Buxton Hitmen chief wants club to be a conveyor belt for talent

Not only has he been looking at a number eight for the forthcoming season but also putting plans in place to ensure that talent comes through the ranks in seasons to come.

“Over the past three weeks I’ve been looking at potential riders for the Buxton MDL team,” said Pipe.

“Also over the next few weeks I will be taking in more practice sessions at Scunthorpe, Peterborough, Redcar and Northside to look over more riders.

“Where possible I hope we can try and have riders who aren’t already signed up for other MDL teams and also I’m trying to find riders who are not contracted to any other club.

“We’d like an MDL team at Buxton where riders in that team can go on to be future Buxton NL riders and for us to make them feel a part of the family set up and make them feel that Buxton is their club.”

Pipe added that he was hoping to avoid last season’s continual churn of riders representing the junior Hitmen at Midland Development League Level.

“The rules allow for teams to borrow a rider from another squad, but I’ve never been a fan of this because from a fans view it starts getting silly when you have a rider who ends up racing for three or four different teams over the season.

“I’ve already seen one or two useful riders and been told about a few riders and riders have approached me.

“I plan to sort out the MDL team by drawing up a shortlist of eight riders and then reduce that down to a squad of five named riders, which is when the MDL team will be announced and also the NL number eight will be found from this squad.”

Pipe is taking his new duties very seriously and is looking forward to a production line of young Hitmen over the years to come.

He added; “Recently I hired out the Scunthorpe track to help out many PL, NL & MDL Riders, which also gave me the opportunity to watch riders who I have my eye on for an MDL team place.”