TheScotsman

Stevie still out and Joe Jacobs in for Deek. Not sure if that strengthens us or weakens us!!

Are there betting odds available on a) whether the meeting will take place and/or whether 15 heats will be run?

Well I wish Swales well. If I can't watch my team, the Panthers are the only other ones I enjoy watching and don't automatically feel like cheering for the away team like I do at Ippo and Rye!! Such a shame the original team was decimated by injury - it would have been a helluva team had they ridden to form. Remember it was Fisher, Bjerre, Ostergaard, Dryml, Blackbird, Jacobs, Greenwood. Top 3 team if ever I saw one.

Not wishing to be smug, but John Louis, Chris Louis, Brian Messenger, Mike Bacon - your boys took a hell of a beating!! I, like probably the majority of Monarchs fans, hoped the boys could keep it close - single figure defeat would have been ok - so that we could finish it off at the Dale. Then we heard Stevie was out and r/r would apply, with 2 rides to be taken by our reserves, and I felt the job had got that bit harder. But 15 heats later we've only gone and taken a 16 point lead back with us and provided 12 of the 15 race winners. And this against an Ippo team who since June have been unbeatable at home and in that time have knocked in 65, 57 and 57 against the mighty Somerset. And we've done it with our reserves being outscored by 16 paid 20 to 4 paid 5. Our heat leaders were amazing - 41 paid 43 compared to Ippo's 13 paid 15. For Ippo, the 3 heatleaders were, as mentioned, DIRE!! Only Tungate put up much of a fight and that was only in heat 10 against Max Fricke, when he was pretty brutal on him on turn 2 lap 1 (surprised Max was able to stay on the bike - if he had come off there must have been a good chance of Tungate being excluded) and briefly in heat 13 when he was leading Cookie when the race was stopped on lap 1. Worrall was maybe slightly unlucky - a) fuel problems cost him a point in heat 4 and the exclusion in heat 13 for bringing down Sam Masters was probably harsh. Risager - what was he all about? Tried hard when behind in a couple of rides then was comfortably being beaten by Aaron Fox in heat 12 when the race was stopped and awarded due to Ellis deciding to sit it out on bend 3 when comfortably last. Was Ellis trying to get the race stopped and rerun? Looked that way to me and if so, that's a really poor show. Having said that, if Worrall was unlucky to have been excluded, Tungate was maybe lucky not to have been!! The youngsters Heeps and Ellis rode well for their points and were each rewarded with a heat 15 outing - though maybe not much of a reward against Cookie and Sam!! Hard to know what to say about Manzares. Was he really fit enough to have started the meeting? He certainly was going well in his first ride till his bike seemed to play up going into the 3rd bend and he clouted the bouncy castle on bend 4, but he continued the race and took his second outing before being pulled out of the meeting and sent to hospital. Was it an old injury that he aggravated? Should he have been allowed reserve replacements in both his other rides? Who knows. Hawkins rode with a fair bit of spirit for his 7 +2. Most of his team mates should have taken note. Having said that, he did only beat Monarchs reserves (plus a team mate) all night. For Monarchs - crikey!! Cookie was flying and righted the wrong on the Ippo website where he was not credited with a share of the track record!! Now he has it by himself and equalled the old one in heat 5. May have been very slightly lucky in the running of heat 1 because he possibly went down on bend 1 without much assistance, but the same probably applied to Hawkins in heat 7. Would have been very contentious if either race had been anything other that all 4 back in. Sam was also flying. One slight blip in heat 13 when he and Cookie got in each others way on bend 2 lap 1 before he then came down on bend 3, but other than that totally untroubled. Same goes for Max - flew out of the gate in 5 rides but barged out of it on turn 2 by Tungate which dropped him to the back and he took a couple of laps to then get past Foxy. So 12 wins (14 paid wins) between them meant the others didn't need to do much. But Justin maintained his superb recent form and was untouchable by an Ippo rider in his first 3 - his drives up the inside of turn 2 lap 1 doing the damage. He was then caught out by the Ippo youngsters in heat 8 but ended up with a fine 8 paid 11. Don't know the figures but his bonus point tally must be phenomenal this year and he is averaging well over 7 even though he is riding with Cookie and started the season on a sub 5 point average. The Monarchs reserves struggled, as expected. Derek never really got going and has picked up an injury from his heat 7 fall. Foxy was gating well but not managing to keep position - until the race against Risager and Ellis. The tracked looked to be in excellent condition, especially given the recent weather. Much smoother than I usually see, though probably less grip around the outside. The crowd looked pretty sizeable too though some got a bit vociferous when Worrall was excluded. Really surprised at the mass exodus after heat 14 though. Nearly got knocked over by the stampede. Was there a lock in at the local pub or something? No good moaning about the cost when you choose to leave before the end. There seem to be a number of moans about Monarchs gating - why? They were just so much quicker away than Ippo in most races. And this was the whole Monarchs team, not just Cookie. Justin was warned for moving in race 1 but the rest were just perfect starts. And this from a fans of a team with arch-roller Tungate in the side!! So let the Ippo witch hunt begin (See what I did there!!) I'll just continue to enjoy what has been a sensational year for Monarchs, the like of which we'll probably never see again.

Classy comment. But we would still have won without the facility. How come reserves took two of Gino's rides? Was it not an existing injury?

Certainly looked like a big camber there each time I have been over this season.

Spot on.

He'll be even more knackered than when he does 8 meetings in a row!!

Let's hope all goes well for Stevie and his partner. (And that he'll be back raring to go next week!!)

Well that's a helluva blow. Max & Justin taking rides for him is fine but the reserves..............?? Need some of Deek's Foxhall form from last year.

But the rain's warmer in July than October.

I'll bet our Doc against your Bob!!

Well my garden is still sodden and there's no breeze today, so with more heavy rain expected this evening and overnight I fear it could be a mud bath tomorrow.

I get grief when I say that on here!!

Might have been a good thing at some tracks - might have cut their losses!! My point was that there were ways in which the scheduling could have been done differently to avoid the late October rush for the play off finals. If nothing else, the league fixtures could have been run ahead of the League Cup ones. But I will definitely say the extra pairs of fixtures were a farce. How can there be credibility when teams can choose who they want to ride an extra couple of pairs of matches against? That makes the double points joker look like a sensible rule!!

Yes it can be helped. Could have cut out the Stupid 2 additional home & away fixtures each team had. Could have cut out the crazy League Cup which started the season but only finished last week. Could have scheduled the cup finals to be after the play offs or at least after the play off finals. Could have had 4 teams in the play offs, not 6, thus avoiding dead fixtures that nobody wants to watch. Even just some of those would have got the play off finals in September. At least then there would have been contingencies available in the event of rain offs. Weather Looks iffy this week so fixtures might be affected. How is the forecast for Poole on Wednesday? Looking like some heavy train on the BBC chart. That's my point. Why schedule such important matches for the last couple of weeks of the season when there's very little contingency for rescheduling and the weather is likely to be getting colder and wetter and the tracks are getting iffy? Anyway I aim to be at Ippo on Thursday as long as the rain due on Wednesday night/ Thursday hasn't created havoc! My old bones will suffer No doubt!

Really? You don't think play off crowds would be higher in September? Have you seen the weather last week and the forecast this week?

Just my opinion!

It's in the Edinburgh postcode area.

I thought both had ridden for big tracks in the past?

If they are all about the money then late September is likely to do better than late October. Cup finals can take their chances with the weather in October. Given that speedway is mainly watched by OAPs nowadays the meetings need to be held when the cold and damp is not getting into the bones!!

Everyone likes to feel wanted.

Not the way of everyone's world. Some people have a better sense of timing. I don't see equivalent threads about Somerset or Monarchs, even though everyone knows they will have to be changed heavily for next season. But they still have trophies to contest this season.

All seems a bit harsh to be talking about dropping riders on the eve of a Cup Final!!

Ridiculously late in the season to be holding such important fixtures. Only the diehards will be turning up when it's cold & wet. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.