Hunters

Disappointing night last night. Ben Morley and Rob Brandford untouchable, out and gone whilst the other four usually trailing or on the deck. Not a decent race until heat 15. For me this was the worst match since joining NL, smallest crowd as well so they obviously anticipated it. What a shame Adam Ellis was missing there would have been 4 cracking good races I am sure, though I have to say Jake Knight tried his heart out and made the big two keep on their toes and his ride in 15 was just reward for his efforts. I can understand Raiders supporters disappointment but at least they do have another team. I said at the start of the season that they were too top heavy and would be challenging for the wooden spoon. You just cannot do that unless you are pretty sure you have some secret fire power at reserve like Birmingham have for the last two seasons. Different philosophies will also apply, the four 'Reserve Teams' prime function is to develop young riders to move into the first team and hopefully provide a bit of support revenue to cover stadium costs. The stand alone clubs have to make attendance the priority in order to survive. To do that they have to adopt the Win,Win,Win attitude so often complained about because that's what the majority of the paying public want nowadays. This applies to pretty much all modern sport. Football is a prime example I wonder what the average tenure is for a Premier League manager?

Not into modern Tech and links but Page 5 of yesterdays Herald with headline 'Speedway site reassessed by Wealden council planners'. There is a map in outline which can be viewed on line. Presumably on Wealden council Web.

Awful news ! The local paper today reports that Wealden Council are reviewing sites for potential housing developments including those that were rejected previously one of which is Arlington. Bob Dugard has expressed delight and says he has been trying to sell the stadium since 2014. The council are looking for land to meet their share of the new housing demands placed on the south east. Could this be the end of Eastbourne Speedway?

I was not impressed either but unfortunately it seems to happen in many places we had a similar situation with some Brummie fans in the gold cup last year. A sign of the deterioration of so called civilisation over the last 50 years. People seem to take vile and abusive language as the norm nowadays, very sad, no class.

The family are British, I understand his father works as a contractor for the British Army on the Rhine so the kids had to be with them and the only way they could ride was in Germany. They came over in the holidays in 2013 to ride in the British Youth championship one round and then when Daniel was old enough to travel alone came to Eastbourne last summer. Hopefully Ethan will join him next year. He did not choose Germany over Britain but has simply ridden whenever given the opportunity and would no doubt jump at the chance to ride for GB. He cannot put his hopes and career on the line because his father's work has taken him overseas.

Irrelevant. He came in last year under the then parentage rule on a 5.0 Did not need one, that rule came in this year.

Hope Jade Mudgway is not too badly hurt after his accident. They did not say what the problem was just whisked him off to hospital. The meeting was disappointing. Danny Ayres was like lighting out of the gate which also earned him two warnings and a fine. He was very impressive and seem to get better every time he comes here. If only Adam Ellis had been around we could have had three cracking races. Jake Knight put in a couple of good chases but staying with and getting by are different things. I think the pressure contributed to Danny's mistake in heat 15, 25 yards from the finish, an exact replica of Kyle Hughes accident on Good Friday but fortunately without an injury this time. Ryan Blacklock was a big let down, he looked so good when he came last year we were rather hoping he might join us but every one of his nine points was at the expense of one of the reserves. They had to take 24 rides between them and before his accident Jade looked a bit at sea and even lost to Charlie Powell. Consequently there were few things to enthuse about although there were a couple of tussles between the reserves.

Hope Jade Mudgway is not too badly hurt after his accident. They did not say what the problem was just whisked him off to hospital. The meeting was disappointing. Danny Ayres was like lighting out of the gate which also earned him two warnings and a fine. He was very impressive and seem to get better every time he comes here. If only Adam Ellis had been around we could have had three cracking races. Jake Knight put in a couple of good chases but staying with and getting by are different things. I think the pressure contributed to Danny's mistake in heat 15, 25 yards from the finish, an exact replica of Kyle Hughes accident on Good Friday but fortunately without an injury this time. Ryan Blacklock was a big let down, he looked so good when he came last year we were rather hoping he might join us but every one of his nine points was at the expense of one of the reserves. They had to take 24 rides between them and before his accident Jade looked a bit at sea and even lost to Charlie Powell. Consequently there were few things to enthuse about although there were a couple of tussles between the reserves.

That has been my thought for a long time but he can use him sparingly for three selected matches plus the cup. It may also be that he already has next years 3.0 star in Ethan Spiller lined up, we will have to wait and see.

Martin Dugard says in the Argos that he will have no hesitation in putting Tom Brennan into the league as soon as he is 15 if he is better than what we have. He is 15 on July 2nd and we are home to Birmingham on July 2nd. That would be very interesting.

We knew weeks ago we would be without Adam Ellis and would get a right thumping but it might not be so bad now. The top four look reasonably balanced with Williamson and Perks having Perry Barr as their home last year with Cradley. Both sides will be r/r for their fifth rider which gives 11 scheduled rides to the reserve pair and that is where eagles should get a tonking. However Martin has done a lot of work on them and their equipment, as a result their improvement over the last few matches as been very noticeable. This is the real test as to their development and with Harris also being a Heathen last year I have a feeling they may not be a total walk over for the Brummies pair. 52-38 to Birmingham would be a good result for the eagles. As regards the play offs, they have to get there first and if they do it will be a different team by then so no point in speculating which is why I am so opposed to play- offs.

That makes three out then because Perks will be at Workington with Plymouth. Looks like another bodged up side like the trip to Belle Vue.

You say 3 fixtures! We know about two but there is no fixture clash on Saturday for the Buxton visit so why is he gong to be missing?

Good to hear Bob is Ok as we were commenting last night that he did not look at all well. Surprised they are going for R/R on Monday and Wednesday for Gary, I thought Kelsey as guest was a near certainty. He fits.

Can you Heathens hazard a guess as to why Cradley left Harris out this year? He is improving each match and looks a lot better than those who replaced him. A little faith would have paid a good dividend I think.

Frankly with the new average system as I think it is there will be no scope for much change. No way will Adam or Jake be changed and Georgie is not replaceable at his average. Ellis is the only possibility but with a new average based on this season performance, which may well be much lower than his starting one, even Daniel Spiller could not be brought in. The only way the top four can be changed to any (if possible) betterment would be if Adam and Jake were to drop their averages bringing the 40 limit back into range which hopefully is never going to happen. I happen to think they are as good as any top 4 in the League. Ellis is having a bit of a tough ride at Plymouth but has looked pretty good at Arlington apart from his 2 falls and a tapes infringement in 4 rides last week. This was down to his all out effort which has already produced some terrific races. I would not swap him for anybody with a comparable average what ever it might be after 4 matches. The only avenue for change is the bottom three and lots of other teams will be looking for improving their 3.0 pointers. They have done the right thing bringing Cottham in for Phillips and would probably have done so anyway to avoid being stuck with three 3.0 pointers all season because Jake's average looks like sky rocketing. This gives them a 4.7 and two 3.0 at present to work with. Whilst Tom looks an automatic replacement in July I hope they don't use him more than three times in the League because we need him at No 7 next year. With Luke Harris now at reserve performing quite well at Belle Vue and Charley Powell starting to improve I don't imagine there will be any changes unless there are more injuries - heaven forbid. They will not win the league, Birmingham have been nailed on from the start, but must have a good shout at the play offs.

I think Belle Vue, Coventry, Kings Lynn & Rye house are a special case because many may not be able to afford too many meetings. I am getting at Eagles so called Fans who said they would never go again if they left the Elite, judging by the gates there was quite a lot of them. Same thing I think at Birmingham, I believe their gates are down on the Elite days.

We were saying that every week last year after years of Elite stagnation. I have no wish to go anywhere near the so called 'Elite' in future. How do you get through to the Elitists who don't even give the NL a try?

I am surprised to see how well BWD is doing at Somerset, he scores 7 regularly and last night got 10+3. They took a chance on him as he had to come up from the NL on 5.0 rather than 3.0 but it is paying off. A good indication of his improvement is the widening gap between him and Zach who looks to be struggling. If they run the Sussex Championship this year I hope he comes back to defend it, love to see him again.

We were told some time ago that Adam had a prior engagement in Germany before he committed to the Eagles. Result was closer than I expected with that line up last night, however there were some positives with the reserves looking as though they might be improving .

So there is no upside at all they are going in with a team average of 34.04. Now even a point seems a bit of a pipe dream (excuse the pun)

The Eagles website is obviously out of date because they still have R/R for Perks. Why replace him with Blackburn when they could have given an extra ride to Branford, Knight and Wood? Perhaps when they were refused permission for him to replace Cottham they did not want to let him down, or alternatively they were worried about coming down to 5 riders if there was another accident bearing in mind the accidents we have been having with comparatively Rookies. Either way I think the scenario changes again from too close to call, to a colts victory with eagles looking for a match point. As an after thought, as there are now four with 3.0 average can they choose which 2 are Reserves?

Does it? Surely his next (4th) League Match will still take him out of the reserve slot.

After tomorrow the colts still have 7 more Friday fixtures so they may not see a lot of him then. Be interesting next week to see him meet Parkinson Blackburn on Wednesday. The battle for the best two 3 pointers this season.