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There you go, officially more shale! https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/sport/23569935.danny-ford-track-conditions-poole-pirates-wimborne-road/

It was easy to predict. Both Turner and Trigger are no match for Newman and Roynon at reserve. To be fair Turner did give it a go and led Poole riders Roynon and Zach Cook in a couple of his heats but had no chance of retaining his position. Simply picked off. Trigger was always last out of the gate and tailed off. It really was one way traffic and must have been frustrating for the travelling Plymouth fans on the first bend. After 3 heats it was all over and but for a surprise 1-5 for Barker and Gilkes, only Richie Worrall put up any kind of resistance. Teams are all built to the same points limit but these two sides are really chalk and cheese. And what on earth has happened to Kyle Howarth? He has throughout his career always scored well at Wimborne Road but tonight he was appalling and a shadow of the rider he once was. Before a wheel had turned this year I fancied Plymouth to safely make the playoffs, but it’s looking unlikely. Morley might score ok at home but away? I see three issues which I are difficult for the Plymouth promotion to cross. The first smaller problem is location. It’s out on a limb and means lots of miles to get to every home meeting. Some might disagree. Clearly Richie Worrall does and drives down from the NE for every home meeting. The second is the track. Not an easy track and you have to be fast out of the traps otherwise you are chasing shadows. The third is crowd size. Last night there wasn’t a big crowd. Perhaps 5-600? Yes Poole again for the third time this season so the Plymouth fans are sick of the sight of us.The club has to be run on a very tight budget. Combine the three and it’s difficult to attract riders of a certain calibre. Yes I want my club to win but thrashings are boring. I want to see the opposition put up a good fight. And well done to Kyle Newman on a superb paid maximum tonight. He really is on great form.

Maybe get MF to guest team manage as he just got Poole to 64!

Buster refusing to pay Tungate what he wants currently

Bit like another couple of Antipodeans in their early days over here. Barry Briggs and Ivan Mauger Have to sift through some dusty old files to see if they got any better.

Handsome animal - very fitting where replying to me

Top two well under performing for a few meetings now and still winning meetings - I would say it looks ominous for the rest of the league when Worrall and Lawson hit form.

An update: my wife's interested colleague has managed to sort out her domestic issue therefore does not have to return home. So, they're going together tomorrow. The colleague is "very excited" about the prospect of watching speedway for the first time. And who wouldn't be? You do wonder! On that basis, you'd never try anything new.

Fancy people saying saying no to something they don't know what it is! At least have a look on YT first

You’re right of course, but it isn’t a surprise seeing as the Peterborough supporters have been kept in the dark over just about everything all winter and probably long before that. This is a general problem across the board in our sport although Peterborough seems an extreme case. Communication between the club(s) and its paying punters should be far far better than it is.

I never really understand this though - it’s a bit of a well known ‘secret’ so why not come out and say we have signed Tarasenko but just waiting on approval? It makes them look silly by just saying nothing and then when the announcement comes it’s already a huge anti climax as everybody knows.

To me only contentious decision was the Clouting exclusion.

Would make sense for Oxford in my opinion. Plenty of teams much closer to them (Ipswich, Peterborough, Wolves, King's Lynn and Leicester - although admittedly a couple of them might sadly not be around next season) than the teams in Championship. I get why they were a bit tentative at first, as it was difficult to gauge how many fans would turn up when they returned, but they are still getting very healthy crowds. No greyhound racing on Tuesday or Thursdays either - biggest issue is probably having enough free days to keep the Charges going in the NDL.

I refer you to my earlier post where I talked about an ideal world and acknowledged that we don't live in one of those

Makes no business sense for Glasgow. your closest rivals would be in Manchester 4 hours away. How many away fans are coming from Ipswich on a Monday night?

Stoneman at Edinburgh I think?

Watched tonight’s stream. What was LR thinking of when he wasted a tactical sub ride in heat 5 against the leagues best rider and not to even use his number one ! And ironically Sedgmen could have ridden anyway as R/R also not using R/R at 2 seems daft too and then using 4th top scorer in the nominated heat when he hasn’t ridden for 5 heats. Unbelievable

Indeed. And as you say it's "letters" (plural). More than one BV promoter has been the recipient of the letter demanding free entry for the accompanying list of 100+ ex-riders, ex-sponsors, friends and hangers-on. Ian Corcoran has verified this, Gordon Pairman has verified this, Phil Rising (an independent journalist and self-confessed Collins fan) even said that he'd seen the letters and confirmed the sad contents. You'd have to be in serious denial not to accept the facts of the matter.

No surprise really. In an ideal world both of those clubs would be racing at the highest level in the UK but we don't live in one of those unfortunately.

Manager Matt Ford tonight! Interesting he said everyone voted for a 40 point limit apart from Poole and Glasgow. Says a lot i think. Tempting to suggest something you don't want at AGM and then prob get something you want instead lol.

Bit of common sense I know a struggle for you.

Swap King with Klindt? Both rather stale, getting grief from home fans, and needing a new outlook ... PS: New Green Sheets for Sayfutdinov (9.40) and Rew (4.00) from 12 June.

He shouldn’t be taking any rides. Absolute joke to British youngsters.

Erm no. An Additional rider is if you are running Rider Replacement.

Henry has come on leaps and bounds this season. Plymouth's loss and a big gain for Oxford, lovely young lad too, always ready for a photo with fans or signing autographs. The young Oxford fans seem to have taken to him, maybe something as simple as the Boxer celebration along with a fair bit of exciting on track action is something they like.

Shame Sheffield are riding at home otherwise I’d have tried to get their whole team to guest in place of our lot Think I’ve seen Sheffield win at the AFA more times in the past two seasons than Lynn

...just a reminder.

...that's not what was implied in his book from what I recall?

If team averages drop then that would mean riders averages have dropped but some may improve (Laguta & Thomson after 3H 3A) but others (TJ & Klindt) at risk so could be a difficult balancing act. I think you need to see Pickering back at Edinburgh first to guage any other change.

Pairing King with reserves would soon get you in to a position to use a T/S!

Simpson drops to 3.00 from 9 June. Parker could be in for 14 days until they kick him out and reinstate Simpson. (Unless Simpson goes somewhere closer to home... )

Thought Armadale Devils had changed their name to Edinburgh Monarchs Academy as they wanted to develop young riders? Shocking that they've kicked a young kid out, so that they can build Dad's Army with Roynon, Clegg and Wood.

Know your place

Plenty of ways Eurosport could still show the GP if they wanted. I'm not sure of tennis timings but Saturday is listed as the Men's doubles final 4.30pm-7pm and then it's only highlights after. If it finishes in 2 sets then the GP could probably still be shown live. Could that final even start earlier if the Women's final before finishes quickly? If not, then have it at 7pm with delayed coverage. Or stick it on Quest/another channel. Even without affecting the schedule of other sports highlights/repeats, there's the option of repeating it on Monday 1am-4am. Instead it's an hour of the GP highlights, followed by an hour of the last Premiership meeting and then an hour of GP again which is pointless.

This looks to be the place https://thewinnerspub.pl/en/home/ however you need to be aware that the GP in Poland is not on TV but only on Discovery + and Eurosport player.

I'm sure they will be be made very welcome. Gates / pits open at 6, meet the riders etc, racing starts ar 7.30.

I don't think we've had one at home this season ???

Because it’s not on live because they have more important sport to show !! It is live on Eurosport player and Discovery+ from 17.55 UK time.

Hope your'e not doing the "team talk" GUAB?

Toms had a few poor armadale meetings now think help him without weakening any pairings. Plus Tom is clever enough to dovetail whatever lines Claus is riding

So the powers that be decided its a great idea to have 2 matches against the same team,and local derbies at that, within 2 weeks of each other .Great

Clouting drops to reserve after tonight which will help them.

Think any track would struggle to be dust free, been no rain in worky since end of April, always been a breeze which drys things up fast, can only put so much water down at a time without it being a swamp, only the man up in the sky can water the best, same as your plants in the garden, you can water them, but when it rains on them, they seam to bloom better

To be fair I nicked it from Centregreen Nigel last week. We've been looking for a successor to the 'Turbo Twins'!

Personally I think Birmingham's changes strengthen them, will that be enough for them to win, who knows?

I know its a bit outrageous but could also try putting some shale down !!

Some cracking racing... Track staff did a great job given the dry, slightly windy conditions.. Track had both an inside and outside line which allowed passing.. Not seen Doyle so down on power before, even when leading the Aces riders he was blocking them more than moving further away from them.. Lidsey, Rew, Kurtz, Bewley and Emil absolutely top class entertainment... And Charles Wright did a "special" in Ht 14 to block pass Rew brilliantly.. Proper "hard riding" as Emil had done to Kurtz earlier.. One gripe is the No7's.. No disrespect but why are these lads riding in the top league? Can't be good for them.. They need ring fenced positions in Div 2 as they often dont bring much to the meetings other than racing against themselves.. Run in the topl flight with six man teams and share out the money not spent on the 7th roder on the six that do.. No other sport makes it compulsory to include "youth team" level competitors to go up against world class level opponents, so in such a technical, specialised sport as Speedway it makes it even more of a poor idea.. Norick once again continues to impress and is developing nicely, and Ben Barker rode his whatsits off as usual for minimal rewards.. You would certainly not feel £24 is too much to watch entertainment like this.. Roll on next week to watch Artem...

It is really good to see two young Brits up there near the top . I would never have imagined it ten years or so ago when it was just Tai W. Genuinely think Bewley, Lambert, Woffy and whoever else they pick have a good chance in the SWC. Who will be the 4th rider though? Is it back to 4 riders plus a reserve/u21?

When Doyle retires, he would make a wonderful track curator. Even while riding, he spends so much of his time closely inspecting the tracks...

Bill Elliots excellent recollections of the life and times of Paisleys two years in the National League - https://classicspeedwaymemories.webador.co.uk/february-2023/memories-of-paisley-lions-part-1 https://classicspeedwaymemories.webador.co.uk/march-2023/memories-of-paisley-lions-part-2