Bekker bigs up Heathens double hopes (From Halesowen News)

Bekker bigs up Heathens double hopes

8:59am Thursday 4th October 2012 in Sport

BYRON Bekker says Heathens are ready for the business end of the season.

The popular South African, who enjoys sponsorship from lifelong Cradley fans, has attracted the attention of several clubs from a higher division in recent weeks.

But he’ll be back in Heathens colours on Sunday when they head to Mildenhall for the first leg of the National League Knockout Cup final, the start of a mammoth four days for the club.

Next Tuesday, Heathens face Stoke in the first-leg of their play-off semi-final at Monmore with the return leg just 24 hours later.

Bekker said: “Things are going well at the moment because I’m picking up a lot of extra meetings in the Premier League and I’m back at Edinburgh on Friday.

“I still have ambition to ride at a higher level and I’ve been scoring points at that level which has been a good way for me to put myself in the shop window.

“I just want to keep it going with Dudley because we’ve got some massive meetings coming up and we need to get back in the groove after so long out of the saddle.

“It’s been frustrating for us to have a month without a meeting since finishing our league fixtures but I’m sure we’ll be fine.

“We’ve been tremendous all season and we just need to finish the job now and get what we deserve. I personally feel we can win the league and cup double.

“I have no problem about facing Stoke and Mildenhall. We go to Mildenhall on Sunday and we need to keep the scores as close as we possibly can to bring them back to our place later in the month.

“Stoke have riders who can cause problems because they go well around our track but we will be ready for that.

“We are desperate to get into the final and win the title.

“It’s great to finish top of the league but these days it’s all about the play-off system and it all boils down to two legs of speedway.”

The Heathens suffered more frustration on Monday when the Stoke leg of the National League semi-final, originally scheduled for Tuesday, was postponed after the Potters track failed to recover from heavy rain. That set up next week’s back-to-back meetings.

Heathens chairman Nigel Pearson said: “Everyone at the club is frustrated.

“We will now race each other on successive days—– and again the Wednesday date has been agreed between the two clubs to ensure the availability of both sets of riders.

“We looked at this Thursday but our new signing Joe Haines is riding for Sheffield.”