For many teams so far north, and as I've written before, the easy answer is to ship in a foreigner to do the job at the bottom end of the team - often ending up employing a stop-gap Brit, though, when that foreigner isn't up to the job. But credit to Newcastle - who have built their side of recent years around Stuart Robson and the Worrall brothers, and added Andrew Tully to the mix for 2013 - because they've given the job to a young Brit, Lewis Kerr, increasing the number of National League graduands by one in a year when it's already pretty impressive.
Already Joe Jacobs (Glasgow), Adam Ellis (Ipswich), Lewis Blackbird (Leicester), Ben Reade (Plymouth), Josh Bates (Scunthorpe), Jake Knight (Sheffield), and Stefan Nielsen (Somerset) have joined last year's starters Cam Heeps, Jason Garrity, Tom Perry, and Ashley Morris (Workington). Craig Cook, the Worrall brothers, Ashley Birks, Kyle Newman, Richard Lawson, and Kyle Howarth - all graduates from the National League since its development in 2009 to a more professional operation - show that this policy is worth pursuing.
Kerr won't find the step up to Premier League action easy - he was initially ear-marked to share the number 7 jacket at Leicester with Blackbird - but in Richie and Steve Worrall he has no better example of how to make the transition. As with all the Brits - yes, even Bridger and Barker - Speeding Motorcycles wishes him luck, and congratulates the Diamonds on giving the lad a chance.
ITEM: So, the Elite League then. All teams declared, and the season only a matter of days away, but who looks like they're going to carry the trophy off? As with last week's Premier League predictions (which attracted the ire of Scunthorpe fans), I've used SCIENCE! to work out - based on declared 1-7s at the start of the season - who is going to finish where. Here goes...
1st - Swindon Robins
2nd - Lakeside Hammers
3rd – Birmingham Brummies
4. Coventry Bees, 5. Peterborough Panthers, 6. Poole Pirates, 7. King's Lynn Stars, 8. Wolverhampton Wolves, 9. Eastbourne Eagles, 10. Belle Vue Aces
As always, the margin of error is MASSIVE, so feel free to collar me when it looks like it'll be going very, very wrong and say, "I told you so!"
ITEM: So the mystery is finally over (although I told you six weeks ago on twitter), and Gary Havelock has been announced as the new team manager for the Coventry Bees! Havvy's appointment is very much in the mould of Birmingham and Phil Morris last season, which seems to have paid dividends for the Perry Barr club, even if Morris is sometimes a little trigger happy in putting in protests (including once protesting about a Bees' team based on a set of greensheets that would have also seen his own team deemed illegal). As a motivstor, though, Morris seems to be a great addition, and you'd hope that Havelock would be something similar.
He won't be doing the job alone, of course, with last year's sacrificial lamb Blayne Scroggins retained alongside the former Redcar rider to deal with the more technical aspects of the job, by which you can probably infer paperwork and the rulebook. Havvy's job, it seems, will be to pass on his considerable experience of riding these damn machines, motivate the riders (if they need more than a paycheque to do that), and act as a buffer between the team (and perhaps the fans) and the management. If it works, it's the best decision Mick Horton has ever made. If it fails, it was worth a go.
As a rider, Havelock achieved a lot - World Champion, Elite League Champion, World Under-21 Champion, twice British Champion... The trophies and championships may have dried up a little as age has caught up with him, but that pedigree, if it can be transferred to management success, should see the Bees back as a force in the sport, arguably where they belong, and from where only the machinations of bitter, jealous rivals removed them. Yes, I'm a Bees' fan, so I would say that, but the potential is there. Let's hope it's realised.
ITEM: Peterborough Panthers have made a brave decision this season, and paid over the odds to riders who would normally double-up to concentrate on the Elite League in order to bring success back to Alwalton after six trophyless seasons (Eastbourne have also gone without a double-up rider, but for very different reasons, and - not for the first time - they are irrelevant to this discussion).
Whether to include a double-up rider, or how many, has been a tricky part of putting an Elite League side together for some years now. If you can make it work for you, you can secure the services of a rider who will score his share of Elite League points whilst still earning solid money in the Premier League. The downside, of course, is that he may get injured whilst riding in the PL, but then virtually all riders (Robert Mear being the exception that proves this particular rule) ride somewhere else during the week, so it's a moot point.
The real problem is when fixtures clash, and for a Thursday/Friday night track like Peterborough, that's bound to be an issue. Still, Swindon and Coventry have decided to use double-uppers this year, so it proves there's no one way of doing it. The change in the rules - whereby there are no double-up partners, and a guest can be utilised from a (most of the time) wide choice of options - certainly helps those clubs with fixture clashes, but Bank Holiday fixtures will be particularly tricky in that regard.
Not everyone can afford to follow Peterborough's example, though, but I bet more than one promoter will be watching how it goes with interest, and we may see a reduction in the use of double-up riders as the season progresses, and it'll be certainly under consideration for next year.
Isn't it bizarre how, when his praises are being sung, everyone has forgotten about the year long ban that Havelock was given in 1989. Let's hope he remembers to pass on the benefit of THAT experience too, if the recent media attention of at least one EL rider who had acknowledged using drugs is to be assumed as potentially being a more widespread issue.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if you were around during Havvy's "transgressions" but he was, indeed, treated like a red-headed stepchild at the time, and all but forgotten during his year out. Also, there was a marked difference in humility between the two. As I've said before, *that's* Darcy's biggest problem, not the drugs or drink.
DeleteHe was indeed, but unlike others who have committed similar offences he was also welcomed back with open arms and, once the World Title was won the whole affair was brushed under the carpet (almost) never to be mentioned again. I suspect - in fact, I KNOW - that it has been so well buried that the vast majority of people who ought to remember it have actually forgotten about it altogether, until reminded.
ReplyDeleteWard's biggest problem is that basically he's a yob, who has been made to feel that he is something special and thus can get away with whatever. The lack of humility is the facet of his personality that has allowed this to happen. Bridger had the same issue and, for a while, Kennett too. Stints at other clubs (Kennett) and the sad death of Rico (Bridger) have made them turn themselves around. Poole should already take a large part of the responsibility for what happened to Lindback - and it's good to see that he has managed to turns things around also - and Ward will be headed the same way. Ford & Middleditch need to be very careful that they don't end up with blood on their hands.