This coming Sunday, everyone connected with the Buxton Hitmen will be keeping fingers crossed that the home Conference Trophy fixture with the Boston Barracudas goes ahead.

The speedway season started a few weeks ago but a combination of the weather and fixture list has meant that the Hitmen have yet to run a home meeting and, with just two away ones in the past five weeks, that is tough on the riders as they need to be out on-track to get race sharp. This Sunday Boston visit in the second leg of the Conference Trophy tie between the two sides and the Barracudas hold a big lead from the first leg 10 days ago which they won 60-34. A race-rusty Buxton team were hoping to keep the scores close and normally do well when they visit the Barracudas but on this occasion it turned into a heavy defeat.

Of more concern to Buxton were the injuries picked up by John Branney, Danny Hodgson and Gareth Isherwood during the meeting. Firstly Isherwood was involved in a heavy fall in Heat 2 and, on the advice of the paramedics at the track, took no further part in the meeting. He was followed by Hodgson who sustained the most serious injury when he fell on the last bend of Heat 8 and broke his arm. Initial thoughts were that he may need an operation to set the fracture but latest reports are that this won’t be necessary but he will be out for at least six weeks. Branney picked up an ankle injury in the final race of the night but recovered well enough to take his place for Workington at the weekend.

With Hodgson out for the foreseeable future, the Buxton promotion will be scouring the country to try and come up with a replacement but that won’t be as easy as it sounds. There are few riders available who could come to race for the Hitmen and some of those would want more money than the club could afford to pay, so if the search for a new rider proves unsuccessful then opportunity could fall to one of the younger riders in the squad to make a stake for a team spot. The meeting starts at 3pm on Sunday and more information such as directions to the track, etc. can be found at www.hitmen2000.co.uk – Buxton Hitmen’s official website.