Wightlink Islanders co-promoter Chris Hunt has fired a warning to his side this week that team changes could be made if performances don’t pick up and bring results.
Track success is essential to the Island team out on a limb from the rest of the league, Hunt said; “The season really starts for us now, we’re coming up to our busy spell, July and August. The team has really got to start performing, we’ve not all clicked together so far, they really have to look to doing that or we may have to look into team changes. Next Tuesday will be our third home meeting and our third away is Tonight at Wolverhampton against Dudley, another tough meeting, so if the averages are right and riders are not performing then we have to look to changes to salvage something for the season.”
Dudley have been very strong at home and are always good value away from their adopted home at Monmore Green, Islanders skipper Nick Simmons said; “The Dudley meeting tonight at Wolverhampton will be particularly hard, they have a good team, but then again you never know, you look on paper and see every meeting looks difficult but I’ll help out as much as I can and try and do my job. It’s about all of us doing something, I can’t win meetings on my own, I can only win four or five races. We’ll give it our best shot and hope we can get something.”
After an on-off start to the season, the busy summer spell kicks in next week with holiday makers a big target as well as trying to bring local people away from their armchairs and other activities which is proving to be a hard task this year, Hunt added; “We need to have a successful team on the Island, you can’t just go through the motions of also ran’s, it’s a hard sport and we have to try and keep the public happy. On a positive note two of our injured reserves Tom and Luke had a run out at Sheffield both are making progress with recovery and should be ready for selection shortly.”
Following the National league Pairs at Newport last Saturday where the Island pair failed to progress co-promoter Kevin Shepherd said; “It was very disappointing, to be honest we were on the back foot when Rob went through the tapes in opening heat and of course Nick came off and was excluded in the second heat. We were expecting a lot better, fair play to Stoke they proved on the day they were the best pair.”
“It was good to see Nick get up and walk away after not moving on the track for a few minutes, it looked like his head jerked or maybe even caught the air fence and bounced back onto the track. The medics checked him over and were happy for him to carry on.”
“It was imperative to get out of the gate, although there seemed plenty of dirt on the track there wasn’t much overtaking, unfortunately were not a renowned team of gaters apart from when Rob decided to go for first before everyone else and before the tapes moved.”
With a lack of fixtures this year in the National league the Island promotion have been suffering through the turnstiles especially in challenge fixtures with worryingly low turnouts. Hunt added; “I hope that there will be more stand alone clubs in the league next year, it’s hard to run this league to put on a consistent show with meaningful fixtures for the public week in week out with limited track availability for the track sharing clubs.”
Next Tuesday King’s Lynn Young Stars are the visitors to Smallbrook in another tough league fixture. To get the meeting underway Young Stars James Cockle defends his Bronze helmet match race title against the Islanders challenger Paul Starke. Hunt finished off by adding; “They will be no easy turnover, Kyle Hughes and James Cockle are both specialists around the Island, add in Scott Campos and Jake Knight and it’s going to be tough. We mustn’t think it’s going to be an easy match, we need all three points, it’s time to kick start the season for the Islanders.”
