It has been a positive month results wise but the injuries we have ended the month with are a bit of a downer really. Cam (Heeps) has been so great for us this season and we are going to miss him and it is a real disappointment to end a good month. The defeat to Edinburgh and the events following it were the hardest days I have had in speedway management I guess. It was four or five bad races at home and it can happen. Maybe it spurred everyone on and I can’t definitely say it made a difference or not but we have been on a great winning run since that defeat.

In the second half of the season we have picked up points on a regular basis away from home and I think a lot of that is down to the reserves. They have seen the tracks once and they have gone back there with that experience. They have been in great form as well so that has helped. We started the season with many seeing us as a top heavy side but now we are winning matches because of the reserves and that is a real positive to take from this season.

The team change episode affected Sedgy (Justin Sedgmen) pretty bad whereas Connor (Mountain) it hasn’t as much. Sedgy has been carrying an injury and was in bad form anyway, so it was the worst thing for him to happen. It was a big learning curve for me and a big mistake and I will use it to improve and make sure I do not make a mistake like that again. Mistakes are not necessarily a bad thing as long as you learn from them, it is when you do not learn from them that they become a problem.

The trip to Workington and the night together was really good for team spirit. We had a great weekend and hopefully we can carry that on for the rest of the year as it does gain you more points in the track.

Cam has matured this year and he is still a young man. A lot is expected of him because of the talent that he has and maybe now he has got his focus right. He has been brilliant for us and has been in great form for Somerset too and he will come back next year well prepared to ride in two leagues and kick on even more. I don’t think he is anywhere near as good as he can be and he can keep progressing.

The Fours was a disappointment, you want to win those meetings and the opportunity was there for us. We looked brilliant to start with but it is a tough meeting to keep your form for the whole meeting. It is not unheard of that a team look brilliant in the semi-final and then not so in the final but it was disappointing how we didn’t reproduce that semi-final form. The league and the cup are our focus now.

With Nathan (Greaves), I didn’t know him at all before we signed him. Obviously, I had seen him ride and knew a bit about him and I went to see him ride at the British U21 semi-final in which he did very well in. He has come in and done more than we could have asked for and doubled his average. He has good pedigree in junior speedway and I am sure he is getting to reach his potential now. The last month has been how we thought Connor was always going to be. The pair of them impress me every week with their attitude and Connor’s professionalism and preparation for meetings is second to none and probably well above his years. That will help him a lot against other young boys out on the track.

We have always had a cut-off for transfers but it was brought forward this year, too early in my opinion. It needed to be brought forward but it is too early now. The fact is that now when you have a season ending injury, you cannot replace them and that is a terrible idea and I don’t know who has come up with that. It does not work and needs to be changed. Everyone seemed to know it wasn’t going to work so I am not sure whose idea that was. With this new cut-off date, not being able to replace an injured rider halfway through the season is crazy. You are stuck using r/r and guests and they are a big problem for the fans and everybody wants to get rid of them. With this though, you are being forced to use them more, it leaves me speechless to be honest.

We still need to confirm our play-off spot even though we are looking very strong. We need to keep in this good form as we want everyone still in form and to go into the play-offs happy and in that form we have been in after having back to back away wins. It is important to keep winning at this time of year.

See you all soon,

Ritchie