deanr1

Did we ever want them running our club? Nobody will support this. Neil do your mate a favour and tell him not to waste his time or Brandon Estates money, I've never seen anything so obviously doomed to fail. If the league has any sense they will reject your application as you won't make it through the season. Brandon Estates will then point to that failure as proof that Coventry Bees are financially unviable and use it to strengthen their argument to build on Brandon. I suspect this is the motivation behind the whole thing.

That's a different company, the one we are involved with is Jersey based and won't show up on companies house. I'm convinced Sandhu is involved in Brandon Estates.

Looks pretty good so far, I've not seen Lasse ride before but I hear he's exciting to watch. We've made some good signings in terms of their averages, now it's important that we make the most of those points we have saved. The last couple of seasons we have started with a team that was 6 good and 1 poor, we need to get all 7 right. I would quite like to see Kylmakorpi back, not keen on Sarj as I don't think he will improve any more and his average is too high. Off to a decent start.

It's a shame really, I kept thinking there's a good rider in there somewhere and he'll crack it soon but he never did. Yeah I can't see him back, I think he had a public fall out with Mick Horton over money for a race suit or something like that.

I just had a look back on the updates page and his home scores don't seem too bad actually, certainly not as bad as I remember. Although don't forget second strings had easier rides that year against weaker reserves, they could score 4 or 5 just by beating fast track riders. His last few away meetings were all poor apart from one: Leicester 1 Belle Vue 3 Swindon 0 Belle Vue 11+3 Swindon 3+1 Poole 2+1 He scored a combined total of 5 points from the 2 away play off legs at Swindon & Poole, 3 of those points came from other riders falling off.

I thought he was a decent signing when he first came to us but apart from 1 very good home meeting he was shockingly bad all season. He seemed to get worse as the season went on and even when he got out in front he would often make mistakes and get passed, he looked out of control to me. I'm not really clued up the averages but unless he is on a very low one, not for me thanks.

I hope he doesn't, one of the worst riders I've ever seen in a Bees 1-5.

Tatum struggling to hide his disappointment! Great to see 2 proper speedway clubs in the final.

No comment from Neil Watson on this?

As with most arguments there will be 3 sides to it, Horton's, Larsen's and the truth somewhere in the middle. Seems strange to me that this would come out with such aggression 4 years down the line.

Max Fricke would have been a great signing, I believe he is sponsored by City Gearboxes too: 1. KK 2. Garrity 3. King 4. Fricke 5. Harris 6. Bates 7. Sarjeant Looks a lot more solid and would have been play contenders this year, what a difference one team change could make if we could get someone of Max's standard. How about Pawlicki? If he was interested in riding over here then he might bring a few more fans back who have drifted away in the last 5 years as he was a very popular rider for us.

Strangely, as bad as this years team has been, I would have most of the riders back next year, the team has just been put together wrong with riders in the wrong positions. Realistically if we had swapped Woryna for a rider who can score 7 or 8 points a meeting at second string and interchange with King as a heat leader we would have done well this year. I think Sarjeant has reached his peak, I'd have him back as a tier 2 reserve but nothing more. I can also see the argument for keeping Woryna, he is an improving rider and was doing much better before being involved in the fatal crash in Poland which may have something to do with his loss of form. He will be on a low average so maybe if we are making major changes to the team he would be worth retaining depending on how the rest of the team is built.

Love this post, I can relate to so much of it! A whole lifetime of memories comes back every time I turn into that car park, doesn't matter what else is going on in life, stresses of work etc go away for a few hours when I go to Brandon to watch the Bees and I feel like a kid again. As a kid I stood on the metal stairs overlooking the pits watching the riders preparing for the meeting and thinking how much I would love to ride for the Bees one day. I never got close to fulfilling that ambition but I've loved every minute of supporting them for nearly 30 years now. I'm pleased we've got at least another year, maybe even 3 with a bit of luck!

That really would be a dream come true!

Well done to the team, KK was class, King was awesome to watch riding that outside line in heat 15, and great to see Josh Bates progressing so well, he looked smooth and stylish out in front. Just highlights what a bunch of clowns our club is run by, had we swapped Woryna for a better rider a few weeks ago we would have had a few more points on the board and could have been getting excited about challenging for a play-off spot. Too late now, we could swap him for Woffinden and we still wouldn't be able to make up enough ground on the top 4. And they still can't manage to open the second car park gate despite the fact they sent the tractor over just before 7 o clock to move the concrete drums out of the way. They have no respect for their paying customers who turn up every week or for the Poole fans who've travelled all that way.

I agree about Sarj, I think he's found his level and won't improve much in the EL. I just don't see Roynon as any better, or even as good. Sarj always strikes me very much as a confidence rider, it only takes him to have a bad meeting or two and his head drops and he starts to struggle. It's a shame because he's a very good rider when he's at his best.

I can't agree that Roynon is a better option than Sarj these days, he has been a better rider earlier in his career but not now. Sadly all those injuries have taken their toll on the lad.

I noticed the oil drums at the last meeting so parked near the other exit, but both gates were open at the end so they must be able to move them if they can be bothered. They have left the gates shut on other occasions too, before we had the pikeys there.

It's the gate at the other end, the one that's been open at the end of every meeting for the last few decades and helps the traffic run smoothly. They've decided this year to open it some weeks and not others, when it's not open its a major pain in the backside getting out. It was a pain getting out with a poor crowd on Monday night, Poole on a Friday will attract a much bigger crowd so I didnf fancy being stuck in a car park for half an hour fighting to get out at the end. Sorry if that's unimportant muffinman, it annoys me and Im sure it does others, all they have to do is get someone to walk across the car park and open a gate then everyone can get out with no bother at all.

Mr Watson... Any chance the stadium staff might remember to open the top car park gate on Friday? It's a lot of unnecessary ball ache everyone trying to get out of one gate when all someone has to do is open the other one.

Just got lucky with having Garrity at reserve the last two seasons IMO, and we only got first pick of him because we were bottom in 2013! Don't be fooled into thinking Horton knows how to build a good team, had we not been lucky in getting Garrity we would have been nowhere in any of his seasons in charge.

Which is strange as he came to Brandon with Lakeside about 3 years ago and looked pretty much unstoppable, then every time he's been back since barely scored anything. I think he won one of the world u-21 rounds there too, I might be wrong. Not sure why he has gone off the boil in recent years, he certainly looked like becoming a top rider not so long ago.

It was bad refereeing. You're quite right it was Garrity's fault, he took Woryna off and only he should have been excluded and Woryna allowed back in the re-run. Bearing in mind Joe Jacobs was in that race we would have scored a 2-4 at worst possibly a 3-3.

The bad luck was pretty even tonight, Garrity had an EF while 2nd in heat 1 and then the ludicrous double exclusion in heat 5 which Bees would have had a good chance of taking a heat advantage from but instead copped a 5-0. King also fell while challenging for the lead in heat 10.

Zagar often seems to miss heat 15 at Brandon, I don't know if this is the case elsewhere? Was a good meeting tonight, bit of a strange one with so many 5-1's in the early stages and both sides copping some bad luck. I don't think Max Fricke will ever score an easier paid 13, he didn't really do much all night and came in with a big score like that!