TheScotsman

My obviously very biased take on last night's performances. Not a great meeting or spectacle at Ippo last night unfortunately. The good things....... - more improvements to the stadium since I was last there for heatergate - they have added yet more banks of seating along the back straight so most of that area is seated now (but not covered). It's certainly one of the best appointed stadia around at the moment. - Cookie's performance - majestic and untouchable from the back straight on lap 1 onwards - so much faster and smoother than anyone else The bad things........ - £2 for a tray of chips in the diner which, after a 10 minute wait while they were cooked, turned out to be thin frozen chips cooked in oil which was not hot enough and so each bite brought a squelch of warm oil into your mouth:(. Abandoned them after 4 chips. - the lack of atmosphere - it all seemed very flat, but probably not helped by Monarchs "efforts" up to heat 9 - the music is rubbish!! The track was a bit rough and very patchy in places and bend 2 seemed to take quite a while till it was smoothed out. Risager was interviewed and said there were grippy patches and icy patches (not real ice because it was a pretty mild evening and had been like that all day!). And it's very dark on track - the shale is a dark colour and the track lighting is not great because it seems to be aimed at the stock car track on the outside. For Ippo......... - Barker seemed a bit subdued - he said on the mike that he is still in a lot of pain so I doubt that the rough track helped him much. Nice to see he acknowledged at least one of Cookie's wins with a wave (a genuine one!!). - Heeps came on to a decent performance with 2 wins - Tungate and Lanham did their job perfectly well, with Lanham a bit unlucky to lose power in his first race to let Joe through for third - Risager started like a rocket - 2 very fast starts (one from the graveyard gate 4) gave him 2 good wins but then he came up against Cookie in his next 2 - Ellis was ok but in truth I expected more points from him. Deek and Max were the only Monarchs he beat, though he is entertaining to watch. - Hawkins was a surprise. He looked half decent and beat Max 3 of the 4 times he met him. For Monarchs........ - Cookie was untouchable as mentioned earlier. There was a bit of confusion about his track record though. I thought they announced 56.5 and the electronic scoreboard showed 56.5, against Barker's previous time of 56.6, but the scoreboard changed during the next race to 56.6. Intriguing!!! He had won every race before the others were through the last bend. - Deek had a nightmare. A great start in heat 1 but the race had to be restarted. A great start in the rerun but picked off by Barker and then Heeps. A good start in his second race but then picked off by the Ippos and then sliding off when at the back but cleared the track. Then sliding off in his 3rd race and getting stuck under the air fence and being excluded. We needed some points from the skipper. - Theo started very well with a good win from Tungate but then disappoined with only 2 more points from his next 3 rides and was overlooked for a TR in favour of Joe. - Joe was very impressive and even made the gate in heat 14!! After a lucky point in his first ride, he battled really hard (I take back my criticism!!). Put everything into trying to get past Heeps in his TR ride but to no avail. Won heat 14 very comfortably against Lanham and Ellis but had the graveyard gate 4 in heat 15 and just couldn't get past Tungate though he tried everything. - Claus was also disappointing. Started with 2 seconds then messed up bends 1/2 in his 3rd ride to let James Sargeant though and finished comfortably at the back. Not at the races in heat 13 against Barker and Risager. - James totally demolished the tapes in heat 2 so was never in the hunt from 15m and slid off when still at the back but cleared the track. Not close in his next ride but had a steady 3rd in his 3rd ride after Claus messed up. - Max was a bit of a mixture. He finished comfortably ahead of Ellis in his first ride but was way adrift in his next 2. He looked a bit tentative going into the first bends so maybe his injury and the rough track didn't help. He turned on the style to beat Tungate in a close race in heat 12 but was adrift of the Ippos in heat 14 when we needed another point. So we were near to a point but yet so far. 8 heat winners but 12 no scoring heats combined with only 9 points from 2 heat leaders tells its own story really. By contrast, Ippo were solid throughout with evryone looking capable. The gates were all important though - gate 1 had 4 winners out of the last 6 heats and 7 throughout. Gate 4 had only 2 winners all night - Cookie obviously and a Risager flier in heat 4.

Read your Ippo match programme.

I quote "Bens long term aspirations and ambitions are to be successful after making the transition to the higher echelon of the Elite League, become a renowned Grand Prix star and ultimately to be speedway world champion. Many have this aspiration, however Ben is one of the few that have the drive, determination, desire, competency and realistic chance of achieving this ambition." So there ya go then!! He has a realistic chance of being world champ but Cookie has no chance of even getting to the GPs!!! All depends on who you are listening to (or reading)!! And he's only 9st 5lbs (59kg). Who'd have thought it!!

I think they look pretty classy really. Part of his black and yellow colour scheme - as per his website.

You should read the comments in the programme. Quite disgusting and inflamatory.

Fishing trip's on I see!

A couple of lines on twitter is hardly going to provoke anyone. He obviously felt he needed to give a little more background to his actions without being able to give all the details. (perhaps because Edinburgh are appealing the decision?) I've never know of Cookie being hot headed and certainly not a dirty rider. He has however been blasted on the BSF for that incident in the Fours when all the evidence of videos and stills shows he was innocent so has been subject to a lot of provocation. He is usually a pretty cool head otherwise he wouldn't have knocked up 20 odd consecutive heat 15 rides unbeaten by an opponent, home and away.

I think the injury was to a wall heater.

Which part is not true and how do you know? Were you there?

Interested to know what the "significant initial provocation by the opposing rider" was.

Cookie's statement now online - http://www.cookieracing.com/

Think this could be pretty close. Wouldn't like to call it one way or another unless misfiring Monarchs get Armadale track sussed.

Stroll in the park for Ippo unless Edinburgh reserves, plus Theo and captain Deek can show some form. Can't rely on Cookie, Claus & Max to score 40 points.

In fairness, having been at Rye for the last 2 Saturdays, even in the blistering hot weather they have done a good job at keeping the dust down.

I'm pretty sure I saw a card machine at the ticket desk at Rye on Saturday. Good on them.

So Cook who has been riding 4 and a half years gets binned after 1 match and "has had his chance". Barker has been riding 10-11 years and lags behind Cook in both EL and PL averages this year but he should be a regular? King is coming up to 12 years in the sport without hitting any great heights and he should be a regular? Bridger is in his 9th year and what has he achieved? He also lags well behind Cook in the EL averages but he should be a regular? Jeez - give me strength.

Don't see the problem with Nelson - he knocked up 3 good wins and a second against GB the other week, beating Bridger and Robson. He is a bit enthusiastic and therefore a bit erratic sometimes but he's the kind of rider I would go to watch. And he's improving well - maybe just needs better equipment. He did well enough against Edinburgh. Lykke - I'm not convinced about him. 7 points against Edinburgh looks good at first glance but 2 of them against a very slow Sneddon, 1 against Davey - just back from injury and not yet fit, 1 against Joe Tabaka who was a bit second hand and apparently was on Sneddon's push bike, 2 where there were only 2 finishers and 1 ahead of Nelson who was coasting with a puncture. So not as good as it looked.

Forgot to mention - Cookie looked blisteringly quick when he was in full flow - especially in heat 5 when he clocked 55.5 after pretty much shutting off after bend 4 - 0.4 outside the 3 year old track record. Since we weren't near the ist/2nd bends, were any of the various falls up that end (Tabaka, Bunyan, Aspgren if his was at that end too) due to the infamous camber?

Yes I couldn't believe what was going on out there on the starting grid. Never seen that before - I assume there are rules about it? At least it was all a pointless exercise given the multiple restarts. I think Rye were a bit unfortunate with their various incidents which were probably equalled out by Edinburgh's misfortunes with Joe coming off and having to use Sneddon's push bike in heat 14 and Cookie's demolition attack's on the start tapes. (Looked like they had run out of spares by the end!!) I do accept however that tape breaking is avoidable, but being stuck on the motorway for hours and only arriving 10 minutes before the start is likely to make you edgy. Certainly for his 3rd offence, the tapes were held a long time - almost willing him to go through them! Quite interesting seeing Nelson come through the fence on 3/4 and landing about 5 yards in front of us. I had to stop the wife going to see if he was ok!! Rye did well to keep the dust down as well as they did. However it was still a desparately slow long drawn out meeting - something has got to be done to cut out the gardening and going back to the pits after tape offences. Maybe the 2 minutes should be 2 minutes to be at the tapes ready to start because the green light will go out then and should be used sooner in each race?

Is Theo 2 or 3 in the aves?

But has it not moved nearer mid-track than it used to be?

Well it's Joe's 5th season now so maybe it's about time the potential showed a bit more than a 3 point PL reserve average??

Always seemed to me in the past that if they went over it they got sucked into the fence. Is it higher/wider now than in previous years?

Paid my first visit of the year to Rye on Saturday and watched from the first bend near the pits. I couldn't believe the amount of adverse camber on that bend. I know there has always been a camber but this looked about a 3 foot drop and it seemed much nearer the middle of the track than I remember though I have tended to watch mostly from the home straight in the past. having said that, my previous visit was last year and we watched from the seating between bends 1 & 2. Has it got bigger? Why is it there? Can't it be reduced a bit? It looks like it reduces the effective width of bends 1 & 2 by nearly 50% and so unless you have a lightning start from gate 4 you are always going to struggle. Just asking!!!

Ellis? Really? That changes everything. Really rate the lad - and it winds up Jackal!!