Mimmo

Yes Bavarian, I wish that more people would realise what a SUPERB product National League racing is. Trouble is that most of them won't even give it a try, so how will they ever know. People mistakenly seem to think that at the non stand alone clubs such as Belle Vue, King's Lynn etc., that it would be like watching a reserve football match, which of course couldn't be further from the truth. At King's Lynn this year, we are staging Elite & National League meetings on alternate(ish) weeks, and I just pray for the riders and promoters sakes, that the Stars supporters don't cold shoulder the Young Stars meetings, because they and everyone else will be the losers. Every year I seem to bang this drum, and it's always to no avail......BUT......I won't stop doing it, because it's worthy of the publics support. Mike

HEEPS, Cameron Andrew George DATE OF BIRTH: 27 October 1995, Perth, Western Australia. BRITISH CAREER: (2011) Mildenhall. MAJOR HONOURS: Western Australia Under-16 Champion: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010. 2011 STARTING AVERAGE: 3.00 (NL). ADDITIONAL INFO: The teenage Aussie sensation – who listed his favourite riders as Leigh Adams, Ty Proctor and Frank Smart – was unveiled as Mildenhall’s fifth signing for their new look National League side at a packed ‘Support the Tigers’ night at West Row on 5 March 2011. Co-promoter Chris Louis believed that the Fen Tigers had had signed the hottest prospect from Down Under for the campaign, as he joined the previously announced James Brundle, Jack Hargreaves, Joe Jacobs and Olly Rayson in the line-up. A number of clubs had been looking at ‘Camo’ but, when he heard that he would be getting the chance to work with Michael Lee and joining a young vibrant team, he had no hesitation in choosing Mildenhall. Aged just 4, Heeps began riding in 1999 at Bibra Lake Speedway and one of his most embarrassing moments occurred shortly afterwards, when he hit the wall at Narrogin Speedway. However, he recovered quickly to make astonishing strides, before becoming a junior solo rider in 2005. That year saw him claim third place in the Western Australia Under-16 State Championship. Then, in 2006, he took first place in the Western Australia Under-16 Championship. And that was the start of five successive title victories in the WA Under-16 category. His 2009 success came at Pinjar Park, where he scored a maximum 12 points in the heats, prior to taking victory in the final.

Dale, Could you please confirm that the Young Stars are at home to the USA U21 on the 27th April as listed on the BSPA website. It's just that the Elite League Pairs is being staged at the Norfolk Arena that night, and I'd be surprised if a double-header was being run. Thanks Mike

According to the BSPA website, King's Lynn entertain USA U21 at National League level on the 27th April AND stage the Elite League Pairs on the same night..................surely not.

I wouldn't have thought so, as the two clubs operate on different days.

I think Malcolm Vasey would be a very good idea, who knows, one day maybe.

Oh dear, what an absolute shambles. I've checked and double-checked these figures, and as far as I'm concerned, there umpteen inaccuracies. Whilst I wouldn't fool myself by saying my figures are all correct, although I think they probably are, those shown on the BSPA website certainly contain errors. Mr Morrish has in my opinion not rounded up on a number of occassions, which as far as I know is the correct procedure, and if it's not, then I'll offer my humble apologies, and go and hide in a corner!! Instances where I think this has occured are as follows: - Craig Cook 10.71 (should be 10.72) Todd Kurtz 9.01 (should be 9.02) James Brundle 8.97 (should be 8.98) Kyle Hughes 8.96 (should be 8.97) Jon Armstrong 8.61 (should be 8.62) Paul Starke 8.06 (should be 8.07) Adam Allott 7.63 (should be 7.64) James Cockle 7.46 (should be 7.47) Jake Anderson 7.02 (should be 7.03) Michael Dyer 6.97 (should be 6.98) Mark Burrows 6.76 (should be 6.77) Tim Webster 6.68 (should be 6.69) Kyle Howarth 6.61 (should be 6.62) Benji Compton 6.28 (should be 6.29) Gary Irving 6.25 (should be 6.26) Tom Brown 6.20 (should be 6.21) Lee Smethills 5.70 (should be 5.71) Lewis Kerr 5.48 (should be 5.49) Richard Franklin 5.39 (should be 5.40) Scott Richardson 5.16 (should be 5.17) Jason Garrity 4.94 (should be 4.95) Ashley Birks 4.92 (should be 4.93) Ben Morley 4.88 (should be 4.89) Lewis Dallaway 4.35 (should be 4.36) Aaron Baseby 3.81 (should be 3.82) Tom Hill 3.38 (should be 3.39) I know that highlighting differences of 0.01 might seem a bit extreme, but that can/could affect whether a rider gets a team place or not. If a rider is no longer in a teams declared squad, but takes the place of an injured rider in another outfit, although not in that teams official declared side, then does that count towards the said riders average? In other words if he rides as a guest, although I think that is a terminology not used in the National League. The reason I ask that is because I also don't agree the averages for Jay Herne, Chris Mills, Nicki Glanz, Jerran Hart, Barrie Evans, Joe Jacobs, Jonathan Bethell, Terry Day, Luke Priest, Ricky Scarboro, Gary Beaton, Gareth Isherwood, Oliver Rayson, James White-Williams, Scott Campos, Matt Bates, John Resch, Daniel Blake, James Sarjeant and Luke Chessell. Like Peter Morrish, I'm ashamed to say that I do all my workings on a calculator, as I don't know how to utilise the Excel facility, so I'm not naive enough to say I haven't erred somewhere along the line, but not the above amount of times. Mike

Phil, I've had a greater in depth look at the figures for John Resch, and I'm still coming up with the following. BOURNEMOUTH (H) 37 points from 22 rides = Ave 6.73 (Made up as follows: 11/4 v Weymouth 8 (4); 25/4 v Scunthorpe 8 (4); 5/5 v Newport 3 (3); 26/5 v IOW 8 (4); 23/6 4 (3); 28/7 6 (4). (A) 13 points from 23 rides = Ave 2.26 (Made up as follows: 23/5 v Buxton 5 (4); 25/5 v Dudley 0 (3); 13/6 v Newport 1 (4); 25/6 v Scunthorpe 1 (3); 16/7 v Weymouth 1 (3); 3/8 v IOW 5 (6) TOTAL: 50 points from 45 rides for Bournemouth = Ave: 4.44 He was replaced in the Bournemouth squad on the 11th August by Danny Stoneman. He made a guest appearance for the Isle of Wight against Dudley on the 2nd September scoring 3 points from 4 rides. He was introduced into the Isle of Wight squad on the 7th September as a replacement for Brendan Johnson scoring 4 points from 5 rides in the Islanders league fixture against Rye House on that very day. Therefore, taking both his official Bournemouth & Isle of Wight figures together, I come up with: - Home 41-points from 26-rides = Ave: 6.31 Away 13-points from 23-rides = Ave: 2.26 SUB: 54-points from 49-rides = Ave: 4.41 Guest: 3-points from 4-rides = Ave: 3.00 TOTAL: 57-points from 53-rides = Ave: 4.30 So in a nutshell, I think his average should be 4.41. Peter Morrish must have a work sheet of some sort for the rider for these figures to be checked against, so it would be advisable to check it through with him. If you come up with any concrete results, would you please be kind enough to let me know your findings, either through the forum or to my personal e-mail. Thanks Mike Moseley

JAKE KNIGHT (b.13.08.1992) = King's Lynn (H) 8 40 55 7 62 5.50 7 11 12 10 (A) 9 42 33< 4 37< 3.14 3 5< 14 20 TOTAL 17 82 88< 11 99< 4.29 10 16< 26 30 < Took a TR from the gate finishing 2nd (Doubled to 4-points). Only the two points scored have been included in the above records. JOHN RESCH (b.05.01.1993) = Isle of Wight (H) 1 4 4 1 5 4.00 0 0 4 0 (A) - - - - - 0.00 - - - - BOURNEMOUTH AVERAGE 12 45 50 12 62 4.44 4 13 12 16 TOTAL 13 49 54 13 67 4.41 4 13 16 16 N.B. No matter how hard I try, I can't work his average back to 4.29. He took made a guest appearance on the 2nd September for the IOW prior to being declared in their line-up, but by including that, it still wouldn't bring him to the 4.29. Hope the Jake Knight one helps anyway. All the Best Mike

Neither is the Plymouth side shown in the Premier League section, yet they've officially declared their side. Maybe Dale is on holiday....or even unwell, I'm sure there is not a problem.

Schhhh, you promised not to talk about those things, I can't help if your ponytail sets me off!! Happy New Year to you too, and now we'd better shut this topic as we've had our bit of fun. Cya soon. Mike

PERV

Okay, I'll kick-off with Daniel Warwick, Dean Felton & Barrie Evans!!!!

Fantastic news, well done to all concerned.

I do hope Mr Brundle doesn't reappear, he's had more than enough chances. I'd have thought Darren Mallett & Oliver Rayson would make reliable heatleaders, with Jake Knight looking on the verge of being good enough to take on one of those roles to. Backed up with Lewis Kerr, Lewis Blackbird, Tom Stokes and one other, that wouldn't look a bad little side. It's never been the aim of King's Lynn to go chasing the championship, but more of developing youngsters for the future, and the way that costs are excalating in importing overseas riders into British Speedway, this has got to be the way forward. If that turns out to be the Young Stars side, then I'll be more than happy in the knowledge that they will give a 100% committment to the clubs cause, and at the same time provide some very entertaining track action for the punters. My only regret is that as Simon Lambert is eligible to race at this level again this season, is that we didn't use him, with him being a local lad and an asset of the club. Stoke's gain is very much our loss I feel. Roll-on tapes up time.

I don't think the club could have made a better signing than this. Having watched him at this level on a regular basis with Boston, King's Lynn & Scunthorpe, his dedication to his clubs cause is second to none, and he'll do you proud. If any of you Potters fans have doubts about seeing your side operating in the National League this year, then please do give them a chance, because this level of racing more often than not provides more exciting racing than the other two leagues put together. Good luck for 2011, and I'll look forward with eager anticipation to your visits to King's Lynn and my other home Buxton (if travelling doesn't get to expensive!!)

I wish this venture so much luck, but I fear what new fans it MAY attract will be cancelled out by those Rye House fans who won't attend due to lack of identity. Boston at King's Lynn for me was an absolute dream, but that was not the case for to many others. I sincerely hope that I'm wrong however.

CONFERENCE LEAGUE RIDERS' CHAMPIONSHIP 1998 QUALIFYING ROUNDS MILDENHALL: Andrew Appleton 13 Geoff Powell 13 Roger Lobb 12 Oliver Allen 11 Jamie Young 9 Bobby Eldridge 8 Jamie Barton 8 Chris Harris 7 Dean Garrod 7 Darren Smith 6 Gary Sweet 6 Jason Prynne 6 Mark Thompson 6 Nathan McDonald 4 Dean Chapman 2 Chris Sweet (Res) 1 Simon Wolstenholme 0 David Osborn (Res) 0 ST AUSTELL: Steve Bishop 15 Chris Harris 12 Adrian Newman 11 Lee Dixon 11 Paul Oughton 10 Jason Prynne 8 Seemond Stephens 7 Richard Ford 7 Wayne Barrett 7 Chris Bennett 7 Simon Phillips 7 Paul Macklin 6 Gary Sweet 4 Mark Thompson 3 Richard Moss 2 Kevin Phillips 1 Ryan Dearing 1 KING'S LYNN: Steve Bishop 15 Peter Boast 14 Freddie Stephenson 13 Simon Wolstenholme 9 Paul Lydes-Uings 9 Darren Smith 8 Jamie Barton 8 Glenn Furniss 7 Steve Osborne 7 Martin Williams 6 Luke Clifton (Res) 6 Andrew Moore 4 Paul Burnett 4 David Nix (Res) 4 Adrian Newman 3 Lee Dixon 2 Chris Neath 0 Simon Tawlks 0 BUXTON: Neil Painter 15 Paul Lydes-Uings 13 Simon Phillips 10 Jamie Young 10 Paul Macklin 9 David Nix 8 Simon Tawlks 7 Peter Boast 7 Nick Simmons 7 Richard Moss 7 Paul Burnett 6 Chris Moorcroft 4 Phil Pickering 4 Kevin Robbie 2 Philip Knowles 0 Mike Pickering 0 FINAL ST.AUSTELL: Steve Bishop 15 Andrew Appleton 14 Seemond Stephens 12 Adrian Newman 11 Peter Boast 10 Wayne Barrett 10 Roger Lobb 9 Dean Garrod 8 Jason Prynne 8 Chris Neath 7 Paul Lydes-Uings 4 Richard Ford 4 Kevin Phillips 3 Paul Macklin 3 Martin Williams 1 Chris Harris 1 Vince Purnell 0

At no point have I ever compared them to any football team.

Only once do I remember the crowds looking any better on none Premier League weeks. The plain fact is that people would not support THEIR CLUB in anything other than Premier. This discussion has been covered many times before about people not affording twice a week meetings, and that of course must be true in a great many cases. On the other side of the coin, there were a great many that could afford it too, I would suspect, but wouldn't just because it was third tier racing. Having said that though, if I want to argue against myself, a lot of those folk who refused to come along to 'Young Stars' or Barracudas meetings as we were then, were happy to spend their money going to watch a rival team, i.e. Mildenhall. So it wasn't all about not being able to afford, they just weren't prepared to support THEIR/TEAM sadly.

The 'Young Stars' are a team, but people didn't come to watch them, and they are THEIR TEAM.

I of course never said they were King's Lynn FANS, but they are......or were!!!! Like you, many people won't have a preference between EL & PL, but many will as I've already mentioned, me included. I don't think it's a case of being open to about 'change', but that's just my opinion as yours are of you. At the end of the day we can toss our views around until we're all blue in the face, but if we do go Elite, then we'll find the answers out in the Summer, one way or the other. Keep Warm.

This is a debate that I've tried to keep away from as I feel that entering the Elite League will prove to be to the detriment of King's Lynn Speedway Club, but at the same time accept that if that's were the management wants to put us, then it must be their choice. What is really worrying me, is that although I've not kept an actual count, I would estimate that over the course of the past few days, I've received somewhere in the region of thirty or maybe even forty e-mails off-line, from people who come along to the Norfolk Arena each meeting, who have strong opinions, but for reasons best known to them, don't want to go public on these forums. Every one involved are either couples or families, and they've all given me the same message that they'll either go to Leicester (biggest majority), Ipswich or Rye House (just one couple) in 2011 if King's Lynn don't operate in the Premier League. Only time would/will tell if that frustrated threat becomes reality, but knowing them as I do, I'm pretty confident that those who talk about going to Leicester will, and I think the two to Rye House probably will go too, as they live in Cambridge, and the journey would be shorter. So what worries me is the fact that we could be looking at a MINIMUM of 60-people seeking Premier League racing elsewhere, as they're not prepared to pay to watch Elite League racing. If that did become reality, the club would be looking at losing somewhere in excess of a MINIMUM of £720 a meeting on entrance money alone, and assuming we had say 25-meetings just to pluck a figure, represents an £18,000 downfall in takings. By being in the Elite League would crowd levels rise to cover for that loss, and my personal answer to that would have to be that I think the crowds would go the other way. So much hard work has gone into putting King's Lynn to where they are today, a club that is the envy of a great many, and love them or hate them, that is 100% down to the Chapman Family, and they have my greatest respect and admiration for that. I'd hate to see that all get thrown away now, just because two clubs have gone down the route that they seemingly have. For what it's worth, no I don't like the Elite League either, and if it didn't involve my own club, then I wouldn't cross the road to watch it, never mind travel hundreds of miles to see an away meeting like I do with the Premier & National League sides. I desperately hope we remain in the Premier League, but if we don't, then I just hope that it's not the disaster that I fear it will be, and that those possible elopers tire of the journeys into other counties, and return to the Norfolk Arena. It's the most worrying time I can remember in the past decade.

Whippy, Who have you recorded as finishing last in Heat 8, as there are conflicting reports. Some say it was Knight, whilst others say Rayson. Thanks Mike

Brushing all the mishaps to one side, this was a superb advert for lower tier racing, with both teams giving it their all. I fully appreciate what 'Trees' is saying about people not being able to afford to go to speedway twice a week, and think that promoters should look long and hard at this to see if there is a way round it, because it's vitally important that we retain this level of racing. Having said that though, there are a lot of people out there who can afford it, but have this bee in their bonnet about it being second class entertainment, so stubbonly won't come. Last night proved that theory wrong. As you well know, I'm a staunch supporter of National League racing, preferring to watch it rather than Elite/Premier anytime, and in all the hundreds of meetings I've seen around the country over the years, I've probably never seen a crowd this big, although Bournemouth usually looks very healthy. Granted I didn't go to the meeting at Rye House when they put on a freebie, which as I understand, broke all records, but that was an exception. I just hope that those who did make their inaugural visit last night, and have the cash to spare, become regulars in 2011. It's a pity from a locals point of view that we didn't secure enough points last night to win the cup, but I'm proud of what the team have done again this year, and maybe next year the tables will turn in our favour. To Buxton, a club I also hold dear to my heart, I offer my sincere congratulations, you are worthy winners.......this time Good luck to both the Hitmen and Newport (another club that have done marvels this year) in the play-off's this weekend. My final best wishes of this posting must go to Cal McDade, in the hope that his injuries are not to serious. Also hope Lewis Dallaway recovers from his bumps and bruises quickly. All the Best Mike