Hammers look to constructive pause

The Lakeside Hammers management will be spending much of June reassessing their team plans for the second half of the season after finishing the busy April and May programme with a resounding victory over Kings Lynn on Saturday night, a win much needed and, sadly, not a reflection on the season to date.

The team sits in fourth position in the Elite League, but will be resuming the season in a likely far lower position as a test match, two Hackney Hawks matches and the Elite League Cup take centre stage in a month were action is limited also by World Championship Qualifiers and The British Grand Prix weekend.

Says Co Promoter Jon Cook “We wont be carried away with Saturday’s win – although we wont be changing the side for the Cup matches either. We will be making an almost complete change to the riding order, whilst we continue to consider all our options.

“I know the frustrations Stuart and I feel echo those of our fans and we need to address that feeling. This is caused by the lack of consistency and commitment that our senior riders have shown on occasion. It’s particularly perturbing when riders aren’t fit enough to ride in the Uk then ride abroad and that will be addressed in house.”

Cooke went on to add, “That said, we have reached the half way stage with a misfiring team but our support from the Hammers faithful has been astonishing. Few have felt the need to show their own discontent by staying away and even adjusting our crowd figures to take out the fantastic Good Friday attendance and the woeful  live Sky match,  our average crowd is running slightly up on last year which is extremely encouraging, helped by the great weather of course, in these troubled times.”

“We feel we provide a good show but it is not us who can judge that, the fans do that by attending or not, and at the moment we seem to have a very united group of supporters even if part of that unity is caused by shared frustration. We thank them all and hope they enjoy this smorgasbord of entertainment we have to offer in june before we get back to the business of League racing on July 1st.”

That variety of entertainment starts with the first stand alone meeting for the club’s shared National League team, the Hackney Hawks, who take on Dudley this coming Friday with reduced admission rates applied.

Following that the Club stage the Great Britiain V Australia Test match on June 3rd, the KO Cup v Birmingham on 10th June and then the Hawks take on the Isle of Wight on 17th before the Raceway falls silent for the British GP weekend as many fans head for Cardiff for the weekend.

Picture: Heat 4: Stuart Robson (blue), Niels K Iversen (white), Ryan Fisher (red) and Filip Sitera – Lakeside Hammers vs King’s Lynn Stars – Elite League Speedway at Arena Essex Raceway – 21/05/11 – (Gavin Ellis/TGSPHOTO)