Gemini

Shame I'll have to miss this now.

Do Coventry have a choice whether they let a rider guest or not or does the rider decide what he's going to do?

Who me? I didn't find anything funny about this afternoon, trudging round the wood in the rain and mud then getting back to hear that the meeting was going ahead at 6pm as long as there was no more rain. The sun was out so I thought everything was going to be okay and it was worth waiting. Obviously a wrong decision and those who left had the best idea. If you mean about the houses I didn't mean that to be funny either but it's the first time I've actually walked all round the edge of the car park and realised how big an area it is. Seems inevitable really that the stadium will eventually be lost ~ an owner who wants the land and a sport with just 8 teams in the league lurching from one disastrous season to another.

So he's fit again now? Let's hope he gets through the match unscathed being as Coventry have 4 important meetings coming up during the Bank Holiday week.

She probably does but she was happy enough as she had over an hour's walk in the wood and then after I'd had something to eat another walk round the perimeter of the car park.. They're going to get a lot of houses on that site. I thought we were going to be okay when this arrived. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154148609612785&set=pcb.10154148610552785&type=1&theater

Typical bloody Speedway. Start delayed until 6pm and told the meeting will be on as long as there was no more rain. Well, there wasn't, in fact there were blue skies and the sun was shining so we are kept hanging around for two hours for nothing. I don't know why I bother. Well, she had a good walk in the wood as I got there at 2.15pm and yes we did both get soaked, but once dried off everything was going to be worthwhile wasn't it because the meeting was still on, just delayed for two hours. Wonder what went wrong with that plan.

COVENTRY Storm take centre stage on Sunday with a big local derby against fierce rivals Cradley in the National League at Brandon (4pm). The City Gearboxes Storm are currently fourth in the table and are looking for points to secure a place in the end-of-season Gold Cup competition. The Heathens, meanwhile, are still in with a chance of completing a hat-trick of titles, although those hopes took a setback with a narrow defeat at King’s Lynn on Friday - meaning a win on Sunday is essential for them. The Storm have switched riding order with the in-form Martin Knuckey taking the No.5 role, whilst Darryl Ritchings suffered a broken finger in a guest booking for Swindon on Thursday but does plan to ride. Cradley, as always, track a powerhouse line-up including one of the league’s top performers in captain Max Clegg, and several other riders with the potential to become No.1s, including Matt Williamson and the spectacular Ellis Perks. The Heathens suffered just one defeat home or away during the 2014 season - and that came at Brandon in a highly dramatic meeting on Easter Monday, which the Storm will seek to repeat. Boss Laurence Rogers said: “Marty has hit a rich vein of form home and away so he’s moving to No.5, and hopefully switching Darryl will help his confidence and see him racking up the points again. “We want to build on the wins over King’s Lynn and Stoke and keep up our challenge for a place in the Gold Cup. It should be a really good battle on Sunday with Cradley playing catch-up on Birmingham.” The meeting, which also features a Midland Development League fixture, will include Coventry’s National League collection for the Speedway Riders’ Benevolent Fund. COVENTRY (from): Mark Baseby, Conor Dwyer, Dan Greenwood, Jamie Halder, Martin Knuckey, Darryl Ritchings, Rob Shuttleworth. CRADLEY (from): Max Clegg, Nathan Greaves R/R, Luke Harris, Arron Mogridge, Michael Neale, Ellis Perks, Matt Williamson.

Hardly any rain so far - five minutes at the most and the sun is shining.

Not having ones 'proper name' doesn't really stop any comeback though does it? I'm not changing my name or photo as I've been on here since 2001 and most people know who I am. Those that don't can always ask if they're interested enough as I've got nothing to hide, not that I can ever hide anyway as I'm usually recognised at the other end of a dog lead.

Well, to answer my own post - I was wrong because Swindon were off from the tapes in most races and gone so the 'racing' was unfortunately rubbish. Good prediction. If I'd known the team before I went I'd probably have changed my predicted ten point defeat to a lot more. Your crystal ball needs cleaning because that must have been one of the biggest crowds of the season tonight. Shame the racing wasn't better. I'm sure Garrity would have livened things up a bit. Big crowd. I got there at 6.55pm and had to park much further back than I usually do.

I do actually feel there could be some good racing tonight because I've been to matches before not expecting much and they've been brilliant. On the other hand I've been to local derbies expecting an exciting match and it's been rubbish. I guess we'll know later on tonight.

Well, I'm still going with a printed blank programme. It will give me something to do all night and I should think anyone buying a programme would have a hell of a lot of alterations to make anyway. Actually, I think this is going to be a brilliant match as these sort of meetings often turn out to be much better than expected. I'm looking forward to it but I thought Swindon would win before so I'm still sticking to that prediction.

Perhaps they're waiting for King's decision so they can put Garrity in his correct place in alphabetical order?

I don't know if this link will work or not but I'll give it a go. https://www.facebook.com/keith.andrews.7503/videos/o.165342870196384/383069855237651/?type=2&theater To be fair James would have been watching the right hand side of the tapes and they do seem to go up unevenly, hence the other riders not moving at the same time James did.

Yes he is but I think Adam Ellis will get as many points that Kerr would. I'm going for Coventry to lose by about 12 points.

Okay I'll delete all my posts ~ that should help get back to normality.

Well, at least it's made a Leicester thread reach 6 pages. Usually no-one bothers......well apart from robert72 saying how crap the track is.

I think this only works for a short amount of time.

Well, we'll no doubt find out next week when Wolverhampton are the visitors.

Good idea....but only on Sunday's.

Yes, well done Kings Lynn. I was following on the updates site and it sounds like it was a good match.

I agree with you there. In fact my Dad who had introduced me to Speedway at the age of 8 stopped going eventually because he didn't like to see crashes. What did they do in the past as I don't think the sun is any different today but I can't remember there ever being any 'sun breaks' and I've been going since 1949. Going back to that Kings Lynn match with the 40 minute delay before it started. In the heat before the scheduled interval Neils took out Chris and Danny on the 2nd bend so there had to be a delay while they sorted their bikes out. Now surely the sensible thing to do would be to just bring forward the interval but no we had to wait for that race to start and then there was an interval afterwards. It's just things like that. Bah!!

I think you're right there - in my case anyway. I'm not really interested in statistics or rules etc., but find as I've got older sun breaks and seeing more laps by tractors than speedway bikes is annoying. We had to wait for 40 minutes earlier in the season for the Kings Lynn v Coventry match to start due to the sun. It might have been up there in the sky but it was still bitterly cold hanging around as it was very windy. What with that and other delays during the match I won't be in a hurry to go back.

Ding, ding. We're off. Round two.