Trigger happy Bullets

A trip to high-flying Oxford is probably the last thing on the GHT Bullets, powered by STS wish list.

However, that’s the task in hand as they travel to Cowley on Wednesday night in the penultimate fixture of what has been a hugely disappointing and injury-wrecked campaign.

Connor Coles and Greg Blair are the latest added to a list which began in the first heat of the campaign when Archie Freeman’s career as a Bullet lasted just a couple of laps before he suffered a broken leg.

Fellow winter recruit Josh Embleton joined him in the season-ending roll of pain while Blair has been hampered by fitness problems after a series of heavy falls and Mason Watson has also missed meetings with concussion.

Awaiting them is an Oxford side which trails Leicester by just a point following their win at Kent on Sunday afternoon. Significantly the first part of the Iwade double header saw Kent Royals surprisingly beat Mildenhall by four points to make the likelihood of the Chargers and Leicester meeting in the top two title-deciding play-off even more likely.

They have only lost twice in their ten outings so far this season, both when talismanic number one Jordan Jenkins was missing with concussion – controversially when local medics refused to allow him to ride at Belle Vue despite guidance from the speedway authorities to the contrary and then ten days later at Mildenhall.

Along with Ryan Kinsley and Henry Atkins, Jenkins forms a seriously strong three-pronged spearhead which accounted for 33 of their points, Jenkins and Atkins recording a dramatic 5-1 in heat 15 to secure the two-point win at Shielfield in June.

Since then Luke Killeen – who has made two incident-packed guest appearances for the Bandits this season – has recovered from a wrist injury and his return at reserve gave Oxford a huge firepower boost.

Despite some decent Championship scores – and two guest appearances at Shielfield – Oxford still decided to drop him in favour of new wonder-kid Ashton Boughen when the Leicester Cub turned 16 on Monday and became eligible to ride in the second tier.

The Australian-born but British qualified Killeen, who is still on a bargain three-point average, will line up against the Bullets on Wednesday.

With Birmingham, Scunthorpe, Poole, and Glasgow all in action the options of guests to replace Coles on his 8.08 were virtually non-existent so team manager Kevin Little has chosen to operate rider-replacement at number one with all the Bullets riders eligible for a ride.

Instead they have brought in Plymouth and Mildenhall teenager Ben Trigger to guest for Blair at number three.

“It’s another tough ask for the Bullets but some of their best performances this year have come when they have been written off and their backs were against the wall.

“Both Connor and Greg are huge losses, not just for their points but their enthusiasm in the pits but in Ben Trigger we have another in the line of young British talent eager to take every opportunity to get competitive track time.

“Finding a guest in Connor’s average range was impossible due to other teams being in action so we have opted for rider-replacement with all the other members of the team eligible to take his rides.”

Chargers: Jordan Jenkins, Jacob Clouting, Ryan Kinsley, Jody Scott, Henry Atkins, Luke Killeen, Jason Garrod

Bullets: Connor Coles r/r, Jamie Halder, Ben Trigger, Danny Phillips, Steve Boxall, Kieran Douglas, Mason Watson

Referee: Matthew Wear

Pictures: Nia Martin