29 07 10 SAINTS TAKE ON HIGH-FLYING HITMEN

[Tim]

SAINTS TAKE ON HIGH-FLYING HITMEN
By Scunthorpe Speedway ~ Thursday 29th July 2010
The Jotun Paints Scunthorpe Saints face the Buxton Hitmen at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday night (30th July, 7.30pm) with the Hitmen many people’s favourites to take the National League title. With an unbeaten home record and three away wins already to their credit the Derbyshire side are sure to be stiff opposition for the Saints who do welcome back Benji Compton back into their line-up.  Leading the Hitmen will be Craig Cook who is also the Workington Comets’ number one in the Premier League, Nick Morris who scored a Premier League maximum for Glasgow on Sunday and Adam Allott who had a brief spell as a second-string with the Scorpions last year.     

The Buxton top five is completed by Darrell Branford, who is having an excellent debut season, and former Saints’ rider, Jonathan Bethell, although their team declaration suggests they may operate rider replacement for Bethell.  At reserve they have Lewis Dallaway and an, as yet un-named rider.  One option for the blank space in the team would be former British Under-15 Champion Jason Garrity but even if Garrity doesn’t ride Promoter Rob Godfrey is certain that Friday has the makings of a great meeting.

“It’s going to be an interesting battle.  They’ve got a strong top end but we are solid from number one to number seven.  It’s impossible to predict how it will turn out but that is the beauty of this sport; it is so difficult to forecast what will happen.  I’m looking forward to seeing their two lads from Australia.  Nick Morris and Robert Branford are both classed as British riders and it has been interesting to see how they are progressing.  They have both ridden in our amateur meetings and they are talented young riders.  Morris has done superbly for Glasgow since turning sixteen and it will be interesting to see how our lads measure up against them”.

“It’s going to be a tough meeting but we need our lads testing themselves against the best.  Hopefully we’ll get good support for the Saints with the Scorpions not racing at home for a couple of weeks.  We’ve got some good young riders in the Saints and it’s great to watch them develop“.

The full line-ups for Friday’s meeting are expected to be (English unless stated):

Jotun Paints Scunthorpe Scorpions – 1. Mark ‘Buzz’ Burrows 2. Gary Beaton (Scotland), 3. Benji Compton, 4. Gary Irving, 5. Scott Richardson, 6. Steve Worrall, 7. Ashley Birks

Buxton Hitmen – 1. Craig Cook, 2. Jonathan Bethell or Rider Replacement, 3. Robert Branford, 4. Adam Allott, 5. Nick Morris, 6. Lewis Dallaway, 7. To be confirmed