greyhoundp

Nice one mytheman, she is most likely a Coventry fan, Rugby is pretty close to Coventry, if you dont have any luck, i can let Chris Simpson know, he is the announcer at Coventry, and i think Birmingham, or if you want he is Superbart on here i think, and reguarly goes on the General Discussion thread on the Biker Fm topic, as he announces, and does the program schedule for there speedway program, I am sure we will find her.

Malcolm, yep you beat us fair and square last year, but also at YOUR home meeting we had to wait hours for medical staff to turn up, this year you have already had your pre season race off put back, light failures, meetings cut short, and its not even the end of april. Surely as a Director of Stoke speedway, you and Mr Tatum by now should know how to put on a Speedway meeting, if things continue ar they are up there there is only one thing going to happen, Your own fans will drift away, and they wont come back, I know of many Heathens fans who have vowed never to return, but most of them probably will, but they will think twice before they do, the costs of getting to meetings is getting out of hand, luckily for you at Stoke you are pretty local to us at Dudley, so its not to bad, but Malcolm surely YOU of all people must realise things have to be put right up there,i really feel sorry for long suffering supporters such as Vog, who have to put up with this never ending catalogue of mishaps that seem to happen up there. Hopefully now that you are a director you can have more of an influence on what goes on, or if its only a Dressing up excercise to have you on board, then your hard earned reputation gained over many years will suffer as a consequence.

Well guys just over 48 hours to go before an intriguing 2nd leg at Monmore Wood, Mildenhall have a 1 point lead from the 1st leg so its finally balanced. Here we have 2 of the favourites for NL honours in 2012, who will win, where will it be won ? the 1st question is anyones guess, but my idea of where it will be won, well i think JJ will have a big part to play,as will Ashley Morris, but i really think it will be down at the reserves position, where this could be won and lost, as the 1 to 5 seem very evenlly balanced, and all in all seem to cancel each other out, in my humble opinion, i cant see either team getting thrashed, but am going for maybe at most a 6 point home win. Good luck to both teams. One thing i am sure we will see, is a well run meeting, which seems to be a problem for some tracks to achieve. and it does the sport no favours, because supporters will walk away, and wont come back.

So,come on guys,whats the forecast up there, i know it will be a wrap up warm day.

Its a catch 22, as you say you can only bring those that have the funding, and its not nececarily those that have the funding, who have the most natural ability, and also the economy has played a big part in recent years, this is what i am saying Steve, whereas a couple of years ago, I wouldnt think twice about going to away meetings, me and many others have to consider the cost nowadays, i live very close to your guys base at the Saltwells, i went to Bournemouth over the weekend, fuel alone cost me £45, and i am sure many people here are in the same boat as me, when it comes to travelling costs. Thats why i say, maybe its time to look at how the Tours are made up, whereas before many came to watch YOUR Teams, mostly as General Speedway fans, and nostalgic reasons from days past, <similar to BV days past> there comes a time for whatever reason, more needs to be done, to attract the local Speedway fan, the non Speedway fan, to make it value for money, and at the same time give YOUR guys the experience that they badly need.

You know, i am all in favour of this idea, of The Young Americans, and am fully behind these Teams coming over, BUT and this is the BUT, the meetings have to be competitive, it doesnt matter if the Heat times are 5 seconds slower or something like that, but what does matter is if there is half a lap between the first and last placed rider, supporters will not pay hard earned money to watch something like that. It may well be time in the interests of entertainment, and for the future of these Tours to introduce some kind of handicap racing, something similar to the Olympique that is held at Wolves ie, race winner goes off 30 metres, 2nd place goes off 20 metres, and 3rd placed guy goes off 10 metres, if a rider wins 2 races in a row, then he has a further 10 metre penalty, 3 races another 10 metres and so on, i dont know its just a thought, and only the management know how easy or hard it was to fill the program with dates for this Tour, but looking at the IOW result and Heat details, what was it 12 races before there was a USA heat winner? Laurence i am sure YOU know i mean well, and i am not criticising, I know the young guys spend lots of money to come here, and they try there hearts out, each and everyone of them, but its time now, that the management looked at ways to make these meetings more competitive, and thought of constructive ways to help the guys, and stop them becoming disheartened and demoralised before they even start out on there Speedway careers. In my opinion, you need to try to achieve two added things to these Tours to help them become a long term established event. 1. From the riders point of view, they cannot become competitive and achieve NL heat leader standard overnight, and to help them to not become demoralised, some sort of Handicap system HAS to be introduced. 2. This will also help to achieve what the supporters need which is entertainment. If i am speaking out of turn, then i am sorry, but its how i feel. These Tours need to be refreshed and i would like to read others thoughts on this matter, because i am sure most people want these Tours to continue, and there is a depth of support in the UK for American riders, they dont miss many meetings as some other countries riders seem to do, and there has always been Characters produced for whatever reason, so to encourage the development of American riders, these Tours need to continue.

Good result for Dudley, but we mustnt count our chickens, same scoreline as last year, from what i recall, but then Mildenhall came to the Wood and won in the League meeting, so its only half time, and all to play for, however i still believe Daryl, Byron, and JWW are below there best, so theres room for optimism there.

LOL. With Diesel at 1.50 ish per litre, entrance monies how much at Stoke this season ? thats the point, I wont pay to see an under strength Team, thats MY POINT, and it IS as pointed out MANY times a Challenge so i did my bit i went to the Home leg, but as is my perogative I wont be travelling up to Stoke, when money is tight.

What a great idea Berniev, Yes i am all for that, after all we dont want a one sided un competitive meeting Do we? and as other posters have pointed out, it is ONLY a Challenge and doesnt really matter in the big picture. Or perhaps another suggestion perhaps we could name an 8th rider to cover when Royno or Tom are unavailable, such as OUR hosts have done, maybe even re -declare with different riders for different meetings, after all it seems the rules are bent or stretched meeting after meeting, all in the name of competitivness. What are the rules on Loan signings?, perhaps we could even loan sign a rider for certain meetings. You have to be careful when you start opening Cans, they may well contain Worms, possibly even Snakes, and as most of us know, they can come back and Bite you.

Youth League, yes its just a pity Dudley Management didnt want to join Midlands amateur League, this was something many supporters wanted to see, but management didnt seem to consider it.

In which case thats pretty poor fixture planning, i will have to think twice about going myself, though i probably will, yes with a little bit more foresight we can probably cover for Royno, someone of the ilk of cameron heeps would do, but to cover for Tom with RR, that is just one to much, so i can only see a win for The Potters, or perhaps Stoke will use Adam Mckinna, and we will borrow Richie Worral to cover Royno. .

Comments Vog from a slightly biased Heathens view, first we dropped points when Dan Greenwood came down, IMO that was unfortunate Ben Reade could just as easily have been excluded for maybe taking Dans line., Ashley Morris had one of those nights, and Daryl Ritchings didnt seem his usual comfortable self, after he said he seemed down on power all night, JWW twice was overtaken from the back again his bike seemed welll slow early on, so i will take the positives from that,and see room for optimism from them, Boris, Tom Pom and Royno,all rode as expected,and there was some good racing especially from the latter two riders. For Stoke, i would guess AB was slightly dissapointed with his points return,had one EF when leading, as was JP who had an up and down night, Tony again was probably disapointed with his return, just wasnt making any starts, OG scored up to his average, RW far and away your best rider, unluckily had some problem in i think his second race went from 1st to just holding on to 3rd, may have been a punture, good races between RW and AR and expect close races between these two whenever they are down to meet, DB IMO he is not up to NL Standard though his equipment shall we say, leaves a lot to be desired, on this performance cant see him lasting long, BR rider of the night for me, impressive, which about says it all for young Ben. All in all a fair result, could have gone either way, is it enough of a lead ? i would like to think so, but on the other hand we could well get a good hiding like last year, or we could defend this narrow lead with Royno leading from the front, the reason i say that is I can see 5 riders in The Heathens Team who have room for improvement, and have the ability to do so, some more than others.

as far as i am aware OLD sparky, the old boundaries still exist, and at least we dont have to rely on Gas lighting like they do at loomer road. Also I am told the BSPA have introduced a new piece of equipment specially for meetings at Stoke the riders have to wear Miners Lights on there Helmets, so as they can see where they are going. lol. and Tatum can save on his electric bill.

After all the Chatter, it wont make any difference cuz theres only ONE speedway Team in The NL in Staffordshire, and it aint The Clayheads Its the Team from Monmore Wood, and the Team who,s gonna win tonight, thats right guys, its the Heathens.

OFFICIALLY ITS ON. The Suns out here in Dudley, bugger the weather, bring it on, I will be starting out in 30 mins.

Hope u r right Lozza, its been half an hour since i posted, and though its not heavy stuff, its still coming down here in Dudley, You are closer than me, you should drive across and let us know mate Well shows what i know, according to this pic on The Heathens site, it seems dry as a bone at 5-30/17-30. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dudley-Heathens/233965274365

Seems as though the rain is settling in now, beginning to look doubteful.

Its a Challenge <yes> is it a Challenge to see how far we can bend rules, is it a Challenge to see if Stoke can win?, There is winning, and winning,Oh and while Im at it theres Whining, Yes i am whining before, not after the meeting, but is Winning at ANY cost the motive here ?, Yes i Know Rhys is injured, Stoke already have a competitive Top 4, so the meeting will be competitive, in any case, but to use another Teams rider, when there are youngsters desperately looking for rides,? There is only 1 explanation, win,win,win,win,win,. shame on you, yes I hope you are Proud of yourself.

Yes, so why NOT use an unattached rider ?

This is taken from the Dudley site, and they have Oliver Greenwood down to ride tonight as Stoke No4, http://www.dudleyhea....php?extend.492 Im not sure how it works, yes you can use a guest for a No1, but as i understood it you used to be able to use an unattached or 3 point rider to cover injuries to others, but by signing an injured rider, and then covering him with another of supposedly equal ability, does leave the system open ??. But with this use of Olly Greenwood plus the addition of Adam Mckinna to the "squad?" the rules seem to be being stretched somewhat, but hey this is Speedway, and what goes around comes around.

So, when may we expect to see Stoke track there declared 7 ?, ie Olly Greenwood is better than Rhys Naylor, so will we be seing Olly in Stoke colours every time Scunny arent riding ? or am i just being dubious minded. . Yes i know its within the rules, but is it in the spirit of them ? There are riders out there on 3.00 averages desperate to gain rides and experience, but NO we will go with another Teams rider, Even for challenge matches, Mr Vasey stated there were some decent prospects coming through, surely Challenge matches is the way to give them track time.

Yes, i am expecting a close meeting both at West Row, and at Monmore Wood, I would expect Dudley to line up something like, 1. Adam Roynon <C> 2. James White Williams 3. Byron Becker 4. Tom Perry 5, Ashley Morris 6. Daryll Ritchings 7. Daniel Greenwood I am expecting These two Teams, along with Stoke to be pushing for the Honours in the NL in 2012, However back to the Shield meetings, The Heathens have added a little bit of gating ability this season in AR, BB, and JWW, added to the Tenacious Tom Pom Perry, and Heat Leader Ashley Morris, they are backed up by Rider of the year 2011 Daryll Ritchings and newcomer and former Under 15 Champ Daniel Greenwood, all in all The Heathens have a team packed with Potential and Ability from Top to Bottom, and i feel they owe the fans something after a dissapointing 2011 season. For Mildenhall, they to have a good all round strength, from Top to Bottom, and are ably led by the aussie Whiz kid Cameron Heeps, but asked for my opinion, I would suggest The Heathens have the better reserve strength, and this may just give them the edge, however I wouldnt put money on it, as it could go either way, I could see Dudley winning at Mildenhall, and Mildenhall winning at Dudley, thats how close this will be.

Its non of my business, but Danny S has said they couldnt agree terms, is that Mr T being a Tight ass again ?, definately Danny <spike>Stoneman deserves a NL team spot somewhere, a great guy a better rider that Dan Berwick, and more potential to improve, this would IMO have given Stoke a better bottom end, which surely is what they want, Good luck Danny boy, and i still think we may see you at Monmore Wood, dont know why just a feeling, even if it is against us. The Pony Tailed one has missed a trick here me-thinks.

If i recall, The Dream Teams Fixtures were something like Stoke, Weymouth, Sittingbourne, Mildenhall, Newport,Buxton, Armadale, and i think some of the guys took in secong halves at Oxford and Coventry, and maybe even had a spin round Sheffield Not sure about the Buxton fixture, but the rest are 100% correct.

I would be very tempted to go for Lee Smart, has been riding in a few amateur meetings to keep his hand in, and he doesnt have a PL team, so from what i recall he can therefore ride NL, but not 100% sure about that one, it could suit both parties, ie Lee would get the rides to put him in the shop window, and Islanders would get there short term No1 replacement to cover Nick.