1961

2019

Back into the National League

Season Review

After one season in the National Trophy. The Heathens were able to resume their place back in the National League thanks to Chris Van Straaten and Ladbrokes for making the dates available. It was to be their swansong however. Following the Golden Hammer it was announced that this would be the last year that the team would run.
They had ten seasons in the National League when the BSPA said we would only be allowed three while the club looked for a new site to build a track of their own.
The club never gave up hope but it came increasingly difficult to organise with crowds falling off (but still well above some other tracks in the league)
It was a surprise really when the Heathens were accepted back in 2019! It was such a surprise that the job of team building was very late.
Team manager Will Pottinger quickly set about putting the team together, starting with Heathens fans favourite Max Clegg, A top rider at this level and a Monmore specialist he was certainly the star that could lead the team to the top of the National League.

Max was joined by another National League hot prospect - Tom Brennan plus the more experienced Danny Halsey who had been such a tough rider in opposition with Mildenhall and old Cradley

L to R. Tom Brennan, Danny Halsey, Harry McGurk, Lewis Whitmore
Front Row - Tom Spencer, Max Clegg (c), Luke Harris.

favourite Luke Harris. with such a strong top four the rest of the
team had to be made up from the best of the youngsters that Will and the other management members could find and that turned out to be Kings Lynn young star Lewis Whitmore, Derby lad Tom Spencer and 15 year old Harry McGurk.
It started well for Cradley with a win over old rivals Mildenhall 46-44 with Max getting 13 and Tom Brennan paid 13 Danny Halsey 11 from 4 rides and Luke Harris with 6 paid 8, the spearhead was there and would be able to bring the youngsters on.
Then the next match away at Isle of Wight saw Max with 11 from 4, Tom Brennan with 10 from 5, Luke Harris with 9 and Danny Halsey with 7 which included a tape exclusion. Then disaster struck when Tom Brennan crashed while riding for Eastbourne in the Championship League on 18th May. He badly broke his leg which was to keep him out for the rest of the season.
Cradley moved quickly to replace him with Jack Smith. With no disrespect to Jack, Cradley found themselves struggling, with Belle Vue taking a 48-42 victory back to Manchester on June 3rd mostly due to a super performance from Belle Vue youngster Jordan Palin scoring a 15 pont maximum from reserve on his first trip to Monmore.
The next match was a strange one, on the 9th June at West Row Mildenhall when the Fen Tigers were reduced to 4 riders by the end of heat 5 and the Heathens took all 4 league points with a 51-38 victory. A drama filled match at Kent gave us a consolation point but heavy defeats at Leicester and Belle Vue were hard to take and with most of the matches at Monmore were close affairs.
It went down to Mildenhalls match at Plymouth and to every ones surprise Mildenhall were 12 points up and threw it away with Plymouth getting 2-5-1s in heats 13 and 15, thanks to Ben Wilson and Nathan Stoneman! While they still won 46-44 they didn't get the fourth league point they needed and Cradley were through to the Play-Off semi-finals! It was of course too much to ask though and we were well beaten by Leicester and had to run the 'home semi-final', at Perry Barr with no more dates available at Monmore.
Still Cradley fans were quite proud that we had made it to top 4 in the league but went out in the play-offs.
Max Clegg was a revelation with maximum after maximum he kept the team together and fittingly won the Golden Hammer in October little wonder that he was voted rider of the year.

Riders Performance Chart

'The Heathens'

2019

Rider	Matches	Rides	Points	Bonus	Total	Aver
Max Clegg	20	102	256	6	262	10.27
Tom Brennan	2	10	21	2	23	9.20
Jack Smith	15	70	113	9	122	6.97
Luke Harris	18	81	115	22	137	6.77
Danny Halsey	16	71	110	6	116	6.54
Tom Spencer	14	58	57	14	71	4.90
Harry McGurk	19	91	67	17	84	3.69
Sheldon Davies	8	23	16	2	18	3.13
Lewis Whitmore	4	14	4	0	4	1.14
GUESTS
Conor Coles	3	12	22	0	22	7.33
James Chattin	8	32	15	4	19	2.38
Sam Wooley	3	12	4	0	4	1.33
Kyle Bickley	1	5	6	0	6	4.80
Kean Dicken	1	4	0	0	0	0.00
Luke Priest	1	4	2	0	2	2.00
Ryan Terry-Daley	1	5	7	0	7	5.60

statistics taken from the Cradley Speedway database for NL, P/O, KOC matches only.

Final League Table

2019 National League

Team	PL	W	D	L	BP	For	Ag	Pts
Leicester	14	11	0	3	--	702	555	38
Belle Vue	14	10	0	4	--	706	551	32
Kent	14	8	1	5	--	630	609	26
Cradley	14	7	0	7	--	583	660	24
Mildenhall	14	7	0	7	--	608	648	23
Isle of Wight	14	7	2	5	--	619	640	21
Stoke	14	3	1	10	--	591	660	12
Plymouth	14	3	0	11	--	569	685	10

2019 National Trophy

Due to lack of fixture dates the Heathens did not take part in this seasons National Trophy

Team	M	W	D	L	For	Ag	Pts
Kent	6	4	0	2	287	245	14
Mildenhall	6	2	1	1	283	249	10
Isle of Wight	6	2	1	3	258	280	8
Plymouth	6	2	1	3	243	297	7

2019 KO Cup

Quarter Finals                                 Semi - Finals                                           FINAL
LEICESTER    55 + 38 = 93         LEICESTER 54 + 39 = 113
Mildenhall     34 + 52 = 86          Stoke           36 + 31 = 67

STOKE 50 + 42 = 92 LEICESTER 45 +43 = 88
Plymouth 39 + 48 = 87 Belle Vue 27 + 47 = 74

I o W 41 + 44 = 85 BELLE VUE 45 + 55 = 100
CRADLEY 49 + 46 = 95 Cradley 39 + 35 = 74

BELLE VUE 51 + 45 = 96
Kent 39 + 43 = 82

GOLDEN HAMMER 2019

Max walked away with Cradley Rider of the year and also pictured left with his partner Colbie - National League Rider of the Year.

Also Chris Van Straaten took National League Track of the Year.

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Copyright: Steve Johnson & Cradley Heath Speedway Ltd. 2019.