Workington Comets owner axes three riders
Last updated at 14:11, Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Workington Comets owner Keith Denham has wielded the axe on his team - including sacking his No1 rider.
He has also released two others after their humiliating defeat to Glasgow on Sunday.
Denham has moved to replace under performing No1 James Wright, who failed to score on Sunday, and possibly another heat leader.
The Comets chief had been hoping to use Birmingham’s Ulrich Ostergaard and Swindon’s Jesper Monberg in their place but a new rule brought in by the BSPA has meant moves for Elite league riders going to any Premier League club has now been blocked.
Therefore, Denham is looking for any free riders and has been looking in Denmark, Sweden and Poland for suitable replacements.
Denham said: “Our heat leaders produced four points from 12 rides on Sunday and after that performance I thought we have got to do something because the fans are demanding changes.
“I don’t expect the performance I got from James on Sunday who is the top paid rider and I expected him to be top of the Premier League averages at the start of the season.
“He has been letting us down in terms of our chances of success and our title chances went up in a cloud of dust on Sunday.”
Denham has also released Dane Peter Kildemand and Kenny Ingalls who are both struggling with shoulder injuries, in a bid to get a fresh and fit team.
He believes Kildemand will need an operation on his shoulder, with the Dane is seeing a specialist later today, and possibly looking at bringing in recently released Leicester rider John Oliver for Ingalls.
Denham said: “I take the blame for not making changes sooner and I should have been more forceful because I have put off changes week on week and seeing what would happen next.
“I was embarrassed by the Glasgow performance and have never been as sick in my life as after that match.
“I didn’t think Glasgow rode that well but they didn’t need to – it was just that we were that poor and it was an embarrassment that Richard Lawson scored nearly half our points.
“I just thought these performances cannot continue or we will lose the fans.”
First published at 11:30, Tuesday, 23 August 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
