TheScotsman

Always the blue & white blinkers at Ippo. In my opinion Justin was way clear of Gina in heat 8 when the Yank bailed out. And the incident was very similar to heat 13 when Sam was ridden into the thick stuff by Tungate and bailed out. There was consistency in both decisions, they were both wrong. Also Cookie gets a warning in heat 13 for nearly jumping through start. But Hawkins does the same in heat 2 and catches the tapes with his helmet but No warning. Buy hey ho Ippo somehow deserved to win? Not sure how how. Ippo have a good top 4 at home. But Heeps, Ellis & Hawkins were very poor. Very surprised at that. Ellis seems to be overriding - not sure if that's why he has so many offs. Maybe Heeps is still struggling with his wrist? Anyway - satisfied Monarchs got a draw. Probably should have been a win. Amazed at how bad gate 2 was.

Remember Vince Lombardi? "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser." Cookie is not riding to his normal high standard at the moment. But he'll get back to that level again. I didn't see Richie shaking hands with Cookie or Justin in heat 1.

Some very wet stuff heading Ippo's way according to the radar. http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=radar;sess=

Certainly wasn't at his best on Monday

Does Cookie not still have a share of the TR? Still school half term I see.

Rain's heavy again here in Essex

But both averaged over 6 and a half in 2011. What went wrong?

Simon averaged over 6 and a half less than 3 years ago so the ability was there. Did he have some big crashes to reduce his effectiveness?

BBC forecast not quite so cheerful - http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2646057 Probably not enough to stop the meeting being on but it might be a bit heavy. Heavy drizzle at the moment where I am in Essex. Ippo should have too have all round strength. Unless Deek can get back to the form he showed the last time he was at Ippo (16 +1) and Max improves on his 1 from 3 last time there!!

Given that Ippo out-average the Monarchs I can not imagine anything other than a comfortable Ippo win on a difficult track. By about 12 I reckon.

Always been better on the bigger circuits though.

I would feel sorry for Greenwood if he got replaced. He's looked inpressive in the times I have seen him at the Showground and at Rye. Jacops however is now in his 6th season of racing and whilst he is doing well in the NL and seems to be able to score ok in the EL against the other reserves etc, he seems to look lightweight in the PL.

Good luck Simon.

But you'll probably get the ultimate accolades for ending Monarchs unbeaten run!

Big surprise. Thought Ippo were coasting that.

Hopefully they invited Yaya too.

Title Alert - Title Alert. Ippo starting to get their act together. Monarchs beware.

I have to say I have some slight concerns about this match. Newcy have a very strong top 4 who are at least a match for Edinburgh's. How Aaron will fare is anyone's guess but if the horrendous wound opens up and he has to pull out then the pressure is all on Stevie. But Stevie is only human (so I'm told) and could have bike problems all night for instance. Deek was pretty poor last week according to the updates so all in all it could be pretty damn close given Newcy's usual liking for the 'Dale. Or it could be another runaway Monarchs win. Certainly don't want to start like we did for half a dozen heats against Ippo last week.

Does the state not hand out free laptops and unlimited broadband in the north east then? Poor relations obviously!!

Really? I always thought the unemployment rate was high in the north east.

Yesterday certainly was the miss part of hit or miss from Ostergaard. I have been very impressed by Blackbird and Greenwood on my visits this season.

VC talks sense.

And who was going to tell the punters who don't read this forum?

Rain might be the winner on Wednesday.

Starting gate stopped starting half way through the meeting. Another electrical problem?