Nottinghamoutlaws

At first sight when you look at the Nottingham record you"d say nothing had changed.Compare for 1979 and 1980, in both of which years they finished 14th in the National League.
As near as dammit identical,if all you look at the figures.But look beyond that and maybe you"ll come up with the comforting thought that unless they have a winter like they had last year,the Outlaws are likely to do themselves a bit of all right .Lets talk about last winter for a wee bit.
Nottingham had at least re-established speedway at the old Long eaton circuit.They"d had their troubles and traumas but they were through the initial, comeback year.
if they had a worry at all it must have been as to what the winter would do to their newly putting a together team.And well might that have worried them.
The great hero of that first season was Dave Perks.He and Mike Sampson had between them, proved real terrors to the oppostion.But Perksie in particular was right out on his own at the top. And he got re-allocated to National League Oxford, a track also under the jurisdiction of Dan McCormick.
Dan was perfectly straight about it,Dave was wanted as cover for parent club Cradley who raced on saturday.Nottingham new race night for 1980 was also on saturday.Therefore Perks would never be available on saturday if Oxford need him .So he moved to Oxford which was a Thursday night track.
Kevin Hawkins who was on loan from coventry ,was recalled back.Les Sawyer moved to Stoke.
What was hardly a strong team on paper we were down to the skin and bones.But notall moves were one way ,Arthur Price once the golden boy of his section ,was brough in with the hope that he"d get the old golden touch back.
Once or twice it looked on ,But broken bone in the leg and then a broken colar-bonebetween them wiped out a serious Price comeback to glory attempt.
From Sheffield was Steve Sant drafted in to add some strength .From Aussie came junior Mark Collins released by Wolverhampton.and we evebtually snapped up Ivan Blacka,whoo came like a hurricane,started scoring a lot of points but ran into a bad patch.which he badly busted his collar-bone which he was going to be out for a few months .
Nottingham with what little they"d managed to add,had to go alone but fortunatly,Mike Sampson took upon himself to try to make it good ,the points deficit for all the missing men.He started in magnificent form,apart from the very of the end season,which was one of his best season ever in his career.
If that"s all that happened then Nottingham could of be said to be up with the best.as appears that one man teams don"t win league,matches or too many friends and just to show that justice can be blind, Mike"s reward was to finish the season with a broken ankle,substained as soon the league programme had come to a end.
As for Glenn McDonald,for the second year at station road he was unable to show a complete season just like last year.In 1979 he was out for most of the season his initial one in this country ,with internal injuries .This year he got off to a bright start and then missed a huge lump while recovering from tornleg ligaments and a busted ankle.
Before the spell on the sick list ,though he gave us a great example of the art of fast gating which was a real bonus .In eight pre-injury matches he totted up 69 league points ,including a paid dozen against no less a team than Boston.In the next time after returning from injury he was back in double figure .All the signs were there given a free run through a complete season that he could be a top man in the National League.
I"d also expected to find Craig Featherby up the other end of the list and far removed from a No" 7 rating.Nor was anyone disappointed home or away that Craig had improved,he was also better all round on his home track.But some of his scores on his travels were alot better from last year.I"d give him one more year and he could be a heat leader in the National League.These three rider would give a strong top three in any National League team .
Newcomer to the Outlaws Mark Collins which was from Australia and cerainly stopped at the right station.He was never a consitant top scorer.But always showed flashes of what he could do ,if he lack anything it was his experience and now hes had his first season he should comeback alot stronger.
Outlaws other Mark (Williams) also showed improvement on a few outings which had show a few flashes of being one of the best reserve in the league but would sometimes be a nightmare.
There was other bright signs.a pity that junior Paul Bosley ,once a mechanic to Gordon Kennett was unable to be perserved with after scoring a paid seven on the only time he was dropped and then moved onto cradley , his experience might of been better descript if he had a chance.
So all in all ,although the figures show similarity between the two years of the Nottingham Outlaws existance ,would of been far better placed fo doing things next year ,as they had some very talented riders ready for development ,but is wasn"t to happen

Piczo