meeting in my opinion. Up until last night he had been improving each week. He comfortably beat Anders Rowe twice in his last Spires match, and beat Jason Doyle the week before at Ipswich. Not to mention outscoring Luke Killeen (8pts to 1pt) against Plymouth with two heat wins - and scoring six points and a heat win in the away fixture against Glasgow. He's also beaten the likes of Leon Flint (x3), Dan Thompson and Dan Gilkes, so not sure what else you expect from a 16-year old. He's never going to have consistency at this age, but can only think you've based your opinion on seeing one fixture? I'm not really bothered about his age as I don't think that's relevant, experience and ability are. When in front he's shown this year he can get around the track fast enough. For me what he needs to learn this year is how to 'race' i.e. be in really close contact with other riders at full pelt and be confident enough to stand his ground. Last night when in close contention he backed off going into turn three and not to do that is what he needs to develop. With all the racing he's doing he's got plenty of opportunity to develop thsi and I think he's done a great job so far for Oxford. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheWellBehavedWorrall 338 Posted May 2 1 hour ago, Fromafar said: Flint is overrated. Performing wheelies at Shielfied Park after heat fifteen, having just come last and subsequently cemented Glasgow‘s defeat, spoke absolute volumes about his mentality. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MB723 17 Posted May 2 1 hour ago, SPEEDY69 said: I'm not really bothered about his age as I don't think that's relevant, experience and ability are. When in front he's shown this year he can get around the track fast enough. For me what he needs to learn this year is how to 'race' i.e. be in really close contact with other riders at full pelt and be confident enough to stand his ground. Last night when in close contention he backed off going into turn three and not to do that is what he needs to develop. With all the racing he's doing he's got plenty of opportunity to develop thsi and I think he's done a great job so far for Oxford. To be fair, he wasn't really backing off round Ashfield. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Noelinho 963 Posted May 2 1 hour ago, SPEEDY69 said: I'm not really bothered about his age as I don't think that's relevant, experience and ability are. When in front he's shown this year he can get around the track fast enough. For me what he needs to learn this year is how to 'race' i.e. be in really close contact with other riders at full pelt and be confident enough to stand his ground. Last night when in close contention he backed off going into turn three and not to do that is what he needs to develop. With all the racing he's doing he's got plenty of opportunity to develop this and I think he's done a great job so far for Oxford. Not sure it would be better to throw the bike in, crash a lot, and get hurt. He's got speed, that's something that's hard to teach. He'll work the rest out in time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Neila 1,219 Posted May 2 Aston boughen is a great prospect saw him several times last year in the NDL, but he is only 16 and imo he is doing too much, and risks burn out or that can't be bothered doing this anymore if the expected results don't come, hope he's successful Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mac101 1,213 Posted May 2 2 hours ago, MB723 said: To be fair, he wasn't really backing off round Ashfield. Ashfield is a racers track very safe to ride flat out really smooth this year too with no problems on the third bend 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bandits4eva 1,011 Posted May 2 3 hours ago, TheWellBehavedWorrall said: Performing wheelies at Shielfied Park after heat fifteen, having just come last and subsequently cemented Glasgow‘s defeat, spoke absolute volumes about his mentality. He's got family, friends and sponsors in Berwick and had been one of the away team to make a genuine pass that night. You were just beat by the better team that night... He moved away from Berwick to take his career forward and has went to a track he was known to struggle with. It would have taken a lot of balls to step out of his comfort zone the way he has done IMO. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheWellBehavedWorrall 338 Posted May 2 3 hours ago, Bandits4eva said: He's got family, friends and sponsors in Berwick and had been one of the away team to make a genuine pass that night. You were just beat by the better team that night... He moved away from Berwick to take his career forward and has went to a track he was known to struggle with. It would have taken a lot of balls to step out of his comfort zone the way he has done IMO. While I don’t disagree with most of that, I’m at a loss as to how it counter points my post. Out of respect for your employer (Glasgow, in this instance), I don’t believe it’s appropriate to perform celebratory acts (wheelies, for example) having literally seconds before finished last in a heat they needed you to succeed in. Call me old fashioned, but maybe too many years at Berwick where there’s been zero expectation to compete has created somewhat of a loser mentality. I hope he improves, of course. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JanAndersen 835 Posted May 2 22 hours ago, Triple.H. said: Did you make it to the match ? Sadly not. I’ll be along to Oxford on Monday though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
