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While people may not be saying this exactly, at times it looks like they are waiting for Cook to miss matches due to mental health so they can say "I told you so". Do people really get pleasure in suggesting something will go wrong for Craig? Because that appears to be the case at times.

Not to shabby for a couple of guys both the wrong side of 40, British speedway will be a poorer place when they both finally hang their kevlars up.

Hope that’s shut the absolute b***ends up tonight, go on cookie lad!!!

A bit of a damning assessment of Boughen based on one meeting in my opinion. Up until last night he had been improving each week. He comfortably beat Anders Rowe twice in his last Spires match, and beat Jason Doyle the week before at Ipswich. Not to mention outscoring Luke Killeen (8pts to 1pt) against Plymouth with two heat wins - and scoring six points and a heat win in the away fixture against Glasgow. He's also beaten the likes of Leon Flint (x3), Dan Thompson and Dan Gilkes, so not sure what else you expect from a 16-year old. He's never going to have consistency at this age, but can only think you've based your opinion on seeing one fixture?

Boughen was poor last night, but I agree with the last post; the bigger picture shows he’s exceeded expectations this season, especially for a 16 year-old. His heat two win at Ashfield was an outrageous display of technical ability. His track craft was as responsible as his speed for his pass of Pijper.

Still need a replacement for palm toft imo

Poor team management giving Charles & Bomber 4 rides when Cook is flying at reserve

He's got family, friends and sponsors in Berwick and had been one of the away team to make a genuine pass that night. You were just beat by the better team that night... He moved away from Berwick to take his career forward and has went to a track he was known to struggle with. It would have taken a lot of balls to step out of his comfort zone the way he has done IMO.

I'm not really bothered about his age as I don't think that's relevant, experience and ability are. When in front he's shown this year he can get around the track fast enough. For me what he needs to learn this year is how to 'race' i.e. be in really close contact with other riders at full pelt and be confident enough to stand his ground. Last night when in close contention he backed off going into turn three and not to do that is what he needs to develop. With all the racing he's doing he's got plenty of opportunity to develop thsi and I think he's done a great job so far for Oxford.

Yeah was first match I looked for when fixtures came out. Great to see Craig proving a few people wrong

A win! Hurrah. And a new hero.

Next week then, I presume? Loved watching him at BV, always gave his all, and a great lad to talk too.. Hope he has a great season.. If he does, come SON, and any of the "big 3" are injured, he would be the best option to replace any of them..

Well done Cookie. Good lad.

Get in cookie lad. 16 points. 5 wins out of 6. Beating Jack holder twice and holder and woff in the last heat. Keep of up lad. Us cumbrians are supporting you all the way

Pssst you didn't mention the car parking

Cookie on fire at Sheffield tonight also , wouldn’t come as a great surprise if the Comets win tomorrow night.

Kemp, quitting onto the centre green when Doyley was on a sick bike... hate to see that!

God the track absolutely terrible

People got too carried away with Jack Smith’s performance last week. I stand by what I said - one good performance doesn’t strike out a lot of underwhelming performances at Championship level. Whatever the reasons for it, his baseline performances have been more like last night’s than last Friday’s. Good performances at National League don’t necessarily carry to the Championship - Kyle Bickley a case in point. I hope he does well, but the more likely scenario on past performances is that he scores a very small handful of points. Up against Cook, a seemingly rejuvenated Batchelor, and Vissing, I think we’ll be in for a hard night. Certainly closer than against Oxford.

Flint is overrated.

Oh well you can't win them all . The heat leaders did their job , but had little or no back up hence the amount of last places and no heat advantages . Think that might be the norm for us this season away from Ashfield . But well done Oxford , hope you go on and win the cup now

Great to see Jordan Jenkins ride so well at Oxford last night. Went from 4th to 1st in one of his races. good confidence boost for him

You could argue Ashton Boughen hasn't been the huge success we thought he would be but we have to remember he's only 16 and - more importantly - only just started his second full season. He's been riding competitive speedway 18 months only. Definitely need to give him time. Last night he was poor and he was poor against Ipswich. He's going to have bad meetings, however he's also going to have good meetings. The fact he can have good meetings means that he's more than good enough to compete at this level.

And worse still: last night we were cheering when a Spires heat leader got beat. And on Monday we'll be hoping Cheetahs no 1 Sam Masters has a poor night.

As much as I love Speedway the attitude from the BSPL towards the NDL leaves me losing interest in it. The first match if this season for example, Leicester allowed a guest for Max James as he was due at Edinburgh's pre-season practice. If the powers that be have decided that is considered more important than a NDL fixture, it doesn't exactly encourage me to attend NDL matches.

Excellent racing all night. Killeen was the match winner in my view. Bougoen looks like a beaten man, A big off in his first race then he backed out going into turn 3 in another his confidence is so low I believe he should return to NDL & learn how to win races. He is still 16 & has a big future theres no need to push so hard in his first full season. Glasgow to be fair other than Harris & Worrall looked poor. The reserves were very bad & both vastly experienced with good family pedigrees. Well done Oxford. It's going to be a headache fitting extra meetings in with 3 teams to run. Lets hope the rain continues to dodge Oxford.

Flint, Bickley, Gilkes, Rowe, Kemp, Palin and the Thompson twins were supposed to be the golden generation. While some of them are making decent progress they haven't hit the stratospheric heights many of us hoped. And looking at subsequent riders coming up through the youth system none (bar Ashton Boughen) look better prospects than the ones named above.

Problem for Cook is he isn't the most popular rider so when he has a poor meeting he gets the most stick, but when he does well he doesn't get the same amount of praise back. Can't be fun to have, that would affect anyone.

Yeah battles between bomber and the worky top 3 should be epic. Be good to see the worky hoards again, barring few always got on with them when they visited in the past. Seems some on here fail to realise Glasgow fans nothing but respect for cookie and will be first to congratulate him if goes through the care tomorrow night

= lost revenue .

It turns out "laughing" Ritchie Hawkins didn't need to do anything clever with R/R after all as Ippo had more than enough to hand Lions their arses on a plate just playing it straight! Lions reserves outscored 14-1 smh Well done Ippo

If batch rides like a HL we will be in bother!

He has a hearing later this month.

He beat Jason Doyle the other day at Foxhall - was ecstatic after the race, think moments like that are doing him some good

We will see tonight. Its lovely sunshine, and 19 deg here at the moment

Ashfield is a racers track very safe to ride flat out really smooth this year too with no problems on the third bend

I've just listened to Nicolai Klindt on the British Speedway podcast and I must say I've never heard such a load of crap he was spouting about being dropped from Oxford because it was too cold! He was basically saying that he couldn't get going this season because the temperatures have effected his machinery and that now that it's warming up watch him go! Now Nicolai is a rider with some 20 years of senior Speedway experience initially in "tropical" Denmark and to use this as an excuse is scraping the barrel, yes weather and temps do effect machine performance but to use this as an excuse says more about him than the weather... what does this say to anybody that is thinking of signing him for their team next year? Don't bother until May? He also said that Steve Worrall says he suffers from the same... erm, condition? If I was Worrall I'd be distancing myself from those comments

They tried Riss but couldn’t due to commitment clashes not sure anyone else out there on an average close to 7.87 to sign for cover

First of all, congratulations to Oxford. Boughen aside, that was an outstanding team effort. Secondly, I think it’s safe to say Glasgow won’t be putting up much of a title defence. Flint is an odd one. He’s putting points on the board, but said points are flattering him; he’s dropped more points from scoring positions than any other Glasgow rider this season. He doesn’t look comfortable in a Glasgow race suit. Aside from his win in heat fourteen, Starke was a disgrace. As was Pearson. Nowhere near being remotely good enough. Guests at reserve are always a toss of the coin, but I genuinely think Cami Brown might have grabbed two punters off the Cowley streets and put two helmets on them. That wasn’t the same Jack Smith who guested at Ashfield on Friday night and Conor Coles genuinely looked like it was his first encounter with a speedway bike. I suppose that’s the downside with being champions, isn’t it? You have standards to maintain and when you fall so short, it requires addressing.

Sure the SCB meeting with Lee is 2 days after his ban ends would have thought it would be before it runs out can't remember when his suspension ends

Boughen, Killeen, Hodder, Scott not riding (unless abroad) certainly hope Glasgow wouldn't ask Pijper to ride when not fit & even moreso hope Ace wouldn't agree if not fit.

Just part of the AEPG strategy to put Peterborough Speedway totally out of action so that they claim that LP30 doesn't apply. We know that a speedway stadium was handed over to them in perfect working order in October but in 6 short months they have wrecked the track, lighting, fence, pits and stand, as well as their Development Summary report saying that speedway is in decline nationally and is also present in other accessible regional venues, notably Kings Lynn , where most of the former Panthers riders are now? PCC Policy (22/11/23 Planning Portal) pointed out the effect of Peterborough Panthers being evicted their home since 1970 and the vandalism to the speedway infrastructure and speedway track that was clearly fit for purpose as a potential problem now. As Bratters says, will PCC see it for what it is and stick to the plan or be seduced by a future pipe dream and pound signs?

Even then he might get a ban if I read it right.( could be wrong )

Was impressed with Killeen tonight looks like he is in a lot more in control this season.Tidy style.

It's a shame, because his contributions were worthwhile.

Yep I will and not all Polish matches are good but the riders rarely back off and try a lot harder than the average rider in the the UK because the team place is on the line and I mean in the UK the average not the professionals of whom you have a handful who work hard and know the sport does not owe them a living. However you can have so much fun winding up speedway followers on here and frankly no one other than a few hundred on this forum really cares about the sport in the UK. It is what it should be, four riders battling over four laps for supremacy but the rules and the promoters have done the best to make it something it is not, the t v presentation is second rate, the crowds are poor on televised matches, no atmosphere and this means that the combination does not do speedway justice and those who run the sport have driven it into the ground. Tracks are abandoned by the BSPL and those that could run in the NDL are kicked in the teeth (IOW and Kent) and yet those in charge think everything is wonderful. When they can match the presentation and fan base that engenders a marketable product then you will see the sport rise from its nadir until then the decline in followers will continue. Add to the above the latest diktat re Mildenhall and when they run and it shows that the few really are screwing any would be promoter. Time for a break away group who are more than capable of providing weekly entertainment and let the dross fall on the sword.

Well the evidence is that the self belief was there. The early signs are that it may be returning, which many fans, me included, would welcome, warmly.

I would go as far as to say Cook is still the 4th best UK rider.. Put him against any three from Brennan, Ellis, Wright and King, over four races, with each using each gate, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Cook come out on top overall...

I know that we have started the season well but from what I have seen so far I am not convinced that this team is as strong as some are making out. Jenkins has been struggling probably through being in the main team, although his lower scoring has been compensated for by Thompson’s impressive start. Can he keep up this start now he is the main team? The greater concern has to be Rew. He was never intended to be in a reserve position which is forcing Jenkins and Thompson into the main team. Rew is the key to success particularly if we are going to be using r/r for a while.

Jeez how pathetic. I can well recall standing in Sheffield car park on 18 August 2022 at 7.30pm on race night in blazing sunshine (shorts weather) with no rain having fallen in the past two days but no speedway because the match had been called off on Tuesday because apparently Sheffield couldn't get the track ready. I have little time for Chapman but it irks me that a promoti9n that is equally guilty is whinging like a 12 year old.