CardinalSin

TBF Manzares was never likely to be a good replacement for Garrity. Only fair to judge Rye when both Garrity and Bunyan are back in the side. Taking nothing away from Plymouth though that's still a cracking result for them and they are currently performing better than many expected. Will be an interesting couple of meetings with them next week.

Nice work detective Lovey!

There definitely doesn't seem as much material as last year. Perhaps my eyes are starting to play tricks with me. I'm no expert on track preparation, and certainly don't want to annoy Mr Ellis who is very well respected and I know he reads this forum. It's just my observation that to me the track looks slicker with less material than years gone by.

There just doesn't seem to be any grip out wide at the moment, the track is looking pretty slick and doesn't seem as much material out there as we've seen in previous seasons? As you rightly say, anyone trying that wide outside line are going nowhere fast.

If the pain has gone as you say, then that at least is good news and we can stop using that as an excuse. I thought he showed signs of improvement last week, but went backwards tonight which is disappointing. He looks nothing like the Cameron Heeps we all know at the moment, but it's very early days so hopefully over the coming weeks he can ride himself back in to form. On the plus side the rest have started very well. Gino looks super quick once he gets going and he even made a couple of decent starts. He has admitted his gating isn't great and that's something he's going to work on this year so he's only going to get better which is exciting. Looks a very handy asset. Risager is looking very sharp too. Early days obviously but if we can get Cam going, I think we could have a good year. Looking forward to see how we fare away from home.

Makes you wonder what we'd be scoring if Heeps was fit!! He's clearly struggling, maybe it would be better if he took time out to get 100% fit? Some good racing tonight.

I wonder who the other "unknown" rider was who Louis considered before plumping for Manzarez. In the season preview edition of the speedway star, Louis wouldn't name the other rider as he said he may be using him next year.

I'd plump for Bach if I were Somerset as he's started the season very very well.

They do look really poor again sadly. We'll get a better idea of Somerset on Thursday when they come to Foxhall.

One of the strong selling points of the PL was always that it didn't have the Elite League's problems of missing riders and guests. I guess things have changed! Will be keeping a keen eye on this one tonight as Richie Worrall is riding, and also to see how the young lad Kurtz gets on on his debut for the Rebels. Not sure about this Rebels side this year, looks a pretty long tail to me but time will tell.

Worrall is still learning the fastest way around. He already looked better and quicker than in Risager's testimonial. He'll get better every week and I was very pleased with him last night. Pleased with Manzares too. Still sluggish out of the starts (even though better than previously) and he'll need to improve that area of his game. But when he gets going, he looks as quick as anyone out there so he'll do fine I think. On the fish and chips Shadders, I think you're right it must be a Suffolk thing. I've eaten fish and chips my entire life, and I'm pretty sure I've never had fish without the skin left on when it's come from the fish and chip shop. Fish and chips from pubs I have, but never a fish shop.

Very encouraging performance from the Witches. If we can win comfortably with Tungate having a rare off night for him and Heeps while better, still recovering from hand surgery, then that bodes well for the future.

Richie very hard on Boxall bends one and two heat 6..

Still no sign of any showers and we haven't had any rain since very early this morning. Fingers crossed we're ok as it looks like a cracking close contest tonight.

So far the forecast has been wrong. In town centre and it keeps going dark and then bright again but so far no showers that were forecast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2646057 Doesn't look particularly great. I've been on the night shift and between 4 and 6 it absolutely hammered it down with rain, hail and thunder to boot.

There's also a cracking chippy in Kesgrave literally just around the corner called Kesgrave fisheries, superb fish and chips.

I honestly can't split the two. I'm unsure about our side untilManzares has completed a few meetings. Will he swim or sink? A lot will depend on him this year IMO, along with how well Heeps has recovered from this troublesome hand injury. We're banking on Heeps being a heatleader this year so it's important he's feeling 100%. We'll learn a lot from this meeting so looking forward to it.

Thank you. Looks to be right from where I'm sitting. Good to see Tungate at 5 and Risager with Heeps at 3&4.

Can one of those attending the "meet the riders" do tonight let us know the team riding order? Ta muchly

To be fair, Hawkins was concentrating on his exams to be a fireman last season and had no intention of riding. But the signing of Makinen was a disaster and we turned to Hawkins to help us out. He clearly was unprepared and totally not ready as he stank the place out for a couple of months and looked little better than Makinen! But that was to be expected really and his average dipped accordingly. But he slowly got in to the groove and was scoring well towards the end of the season. This year he's had all winter to prepare. I don't agree that he has an average of 3.96 because 3.96 is what he's capable of, he's better than that as history proves. He'll put a point minimum on that average, IMO.

A week away from our first competitive meeting. Seeing the result at the showground last night this is going to be extremely tough! Very hard to call and I think it will be close either way. Any Rockets fans making the trip for this one?

And Garrity had a shocker by the looks of things! He won't score that poorly for long so very encouraging for Rye!

And it looks like they all match for a change! Will be interesting to see how much if any, practice Cam does today. Only been a couple of weeks since hand surgery so he needs to be careful and cautious with a full season ahead. I know he's young and keen and probably desperate to get out there, but he needs to be sensible it's a long season.

Pics from press day on twitter courtesy of Mike Bacon if anyone is interested. @Mike_Bacon