Heathersfield Open

Last years final.

Hello!


Just a little bit of a trailer for the up-coming Heathersfield Open meeting on Wednesday 2nd of July. There look to be some tasty battles ahead in this one, with defending champion Gary Beaton coming up against some fairly tough competition. With a little luck, it will be well attended. Last years meeting had a bit of a grim feel to it, being at the tail end of the season and held in fairly nasty conditions. With some luck, a nice night and the promise of a break from the PL grind should bring out a decent crowd. So, to this years line-up.


Gary Beaton captains the Redcar Cubs in the Conference League and is probably the most experienced rider in the field around Ashfield. He has also made a few fairly impressive guest and No8 appearances for the Tigers, but has yet to make the breakthrough to Premier League level.


Adam McKinna, who started the season with Berwick Bandits, will be out to go one better than last year, as well as looking to put himself in the running for another PL team place, after some rather interesting guest performances over the past month or so.


American touring rider Shaun Harmatuik will also be desperate to show well and maybe convince a prospective club that he's worth a gamble, in spite of being handicapped by his 7 point assessed average. On last Sunday's 2nd half showing, he's very quick and will doubtless be in the mix for the final.


Mitchell Davey probably has the most to prove, having had a nightmare start to his British speedway career with Glasgow Tigers. He seems to have adjusted to things now and ironed out various machinery problems. A run out against the likes of Beaton, McKinna and Harmatuik will possibly allow him to assess his progress and move on from there.


Others to watch for will be Ben Hopwood, who currently rides for Plymouth Devils in the Conference League and will undoubtedly be very competitive, John McPhail who has ridden briefly at PL level for Berwick, as well as Glasgow Giants Academy League team and James McBain who reached the final of last years meeting and has been looking pretty good in the 2nd half races I've seen him in at Ashfield. He has also been named as Tigers No8 on various occassions.


The rest of the field are: Mark White, Keiron Morris, Gary Irving, David Haigh and Johnny Grey. I will admit I'm less familiar with these lads, so if anyone has any info on them, feel free to pass it on in the comments section or via email (ewenic@gmail.com) and I'll add it to the post.

Some shots from last years meeting