woofers

Shame Cam and Timo can't bang in those sort of scores when they ride there for their home club !!!!

Not much interest in this one it would seem! Absolute must for Eagles to pick up 3 points tonight. Perhaps a decent crowd with visitors from Lakeside as they did not race last night, and these "local" derbies are usually well supported. Eagles: Dan Halsey, Joonas Kylmakorpi, Timo Lahti, Mikkel Michelsen, Kyle Newman (Guest for Lewis Blackbird), Bjarne Pedersen, Cameron Woodward Hammers: Lewis Bridger, Craig Cook (guest for Davey Watt), Adam Ellis, Danny King, Richard Lawson, Ben Morley, Kim Nilsson.

As suggested yesterday, post 927, page 62.........😄😄

Wouldn't it have made sense to suspend his licences to ride while this was going on? I believe suspensions happen in other sports whilst investigations take place. This would have 2 impacts that I can think of - 1. It would serve as a sharp reminder to Mr Ward just what is at stake as he would be missing rides immediately, even if temporarily, and 2. It would put the matter on the agenda fairly sharply for the relevant bodies to adjudicate. Hilarious....

Oh yeah, when would that be then? The last time Eastbourne were in the finals was 2011, against Poole, and the result was only concluded in heat 14, second leg at Wimborne Road. Try to get your facts right. You really need to reign in your disdain for all things Eastbourne, it shows in so many of your posts.

Exactly ! We don't want them messing about...fiddling with clutches and cables, digging holes, etc... we want them ready to race !

Doesn't matter, first one abandoned after heat 12, second one postponed....... Rain.

Obviously being an Eastbourne supporter I have no great affinity for either of these sides, however I have yet to see this track in a decent state. For certain Coventry supporters to come on here and slag off Arlington and everything Eastbourne is a bit rich when you see the dross being served up here tonight. And judging by the crowd numbers a fair few others have voted with their feet. As for time wasting exclusions.......good ! Most of us are sick and tired of the "gardening" and ignoring start marshall requests at the tapes, and the rush back to the pits when there's a stoppage. We do need some consistency in applying these rules though. Daft comment from Havelock.......

So Simon Gustafsson can't guest for Mikel on Saturday night then ?

A nasty incident, I hope Andre will be OK. Some processional stuff on a good looking race track early on, but the latter races came to life, such a shame that the meeting ended on low points with the fall in heat 13 and crash in heat 14. Slightly concerned about the young man and his accompanying adult on the dog track, waving at the camera whilst peering over the fence 'ghouling' at Ollie Allen lying injured on the track, his parents must be proud ! (hopefully not). What were they doing there, surely a restricted site?

So, that's the option on Kim gone then, looks like he wanted a return to the Elite league, but Eastbourne weren't savvy enough to get there first. Kylmakorpi has to to deliver now. Is PK an option?

Don't know what's up with Joonas but it's not exactly a 'one off' thing, his performances have always been erratic - maybe his mind is elsewhere, longtrack perhaps ? This has happened before, longtrack, GP qualifiers etc, but the point is we have paid money, and by default his wages, to see him ride speedway for Eastbourne and it is not unreasonable to expect a bit of effort. We don't care if he is multi world longtrack champion, it hasn't translated into performances for Eastbourne - he might as well be world tiddlywinks champion for the impact it's having! The problem with Eastbourne can be summed up with the coaching statement along the lines of "If you continue to do the same things you'll continue to get the same results".

Erm, would that be because the "blokes" are professional (i.e paid and experienced) speedway riders, some of world class calibre, and most people would expect them to deal with and / or adapt to any track conditions they face, whilst the "kids" are but beginners.........??

Granted not his best night and no doubt he will be very unhappy with that performance. Worst I've seen him ride, he usually excellent around Arlington and never gives up. The rider they should be looking to replace, and soon, is Kylmakorpi. Pootled round this evening, never looking to make an impression and his away performances particularly on the longer tracks, ( for which I thought he was in the team for ) have been nothing to write about. Time to give Kim Nilsson an opportunity at JKs expense, ............or perhaps Danny King ?

Time for Kylmakorpi to go. Time for Bob to give the team a rollicking for their away performances. Time for Kim Nilsson to be given a chance.

I think that was Jon Cook........ Yes, it doesn't please me very much that we face weakened opposition but I like speedway and some is better than none at all. Would the serial Eastbourne bashers on here prefer that Eastbourne exited the Elite league, or even speedway altogether? I can't see how that would improve things. With the amount of knocking on this forum I think some folks on here would just prefer it if Poole, Coventry, Swindon and Wolverhampton made up the Elite league....that way you can have all the top riders and race each other half dozen times a year.....maybe you'd be happy then??(Ooops, sorry, Coventry are never happy.......)

Have to agree with VoR, I think the ref got the decision right. There was no contact with Morris, Barker was going for the big blast round the outside and had almost pulled it off when he appeared to be sucked into the fence. You have to consider that a more talented rider of Elite standard would have got through there and everyone would have been praising it as a sensational move. Unfortunately, Ben, although a rider with International credentials, and "always giving it 110%", hasn't the requisite skill level to accomplish that manoeuvre safely. His comment regarding Nick Morris being out of control on every corner was priceless !!

I've read some garbage on this forum over the years but some of the comments on this thread are truely in cloud cuckoo land. How any Coventry fan has the audacity to criticise the Eastbourne track is beyond belief, given the problems you have had this year and in the past. The track grading comment comes up every year but as usual no one has any real evidence of this, it seems to be one of those folklore tales that people love to regurgitate without substance. There wasn't a lot of grading done last night, the track was grippy on the outside and slick on the inside. Now perhaps this was actually better from a safety point of view? We are told that grippy tracks and modern speedway bikes are dangerous in inexperienced hands and it is easier for less experienced riders to slide the bike on slicker surfaces. So, given the makeup of the Coventry team last night perhaps it was better for there to be an inside line that they could, (and did), ride. The grippy outside was no problem for Bridger, Michelson, Woodward etc. although unfortunately Ryan Fisher had trouble handling it. The meeting was horribly drawn out, everyone was fed up with it, the Eastbourne fans gave a mighty cheer toward the referee when the 2 minute warning was sounded, and the responsibility the delays lies squarely with the referee. We wouldn't have had this problem when Frank Ebdon was in charge! It would seem that 2 posters on here have a particular issue with Eastboure as they have only sweeping negative comments to make, were you actually at the meeting or did you get all your views from the gambling site feed?

Very constructive comment, well done, your parents and friends must be proud of you.

Oops, you're correct, I didn't check the averages but assumed that Ljung (ex GP rider?) had a higher average that Hougaard.

OK, so it's not helpful if the track isn't prepared as usual or expected.......but these guys are professional speedway riders with years of experience and aspirations of performing at World Cup level. I would expect them to be able to adapt, change their set ups and ride accordingly. The problems must be bigger than the track being too slick. With regard to replacements, surely the introduction of around 20 NL riders has free'd up a number of riders who were EL last year and now without a ride, some of whom would be eager for another chance.

Should be a comfortable home win again. Doyle has done well at Eastbourne in the past and is the main threat, but he can't do it alone. From memory, Hougaard and Stead have not performed well at Arlington in the last few years and may well come under pressure from Lewis Blackbird and Dan Halsey.

I'd leave Kylmakorpi out, he has other distractions and doesn't appear to give 100%. Definitely go with the 4 above, (Michelsen is a must get), for the remaining place I'd like to see someone with racing commitment like Jason Doyle or Rory Schlien, who both put in decent performances at Arlington in 2013.

Did anyone else watching on TV suffer a sound imbalance between the Sky commentary and the background stadium noise ? The Sky commentary seemed muffled, and although I obviously enjoy the sound of the bikes, the stadium centre green announcer was bloody annoying.....is it just a midlands thing that they commentate during the final half lap ? I don't recall this happening at Eastbourne, Poole, Lakeside, Swindon, Ipswich.......etc

Thank you so much for your observation, the rubbish I was talking about is displayed in the facts below which is the meeting that I saw both Barker and Worrall ride in. I certainly don't need my eyes tested, I was there and saw a much better display of speedway from Richie Worrall than Ben Barker. Worrall also came over better in his trackside interview, articulate and noting that he has had a couple of really good meetings at Arlington. I remain convinced that Barker is generally out of control on a speedway bike, and in that respect Worrall out rides him - laugh if you like. Eastbourne Eagles = 35 1. Bjarne Pedersen 2, 3, 1, 1, 0 = 7 2. R/R 3. Simon Gustafsson 3, 2, 2, 2', 1, 2 = 12+1 4. Timo Lahti 0, 0, 3, 0 = 3 5. Cameron Woodward 2, 2, 0, 1, 0 = 5 6. Kim Nilsson 0, 3, 0, 1', 0, 2 = 6+1 7. Denis Gizatulin 2', 0, 0, 0 = 2+1 Poole Pirates = 55 1. Chris Holder 3, 3, 3, 2', 3, 3 = 17+1 2. Rohan Tungate 1, 2, 1, Ex = 4 3. R/R 4. Mikkel Bech Jensen 1', 3, 2', 2', 3 = 11+3 5. Ben Barker 1, 2, 1, 1, 2', 1 = 8+1 6. Anders Mellgren 0, 1', Ex = 1+1 7. Richie Worrall 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 1 = 14