TheScotsman

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!!

I don't think a 2012 NL average of a little over 3 and a 2013 NL average of 2.44 is likely to trouble many in the PL. I would also be a bit concerned for his safety. But probably a cost-effective move (though very cost-ineffective if there are problems elsewhere in the team [Max in particular]).

Yep I think the standard of f&c has dropped at Rye, and indeed has the portion size. Mildenhall however - still excellent!!

Yep - pity it all spilled over from their other thread(s)!! Personally I am concerned about having Tommy F. at reserve. If Max runs into machine problems or anything we could really struggle.

How was the coffee?

Are you quite sure about that Worky lineup Mr B.?!!

Fantastic result for wee Tam!!

Spook - Did you ever get hold of the seats you wanted? I have 4 tickets in L29 Row 16 which I might not be able to use due to a hospital appointment the day before. They are not quite the tier you wanted but they are in a great viewing place. We've sat there every year it has been in Cardiff. The ticket price was £40. Let me know if you got yourself sorted.

I remember playing bowls against Ronnie a few years ago A bit different from the old days

Well we were in L29 on the back straight and they were doin pies and pizza (at 2 separate stalls). Bit of a bummer cos I wanted a hotdog and I couldn't find any!

I agree with the majority.......... Track held up better than usual. As little passing as there is at Rye House!. (A little bit of banking might help.) Poor announcer & presentation. (There is better presentation at some Premier & Elite matches.) The only time he got excitable was when Nicholls was on track. I would have liked some more dialogue to go with the big screen shots, particularly in the pits, etc. And some public interviews with the riders. Also, I would like at least another 30 seconds between races to fill in the programme more neatly! I thought the ref was ok - the decisions were reasonable - could have gone the other way sometimes, but reasonable. (I though Gollob was unlucky to be excluded but not unreasonable.) But the roof had to be open - it would have been like a sauna otherwise. The music wasn't good and their should have been a more obvious interval and entertainment.

Errrr..... there were pies and pizza too!