Nigel Pearson's Track Talk - August 4

Individual 'open' meetings don't generally prove popular these days, but the Hammer never fails - and this year we have pulled together the strongest line-up of the modern era.

True, it's not Gundersen, Cross, Carter, Penhall, Olsen & Co – but the entertainment will be every bit as enjoyable.

Modern day Heathens legends such as Adam Roynon, Steve Worrall, Paul Starke and Tom Perry will be battling for glory.

They race alongside defending champion Adam Ellis plus current Cradley top three Ashley Morris, Max Clegg and Luke Chessell.

When we returned in 2010, we were very keen to bring back the Golden Hammer.

We recognise the fact that the best riders in the world used to contest this meeting, but right now we're doing the best we can and it has been very successful so far.

We've seen some brilliant Golden Hammer meetings over the last few years, and we've raised the bar this year to bring in a host of Cradley favourites.

We're delighted to welcome back Steve Worrall, Paul Starke, Adam Roynon and Tom Perry amongst others.

We've got the best line-up we've had, so the interest is at the highest level we've seen in the modern era.

We've had a fantastic response in terms of restaurant bookings and a lot of enquiries on social media about the meeting.

It's kids for free and there's a free colour poster for them to get rider autographs – should be a cracking night so come along and join us!

Meanwhile, Wolverhampton face their biggest home meeting of the season on Monday - according to Aussie ace Sam Masters.

Belle Vue are the visitors in what promises to be a crunch clash with World Cup star Masters reckons could be a rehearsal for the play-offs.

He commented: "Belle Vue are up there with a couple of meetings in hand but we're going to do all we can to catch them.

"At the start of the season, Belle Vue looked like one of the stand out teams and I always said they'd be one of our biggest challengers for the league.

"I think we need to get off to a good start and show them we mean business early on.

"We've had some good match ups against them this season but we don't just want to win, we want to make sure they get nothing out of the meeting.

"We're having a really good season as a team and with Joonas (Kylmakorpi) coming back from injury now too, I think that's only going to make us even stronger."