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This post is sponsored by the c in Mitchell Cluff's christian name. As I left my office in the capital's city centre, I wondered whether I would see speedway last night. Thankfully the sunny Armadale microclimate came into its own, the clouds cleared and it was all systems go. For any away side to victory on the road, they need their top man to be cool, calm and collected in heat one. While we can’t really comment on the first two, Bandits followers certainly thought Bohemian Rhapsody was collected in a calamitous collision. However, they reckoned without Breckon. Michael Breckon that is. The man who was in charge of the 2014 play off final and used the rulebook beautifully to win the league title for the Monarchs. I’m not going to complain about such a wonderful, classy, cheery chap, although it’s fair to say his call caused much chagrin beyond the cow shed. “Coward” they cried, as their team faced the remainder of proceedings minus their leader. That incident apart, there wasn’t much to get excited about. Monarchs built up an early lead and contained their counterparts comfortably. The lack of passing throughout could be construed as a concern though. Hats off to the Thom(p)son non-twins who bagged maximums in both 13 and 15 (it’s been a while!), as well as personally, and took the Monarchs’ lead up to 18 on the night. Can they claim the bonus point? It could be close. Roll on Friday... PS almost completely forgot my concluding chapter: I was at a First Aid course earlier this week. We were doing some drills in pairs. My ‘partner’ was on the floor. I approached and asked, “are you ok?” “Yes”, he replied “Are you a cyclist?” “Yes”, he replied “Oh well. I’m off. See you later” That didn’t go down very well in the room. Tough crowd these days.

Everyone is entitled to be a little grumpy once in a while... especially on here 😂

Any links for tonight? @stewmac @racers and royals You guys are normally all over this 🤷‍♂️

I think everyone appreciates your input, its your occasional manner that they don't 😂

The expectation that your clubs management doesn't arrange a fixture when your number 1 is away? That your number 1 is content to accept a booking with no guarantee of getting a ride 😂, that product? Fine? Come on man... let's see what the crowds are like at the end of the season at Northampton, I was there and I can tell you, that although it was a decent crowd, they were the crowds that were commonplace when I first started attending speedway, so forgive me if I'm not doing a jig of delight.

The product is fine, the expectation of the fans seems to have become that of the prawn sandwich brigade football fan. You're not going to get executive boxes, perfect weather and the same 1-7 every week but I'm perfectly happy with modern day speedway and judging by the size of the crowd for the hastily cobbled together (first ever) Northampton meeting there's still an appetite for the sport.

Not at all, welcomed back with open arms at Leicester, he'll not be missing any of our matches to go and sit in the pits in Poland 😂 This kind of situation sums up why the sport in this country has become the tin pot third rate product it currently is.

If ANY Edinburgh fan attends this meeting, I'm sorry, but they're a mug, plain and simple.

Here's a question: how much Weetabix is Kye eating for breakfast this season? He's been nothing short of fantastic. I noticed this during the latter part of last season and he's been doing everything right - gating, being strong into the first bend, overtaking and taking all the right lanes. And his confidence is sky high. What's changed?

What about alternative race night being used though.In rearranged fixtures following initial rain off.

Admit you just don't like Dan T and move on.

I'm betting your ancestors were those people who walked the streets with billboards proclaiming THE END IS NIGH! Glasgow had to field two guests last week against Plymouth but the fans didn't start throwing themselves from the stands onto the concrete below. I'm confident Berwick and Edinburgh fans will remain calm and steadfast and do nothing rash. If Christians could face lions whilst singing and dancing I'm hopeful that the Berwick and Edinburgh fans will be able to handle the inconvenience of having to find a guest or use rider replacement.

£100 Woryna MORE £100 Lindgren LESS £50 Fricke LESS

Bartosz has 20 championship points on the FIM website. Bewley has 18, Lambert 16 and Kurtz has 3. Thought the meeting was taking place tonight?

Sounds plausible, but the usual ambiguous get out. I can't see anything in the Regs which supports that approach.

Probably right.

I’m about 15 minutes away and it bright sun and hot I’ve not been into town today but I suspect they will be watering the track and not particularly worried about rain. Berwick does have its own micro climate so I might be wrong.

Link for Rybnik v Rzeszów: https://vk.com/video-234681448_456239172

Well as no one else has bothered with a summary and I’m sat on the beach at Workington here’s my effort. Tigers on paper appeared strengthened with guests Hodder and Norman ( he’s one to watch ) replacing Ablitt ( at Scunny ) and Ward ( retired ) whilst the Chargers look good on paper the shock home defeat should just have been an early season blip. Poor crowd ( for Friday night at Redcar ) but warm night and track looked better than previous weeks. Tight score early doors with Chargers Watson never finishing a race and Broadhurst not upto speed whereas Tigers were solid but lacking race winners and S.Pijper withdrawing with an old injury meaning extra rides for the promising Southwick and decent Sadler. Heat 9 changed everything. Veteran Mudgeway infront leading Oxford pair when on bend 3-4 Mudgeway takes a wobbler due to his grasstrack style ( he did this on this bend in each of his races ) , Ritchings appears surprised and falls meaning his team mate , either Fletcher or Broadhurst ? ( the announcer was very poor and inaccurate all evening ) lays it down whilst at the same time Mudgeway is catapulted into the air fence , all his own doing in my opinion. Takes a while but the the ref ( Mr. Hunter ) excludes both Oxford riders ?!? Gobsmacked! Tigers add a 5-1 to this 5-0 and now look good for a comfortable win. Charges fight back helped by Tigers Southwick fall-exclusion and impressive Scott & Ritchings to be 3 points behind going into heat 14. Here’s where the match is decided . With Southwich leading but clearly got a machine issue and slowing on lap 3 he coasts into bend 1 shaking his head as Vale goes inside him to avoid him. Southwick ends up in the fence, kicks his bike in frustration as the red lights come on. Everyone but the ref marks their programmes as a Oxford 5-1, even Roy Clarke starts telling the crowd how unlucky Southwick was when it’s then announced that the ref has awarded the race 4-2 to the Tigers as he says Vale knocked Southwick off ( he wasn’t even under power ! ) even more gobsmacked ! Chargers deserved their last heat 5-1 and to their credit didn’t appear to make a big fuss about being robbed of the match by two of the worst decisions I’ve ever witnessed in 50+ years of speedway. otherwse….a good meeting for NDL. Young Norman ( a former Redcar junior ) impressed at no.2, Southwick is fast and a bit wild but great to watch. Chargers Ritchings was class, expectantly backed by Bears rider Scott and young Fletcher was impressive. Tigers now looking for 2 or even 3 riders to replace Ward, Trigger and possibly Mudgeway?

I think if Dan Thompson wants to build his speedway career by traveling to Poland to not ride he should drop Britain... Or ... he could give Poland a miss until he's good enough to ride over there. If and when he's good enough Polish Clubs will be knocking his door down to sign him and he'll be able to name his own price.

... and not ride! Didn't get a ride again today Complete madness!

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Starting to think they've leveraged the power of AI and used it to replace Kelvin. It's just malfunctioning ATM.

Get that but he would have missed the original also

Well that was a tough watch, here's hoping they sort the sync out for this evening.