Poor Lawrence Hare (Exeter) had a nasty crash at Newport on April 14th, and has been paralysed and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. That's also scuppered team Animal Magic before they even got a point, although fishy Dave Mullett (Reading) may be able to step in and take his place in a week or two, points permitting. Revised "green sheet" averages should be out from next week, allowing us to replace injured (or unwanted!) riders, should we so desire.
Other injuries this week include Lee Richardson (Coventry) with a broken thumb, but none of us have him in any of our teams this year (pity - he was doing really well - 103 points so far up until then!). Should be back in 5 or 6 weeks though.
Top scorer this week is Ryan Sullivan (Peterborough) with 154, and next best is Leigh Adams (Oxford) with 110. None of us have either of these two! Best we could manage was third place Scott Nicholls (Ipswich) with 109 - he rides for both Shale Shifters and Robie Scott's Sextuplets.
Injuries this week include Chris Louis (Ipswich) with a crushed vertebra, out for at least 3 months, and Simon Stead (Sheffield) with a crushed foot, out for several weeks. Jason Crump (Belle Vue) has a broken elbow, but is hoping to wrap it up well and be racing again in a week or two(!). Rob Grant (Newcastle) has a cracked collar bone and injured shoulder, still doubtful whether he'll be back for a couple of weeks.
On a more positive note, top scorers this week were Mark Loram (Eastbourne) with 34, Scott Nicholls (Ipswich) with 31, and Joe Screen (Eastbourne) with 29.
There are still some teams which haven't ridden any matches counting towards the fantasy league scores yet, so the totals are still biassed towards teams with mainly Elite League riders in. Last week's number 1 Dr. Wally's Super Snorkers moves down to number 2 this week, with Shale Shifters shooting up from number 4 to take the top spot. Bells Aces hang in there at number 3 still.
Our best scoring team (Shale Shifters) now has 313 points - the full fantasy league in Speedway Star has 17 (seventeen!) teams on 747 (yes, SEVEN hundred and 47 points)! Early days yet though, anything could happen!
On a more positive note, Jason Crump is riding again, with broken elbow and ribs, and lots of rubber padding! He still has months of physiotherapy ahead before being back to proper race fitness though.
Best scorers this week : Paul Bentley (Berwick) with 49, Garry Stead (Hull) with 37, and Paul Fry (Swindon) with 35. Amazingly, all three ride for our teams too! Not so amazingly, we need 742 points to get a team in the top 100 at the moment, and the best we can muster is 399 from Shale Shifters, with Bells Aces not far behind on 381, and Dr. Wally's Super Snorkers dropping to third this week on 379.
Best this week was Carl Stonehewer (Workington) with 42, with Mario Jirout (Somerset) and Leigh Adams (Oxford) both on 31. Neither of the latter in our teams, but Stoney in a couple.
The 2002 Speedway Grand Prix got under way with round 1 (Norway) being won by Tony Rickardsson of Sweden. Second was Ryan Sullivan, third Mikael Karlsson, and fourth Jason Crump. See the highlights on Channel 4 this Saturday (25th) at 11am!
Sadly, Sudden Sam (Ermolenko) has slipped off and smashed his wrist in four places, so is out for the rest of the season now. He was my star rider for Methanol Magic, currently riding 10th out of the 12 teams in the league, so I guess that's them sliding off to the bottom of the table now! (unless I can get a quick substitute in for him... watch this space!)
Other injured riders over the last few weeks - Simon Stead (another op. to remove pins from his crushed toes), Scott Nicholls (crashed into mechanic in pits and needed op. on ankle), Paul Thorpe (pelvic injury and bruising after sliding off and being hit by footrest of following bike, but is just about back in the saddle properly again now), and Paul Fry (broken leg, out for rest of season more than likely).
Top 100 teams this week range from 1416 to 1510 points, our best being "only" 322 behind now (Bells Aces on 1094)... can we get a team in there? I doubt it. Fun trying though!
Top scorers this week : Michael Coles (EXE) 36, Peter Carr (EDI) 33, and Tony Rickardsson (PLE) 31. Tony still doing well in the Grand Prix too, currently joint first with Ryan Sullivan on 112 points, with Jason Crump catching up a close third on 95 after winning the last round in Prague.
Top 100 FS team scores this week range from 1494 to 1592 points, and Bells Aces are still our nearest, this week with 1171 points. Maximum Methanol Madness back to 2nd with 1135, and Flying Without Wings 3rd with 1109.
Top Scorers this week : Jason Crump (BV) with 44, Super Mario Jirout (SOM) with 39, and the other BV Jason, Lyons, with 35. All people with names beginning "J". Pity it didn't quite work for Billy Janiro (COV) or Jason Bunyan (REA) though, both with ducks this week. Quack.
Trelawny's Richard Wolff is my star rider this week, after a bit of early season form he hit a rut with a string of zeros, and now suddenly pulls a 14 out of nowhere to almost double his entire score to date. Keep it up Wolffy, Animal Magic might yet get off the bottom of Galtres League!
Top 100 FS team scores this week range from 1583 to 1706 points, and Bells Aces are still our nearest, this week with 1296 points. Shale Shifters back to 2nd with 1258, and Flying Without Wings 3rd with 1229. Last week's number 2, my Maximum Methanol Madness, end up with fewer points total this week than they had last week, which leads me to suspect my adding up was wrong last week, but I can't be bothered going back to check! This is only for fun...
On the down side, Gary Havelock has had a nasty smash and broken his arm, so will be out for the rest of the season. Billy Hamill is still suffering with his bruised back and unable to ride properly, and Carl Stonehewer was knocked unconscious in another smash which has left him badly bruised and with a headache. Alun Rossiter has crashed and ended up with a broken leg, collarbone and torn knee ligaments. Scott Nicholls is still having trouble with his broken ankle. Toni Svab crashed and has a broken leg. As several of these are our star riders, this should screw up any hope we might have had of making the top 100!
The current top 100 ranges from 2016 to 2163 points. Our best is now Flying Without Wings on 1673, knocking Bells Aces off the top spot down to 2nd with 1631. Still a few weeks to go though, anything could happen!
A good week for Oxford as their man Lukas Dryml is also on form and was crowned World Under-21 champion in Czechoslovakia, only a week after coming third in the Swedish Grand Prix.
Best Pairs meeting at Berwick was won by Boro' Bears! Mark Burrows and Shane Parker donned their old Middlesborough race jackets for the evening and beat six other teams, including home pairing Banger Bentley and Steffen Mell, who came joint last!
Top 40 scores this week range from 2133 to 2237 points, so we still don't get our names in the Star as our best is 1736 (Flying Without Wings), closely followed by Bells Aces on 1702. No change in the Galtres League team order from last week.
Ryan Sullivan (Peterborough) has broken his collarbone, yet another man on the injured list.
Hull Speedway are to close at the end of this season. Hull KR, who own Craven Park, have decided to extend the turf for the rugby pitch so they can try for the Super League, and have therefore, quite literally, turfed our last remaining "local" speedway team out of its home with nowhere to go. Ironically, the greyhounds are moving out too, so the track could in theory just have been moved out a bit, but no such luck. Still no sign of Bradford, Halifax, Castleford or Middlesborough opening up, so looks like no Speedway in this neck of the woods next year at all...
... which means we'll have to make do with the Fantasy League again! Shale Shifters are still top this week, with Bells Aces not far behind again, and Flying Without Wings a close third. Only a couple of weeks left to go!