2022 vision – part four … July: Leon lights up a loss month

July will go down as a month best consigned to the history dustbin – unless you are Leon Flint.
Between them the Bandits and Bullets raced 12 times in the month which yielded one draw, a solitary win and ten defeats – 11 if United Kingdom Visa and Immigration are included.
Despite that shocking run of defeats Leon continued to grow from strength to strength despite switching to the more pressured number five spot.

It culminated with a flawless maximum which saw him crowned British under-19 Champion at Redcar and there was a bronze medal for Great Britain in the Speedway of Nations2 event in Vojens, although the decision not to give him a ride remains one of the season’s great conundrums.

Redcar completed their cup progress and Edinburgh avenged their early season league drubbing with a Jubilee League win at Shielfield; Leicester Lion Cubs became the first, and as yet only, team to beat the Bullets on home shale, also in the Cup.

But for a disintegrating clutch which ended Chris Harris’ heat 15 glory ride against Poole, gifting the eventual champions a barely deserved draw.
The sole victory was a stunning one, Bomber and Jonas orchestrating a ten point victory at Oxford in front of the BSN cameras.

But the end of the month brought further problems as UKVI’s delay in processing Knudsen’s visa meant that the young Dane’s temporary permission to race expired after the visit of Edinburgh and the club enlisted the help of Berwick’s MP Anne Marie Trevelyan in a bid to unwrap the red tape.