DAMMIT, DARCY, DUDLEY & DEVELOPMENT

ITEM: When you get a text message on a Monday morning that says, "Did you hear about Pratty?", you immediately fear the worst. Then you realise that Colin Pratt is practically immortal and will outlive us all, and it probably means something altogether different.

What it referred to, of course, was that Pratt had decided to sever his ties with Coventry, after a 15-year stint that had brought the club more than its fair share of silverware. Brought into the club by Martin Ochiltree, he stayed through the Sandhu era, and into Mick Horton's reign, despite being the age at which most men would have retired to the allotment.

Starting the season as co-promoter and joint team manager, Pratt was unceremoniously removed from the latter by Horton, who declared that joint team managers weren't working for him. The decision at the weekend to go back on that after a matter of weeks seems to have been the final straw, and you have to wonder how much Pratt knew about either decision before they were made.

Most Coventry fans are upset at the sequence of events. Pratt was well-liked, and seen as a link to the golden era under Sandhu. Memories of 2010 will be slow to fade, when Sandhu, Trump, Pratt & Rossiter, and the eight riders in the Bees' squad pulled off the impossible and defeated the forces of darkness. All gone now, and uncertainty remains.

No-one is kidding themselves that Pratt had been outstanding in his dual roles this season. Some of the signings at the bottom end left a little to be desired, though these were enforced by a crowd-pleasing top four, and despite a good Midland League campaign, results were below par in the league.

No, Pratt's departure is seen more as an example of a general malaise at Brandon, where for every good thing the club does (and let's not pretend there haven't been any successes this year) is followed by a mistake.

Some fans are looking back, hoping that Sandhu will ride to the rescue, quoting a statement he made that Horton had to win the fans' trust before he'd be allowed to be the club outright. Speedway's peculiar ownership rules, and the harsh economic reality of the times, were never going to allow that to happen, and so - like it or not - Mick Horton owns the Coventry Bees.

They say that if you can't be with the one you love, you should love the one you're with. I'd also add that you can ask the one you're with to change, to strengthen those ties, and this is what every disgruntled fan needs to find it in their heart to do.

If you are dissatisfied with the way Mick Horton is running the Bees, let him know. Don't shout it at him from 50 yards, send him abusive e-mails, or post dogshit through his door. Instead engage him at Brandon, and at away tracks. Send him suggestions and criticisms, but remain polite. Above all, be firm that this is your club as much as it is his.

Colin Pratt is gone from the Bees. He had a good run. Do I wish he was still there? Of course. I wish Sandhu, Trump, and Rosco were, too. But they're not, and they're not likely to be. For the next few years, we're Mick Horton's Black & Yellow Army. Let's show him how we do things, eh?

ITEM: So poor old Darcy Ward might find doing the Elite League a bit of a stretch next season if he makes the SGP series? My heart bleeds for him. Instead of knuckling down, manning up, and getting on with it, like (and I can't believe I'm going to say a good thing about him) Chris Holder has, he says he'll probably give the UK a miss in 2013.

Oh, but wait! He says he may be persuaded to stay if the Elite League adopts a policy of allowing riders to share the number one race jacket, so that - presumably - Ward and Holder could do half the meetings each for Poole (I wonder if he's asked Holder about the loss of income this would entail?).

This is not the first time Ward has threatened to quit the UK. At the time of his, shall we say, legal difficulties he posted on Facebook that he was done with the UK, and also tweeted last month that if he was made to ride on a wet track at Poole he would quit in 2013. He obviously didn't carry through on his first (and soon deleted) promise and, as it turned out, the track was dry anyway the Wednesday night of the second threat, so at the moment he seems to have a little of the Boy Who Cried Wolf about him.

It's a familiar threat, though. Towards the end of last season, about this time of year, in fact, Chris Holder made a similar declaration. That time it was in regards to the rule that prevented a team tracking two riders over an 8.00 average, a rule only brought in less than a year before. Whether Holder's intervention made any difference is a subject for debate, but the rule was duly dropped, and a pliant speedway press massaged history to ensure there was little dissent.

So is Ward serious about giving the EL a miss, or is it another Matt Ford shenanigan, designed to force through a rule change only he could possibly benefit from? Time will tell, time will tell...

ITEM: First off, let me get this out of the way: I never had much time for Cradley Heath. In fact, it’s true to say that I despised them. It’s okay, I’m a Coventry fan, it’s allowed. They – and Oxford – were our biggest rivals in the time I started going to speedway. Throw in the fact that they were quite good at that time, and a few unsavoury incidents involving aggressive fans and broken car and coach windows, and you can see I have my reasons.

I disliked them so much that I couldn’t even give the proper respect to Erik Gundersen and Jan O. Pedersen, and their obvious greatness, and even Greg Hancock and Billy Hamill, who later went on to ride for the Bees, have never really repaired the damage suffered from riding for the Heathens.

Cradley, of course, went the way of all things in 1996, and a big hole in the Black Country was left open and yawning, yearning to be filled. Some of their fans probably went (very reluctantly) to Wolves, some to Stoke, and a few to the Bees. Others still were lost to the sport, and some probably remain so. However, in 2010, the Heathens were back, albeit with a slight name change and the status of lodger at the tracks of their local rivals.

Initially splitting their time between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, Dudley – as they are now known, to put pressure on the local council – have raced exclusively at Wolves’ Monmore Green stadium the last season, renaming it Monmore Wood in honour of their dear, departed Dudley Wood stadium.

In that first year back they finished top of the National League table, only to lose out to Buxton in the play-off semi-finals, and then completed an injury-hit second season, finishing comfortably in mid-table, but well outside the honours. Hopes were high for 2012, though, with Adam Roynon signed as number one, with back-up from Tom Perry, Ashley Morris and Byron Bekker giving the Heathens the strongest top four in the league.

On Tuesday night, against an albeit-weakened Isle of Wight outfit, the Heathens triumphed 68-22 to finish the regular season top of the table, and they look very good for a play-off win, despite the loss of Roynon to injury while riding for Coventry last week.

So where next for Dudley? It’s obvious they’re a cut above the National League, which is a Frankenstein outfit made up of small, “operating within their means” stand-alone tracks and youthful reserve teams of established Elite and Premier League clubs. Dudley’s crowds are rumoured to outnumber that of their landlords, and the support is fervent and hungry for success. This brings a few idiots along for the ride, as incidents at Mildenhall and Buxton have evidenced in the past, but that’s par for the course.

Where next for most other clubs would be to consider a step up to the Premier League. Obviously this has its attractions – more league fixtures (and thus more varied opposition), and a better level of opposition, as well as the opportunity to increase the quality of your own side – but it also has its pitfalls, namely increased costs and, well, increased costs are the main thing. It’s further complicated at Dudley by their tenant status – would the Wolverhampton promotion be happy to sanction Premier League racing at Monmore Green? National League is obviously a ways below the Elite League, but Premier League is that one step nearer. It’s something that Chris van Straaten would need to consider very carefully but given his support for the Dudley promotion (of which he is a notional member), I can see few problems in this regard.

So, Premier League seems the next logical step, then. The club seems well set-up to go for it, as I found when I visited for the Golden Hammer a few weeks ago. Well-run, well-supported, and eager for success, I’ve no doubt that they’ll make a decent fist of it, should they decide to.

The real “where next?” for Dudley is obviously “Dudley”, and a stadium of their own. It’s something they’ve been working towards since before they lodged at Wolves, and the search continues to this day. News broke earlier this season that there was a potential site – a new stadium to be shared with Gornal Athletic FC, in the centre of Dudley – but as soon as the story broke opposition sprung up, and councillors claimed it was a non-starter. This is modern speedway’s malaise – a city-centre, well-appointed, multi-use stadium is always going to attract the naysayers, fearful of noise, and dust, and the goblins and orcs that speedway brings to a town.

This is why the recent trend for new speedway tracks has been out of town – on brownfield sites or industrial estates, such as Somerset’s Oak Tree Arena and Redcar’s South Tees Motorsports Park. Again, like moving up to the Premier League, this has its pros and cons. The positives are obvious. Dudley would own their own stadium and - subject to planning permission, of course – control their own destiny. They would be able to race whenever they wanted, collect all revenue from bars and food outlets, use the facility to run training schools and for practice for their own riders, and – most importantly of all – give it a proper name. “New Dudley Wood” (and, short of a sponsorship deal, I can’t imagine it being called anything else) would be there for all to see, emblazoned over the entrance to firmly announce that the Heathens were properly back!

The negatives are almost entirely that, to begin with, it’s probably going to be nothing more than a shack and a track, with the emphasis on shack. This needn’t be a problem, for club or fans, however. Dudley’s sojourn in the National League has not only taken them to Buxton, which defines grassroots speedway better than any other club save for former National League side Sittingbourne, but has also seen them visit Scunthorpe, and no doubt notice the ongoing improvements at that venue. You see, that’s the thing – all you NEED for speedway is a track, some pits, and a referees box. Everything else is dressing. And, with a following as passionate and as large as Dudley’s, it wouldn’t be long before they all came together to build up the new stadium to a fantastic level. Sure, it wouldn’t be Monmore Green, but who wants to watch speedway from the home straight alone, anyway?

So, yes, congratulations to Dudley for finishing top of the National League, and good luck in the play-offs. But the biggest victory is yet to come – stepping up a level, and obtaining a new home. With the people they have in charge, and the fans they have behind them, I don’t think it’ll be too long for either.

ITEM: Two years ago there was a mini-revival in second-half racing. The Northern Junior League, orchestrated by the immortal Dick Barrie, featured teams from Edinburgh, Berwick, and more, and gave competitive opportunities to young British riders.

It was joined last year by the Midland Development League, and this year by the Anglia Junior League. All in all, over a dozen tracks, with riders representing both existing and defunct teams, are now operating meaningful second halves, and this can only be to the benefit of young Brits.

However, as is the way of such things, arguments are beginning to arise about how the leagues are run, with some unhappy that the SCB/BSPA have final say on the rules, and others resentful that riders who are getting National League experience "doubling-up" with junior league teams.

The involvement of the authorities was inevitable, but given their record of managing to ruin everything I can understand the reticence of those involved. However, if it is to progress to a proper, "4th division" it's something they'll have to live with.

As for the use of NL riders in junior teams, I'd actually say that it doesn't happen enough. While the top NL riders also ride in the Premier League, those who don't are restricted to a handful of outings a year, and could actually find themselves with less meetings than a junior league regular.

I remember second-half league racing at every track, with the best of the juniors able to step into their senior teams without too much embarrassment. We're along way off that today but allowing two, or even three NL lads to ride for each junior team would bring them on quicker, and give them experience of different tracks. It can only be good for the future of British speedway, and I hope common sense eventually prevails in the search for a long-term plan for junior league racing in this country.