TonyE

The only downside is Ben's injury - here's hoping for a speedy recovery. Considering the Hammers were 10 - 2 down after two heats, a truly remarkable result. Adam seems to like the track and could have had a full max had he not tape touched.

11 + 1 (from 5) from Alfie for Cradley last night.

Initially, Alfie looked out of it but came on later and even led Eddie Kennett for a couple of laps in one heat. I believe he now has a team place at Cradley so that should help his continued development.

Crowd wise, I believe circumstance has not been doing the Hammers any favours. Chilly evenings, meetings at the start of a Bank Holiday weekend and a second leg with an unassailable lead etc. are hardly conducive to folks turning out for speedway. Attendances do need to step up or I fear for the future of the club - we have a good team that should be up amongst the challengers for silverware this season - what more do folks want. Finally, agree the music was way too loud last night .

A ray of sunshine amongst the gloom - pleasing news and a speedy recovery to Danny.

Last night was my first visit to the re-shaped Foxhall and it looked good. My impression however, was that it did not look anything like as long as the official length (website 285m although someone said the programme quotes 280m) also., I thought it a little dark on the bends - particularly bend 4 but that may just be me.

Is the chip on your shoulder causing you some discomfort?

I really hope that Danny's injury is not as bad as first feared. It certainly took the edge off the meeting what with Ippo already running R/R - there was a very long delay before Heat1 was re-run and then we had the inevitable 'two on the trot' scenarios. The meeting finally came to an end a few minutes before 10pm and I was back home at 11.20pm. If it wasn't for bad luck, Ipswich would have no luck at all - having said that, I believe the Hammers would have won on the night anyway - the top three were pretty awesome and the rest chipped in. Be interesting to see who guests tomorrow.

Yes, a great length of the road was closed ( a very good number of vehicles with flashing orange lights - hopefully they will be attending to the appalling road surfaces on that stretch). After tonight's result, I just cannot see that many (if any) Ippo fans will make the trip to Arena tomorrow.

'May have' implies uncertainty but if you want to spell it out, be my guest.

Everyone seems very eager to get a rider a seven day ban. No doubt the Aces management will enquire as to the validity of his inclusion tonight.

Compassion may have come into it somewhere. As with most things speedway, I doubt an official explanation will be forthcoming.

Lawson ill - Chris Harris guests for the Hammers.

Well done to the Hammers - only by a point but a win is a win and never behind all night.

I can recall a couple of riders at least who scored very well on their first ever visits (Pavlic and Miscoviak) and there are probably others, who, on subsequent visits found it hard to come to terms with the track. If the track was ridden like it was by Nick Morris last night, the shape of the inside has no relevance. Agree re Darcy Ward.

Agree with previous comments: - yes, there was an outside line and Nick Morris, in particular, seemed to love it. - again, a late start but one of the junior races did do some serious, and time consuming, damage to the airfence - our top five were very good - the post Heat 12 grading/watering caused problems (bends 1 and 2), particularly in the next heat where riders seemed more concerned about getting round than racing plus, I believe, it was the cause of Zach's mishap. - Redcar's 'strength in depth' team meant our reserves faced better calibre opposition - Alfie, a 'low' after his heroics in the U21 but his time will come. With the team performing as it is, there will be little to no room for replacing him when the averages come out - so I say persevere and encourage.

Not sure about 'all clear' but the stadium can be accessed from both ends! (It is just the bit of road joining those ends that remains closed).

If it finishes too early you have to pay for your crossing!

The problem at Lakeside is that the spectators spread themselves out so much that even a decent crowd can look scanty. Certainly, compared to last season, it was a bumper crowd. The crunch will come when we have decent weather which always, at Lakeside at least, puts a lot on the gate.

I, too, thought it would be all four back in Heat 8 - can only assume the second exclusion was for not being under power at the time the red light came on.

It sinks to a low level when disparaging comment is made regarding stadium facilities over which the speedway promotion have no control whatsoever.

Given the amount of rain that has fallen recently (the car park was a perfect example) , I can understand why it may have been difficult to prepare the track to the standard we have come to expect of late. Maybe next week we will see normality restored.

That doesn't really square with getting 44pts at the Showground but time will tell. I would be more concerned with Scott's performance thus far - averaging 5.60 (or 6.93 with bonus points) is hardly what one would expect from your No 1 rider.

No doubt based on their performance at your place!

I don't think so. Riding as a pair is a very different scenario.