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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
The British Speedway Promoters Association have announced the 2010 National League fixtures and, after their opening fixtures against King’s Lynn, the Jotun Paints Scunthorpe Saints will take on the Dudley Heathens in the Knockout Cup.
With both clubs receiving a first round bye early dates have been set for the quarter-final clash in which three of last year’s Saints side will return to face their former team-mates. Richard Franklin (who remains a Scunthorpe asset) plus Ashley Morris and James Sarjeant are the three riders in question whilst Adam McKinna, who was briefly a Scorpions rider in 2006, will be another familiar face when the second leg takes place on Monday 3rd May.
The first leg is set to take place at Monmore Green (Wolverhampton) six days earlier on Tuesday, 27th April, whilst the second leg at the Eddie Wright Raceway will be the second half of a bank holiday feast of entertainment. The double-header meeting, which sees ‘tapes up’ at the new Bank Holiday start time of 6pm, will see the Henderson Insurance Scunthorpe Scorpions in action against the Somerset Rebels before the Saints take to the track for the deciding leg of the cup tie.
The three other bank holiday double-header meetings also see top quality opposition visit the Eddie Wright Raceway. Easter Monday (5th April) kicks off the Saints home campaign with local rivals, the King’s Lynn Young Stars, following the Scorpions meeting against Redcar whilst, for the second year running, the Plymouth Devils and the Edinburgh Monarchs provide opposition of the highest quality on the Spring Bank Holiday Monday (31st May). If the Edinburgh/Plymouth weren’t a strong enough combination then the August Bank Holiday sees National League double winners Bournemouth take on the Saints after the Scorpions face Sheffield in Premier League action.
For the fans of Sunday speedway the football world cup has forced two Scorpions fixtures to Sunday evenings (also 6pm start time like the Bank Holiday Mondays) and both matches will be followed by Saints in National League action. The first, on Sunday 20th June, sees 2008 Conference League Champions Weymouth take on the Saints after the Scorpions meeting with Workington whilst a fortnight later Rye House will provide the opposition for both of the club’s sides.
There is one National League double-header home meeting planned when the Isle of Wight and Dudley sides both take on the Saints on the same night, Friday 6th August whilst the remaining home fixtures against Buxton, Mildenhall and Newport will all follow a Scorpions home meeting on a Friday night. All four Friday night double-headers will commence 30 minutes earlier than normal at 7pm so fans may want to keep a note of the16th July, 6th August, 20th August and 10th September so as to not miss the start of the action on those nights.
Once again the club has made every effort to keep prices as low as possible for the double-header meetings and instead of paying £3 extra adult fans will only have to pay £2 more to watch the extra meeting. The National League double-header meeting on 6th August will be the same price as a Premier League meeting whilst there will be no increases for children for double-header meetings (£4 for children aged 10-16 and free for any aged under-10).
After seeing the final fixture list Scunthorpe Promoter Rob Godfrey felt the fixture planner had done a good job. “We’ve got some good crowd-pulling opponents on the Bank Holidays and that is very important. A lot of neutrals like to come and see thirty heats of outstanding speedway at the Eddie Wright Raceway and even more so when it is a bank holiday. We will do all we can to keep the meetings moving so we should be done and dusted before 9pm and perhaps now people can go out for the day and still come to speedway for 6pm”.
“It’s great that we have an early Bank Holiday fixture against Dudley as I’m sure their fans will be out in force after not having a team to support for so long. Naturally there is added interest with three of last year’s Saints coming back and I’m sure the atmosphere for that meetings will probably be the best in that league all season”.
The Saints fixtures are listed below but are always subject to change and an up-to-date fixture list can always be found at www.scunthorpespeedway.com.
APRIL
Saturday 3rd Away @ King’s Lynn
Monday 5th HOME v King’s Lynn (follows Scorpions v Redcar)
Tuesday 27th Away @ Dudley (Knockout Cup)
MAY
Monday 3rd HOME v Dudley (Knockout Cup) (follows Scorpions v Somerset)
Sunday 16th Away @ Newport
Friday 21st Away @ Plymouth
Monday 31st HOME v Plymouth (follows Scorpions v Edinburgh)
JUNE
Sunday 6th National League Fours @ Mildenhall
Sunday 20th HOME v Weymouth (follows Scorpions v Workington)
Tuesday 29th Away @ Isle of Wight
JULY
Friday 2nd Away @ Weymouth
Sunday 4th HOME v Rye House (follows Scorpions v Rye House)
Friday 16th HOME v Buxton (follows Scorpions v Stoke)
Tuesday 27th Away @ Dudley
AUGUST
Friday 6th HOME v Isle of Wight and HOME v Dudley (NL Double-header)
Sunday 8th Away @ Mildenhall
Friday 20th HOME v Mildenhall (follows Scorpions v Redcar)
Sunday 22nd Away @ Buxton
Saturday 28th Away @ Rye House
Monday 30th HOME v Bournemouth (follows Scorpions v Sheffield)
SEPTEMBER
Friday 10th HOME v Newport (will follow a Scorpions meeting)
OCTOBER
Sunday 3rd RYE HOUSE – National League Riders’ Championship Final
Dates to be confirmed:
Away @ Bournemouth
National League Pairs @ Newport
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