King Jamie

This post is sponsored by the c in Mitchell Cluff's christian name. As I left my office in the capital's city centre, I wondered whether I would see speedway last night. Thankfully the sunny Armadale microclimate came into its own, the clouds cleared and it was all systems go. For any away side to victory on the road, they need their top man to be cool, calm and collected in heat one. While we can’t really comment on the first two, Bandits followers certainly thought Bohemian Rhapsody was collected in a calamitous collision. However, they reckoned without Breckon. Michael Breckon that is. The man who was in charge of the 2014 play off final and used the rulebook beautifully to win the league title for the Monarchs. I’m not going to complain about such a wonderful, classy, cheery chap, although it’s fair to say his call caused much chagrin beyond the cow shed. “Coward” they cried, as their team faced the remainder of proceedings minus their leader. That incident apart, there wasn’t much to get excited about. Monarchs built up an early lead and contained their counterparts comfortably. The lack of passing throughout could be construed as a concern though. Hats off to the Thom(p)son non-twins who bagged maximums in both 13 and 15 (it’s been a while!), as well as personally, and took the Monarchs’ lead up to 18 on the night. Can they claim the bonus point? It could be close. Roll on Friday... PS almost completely forgot my concluding chapter: I was at a First Aid course earlier this week. We were doing some drills in pairs. My ‘partner’ was on the floor. I approached and asked, “are you ok?” “Yes”, he replied “Are you a cyclist?” “Yes”, he replied “Oh well. I’m off. See you later” That didn’t go down very well in the room. Tough crowd these days.

I had a wee look through his stats for heats 13 and 15 from last season. Heat 13 - 19 points from 11 rides. Oxford at home (6 June) was his final outing. He didn't ride at 1 or 5 thereafter. His 19 points comprised: 2 wins 5 second places 3 thirds 1 last Heat 15 - 19 points from 15 rides. Comprising: 2 wins 2 second places 9 thirds 2 lasts I may do a dig further back. Depends how bored I am over the next week or so! For the record, I'm not entirely convinced his record is overly horrific, especially when taking into account his own average vs some of those he's racing against in the big heats.

This situation highlights the differences on either side of the fence. There's absolutely no way the Oxford management can keep fans fully up-to-date in a Sky News-esque ticker tape style barrage of information. Situations change constantly. So constantly that confusion would be the main outcome, with folks struggling to keep up. What are they expected to reveal? 'We have meetings planned'? A bit bland and unlikely to appease the news-hungry punter. They also most likely won't be allowed to reveal significant details of those meetings. The only thing that matters is whether the club has a future. It's a simple yes or no. On this occasion, happily, it's a yes. On the other side of the coin, fans can feel they're left in the dark, whilst craving updates aplenty. 'We are the lifeblood of the club. We deserve to know'. Well, yes, you do. But you only need to know the end result. The rest, if you're not a company official is, quite frankly, none of your business. It has to be kept in-house. The statement from the management is acceptable in my view. Good luck to Oxford.

This post is sponsored by the p in Dan Thompson's surname. Before I proceed, I have a query for the historical geniuses on here... is Glasgow the first team to track a declared 1-7 which includes 5 riders with surnames beginning with the letter H? Anyway, first meeting of the year at sunny Armadale and a proper chilly evening. Probably cold enough to make penguins pleased. With the punters positively perishing, a plethora of passes would've been appreciated. Sadly, we were left feeling particularly peeved for the most part. Papa Harris possibly enjoyed the most success, making it look p1ss easy in heats 12 and 13. The latter race brought the Thom(p)son non-twins together for the first time this season. A win here and the victor could be King for a Day. Ultimately, 4 laps later, Monarchs fans were probably requesting a Doctor! Doctor! The Tiggers comeback led to a last heat decider. In this one, DanT showed patience prior to a final bend predatory pounce which brought a posse of applause from the terraces as well as from a purring Mr Karlsson on the centre green. In the end, it was perhaps fitting that parity prevailed. Other points of note: Pathetically poor team management, not swapping the home reserves in heats 11 and 12. Imagine making Cami Brown look like the tactical genius on the night. Not-so-super Grahn gated like a demon but was on the wrong end of too many restarts, leading to a relatively paltry points return. Castagna, heat 9 apart, was an off-the-pace pootler. At the bottom end, Cluff was pitiful while young Loftus will have made his parents proud. KJP showed promise. Particular thanks for attempting to clear the track in heat 10. A tremendous effort, spoiled only by a trigger happy referee. Roll on the 24th. Hopefully it'll be slightly warmer... PS saw a cyclist earlier. I said, "pavements are for pedestrians pal" He looked perplexed. Pr1ck.

When I left sunny Armadale for the final time last season, I had a song in my head - 'When will I see you again?' Perhaps fittingly, BBC tells me that tonight it will feel like 3 degrees. Wrap up well everyone!

At least we can't finish 10th... 🙂

Is he eligible for a reduction?

As I didn't own a teddy bear named Dan in my younger years, my tribute to the great Mr Luckhurst shall remain indefinitely 🙂

In fairness, you should've pointed out I'm talking garbage. "4 riders with ambitions of being heat leaders in the Championship" refers to the bottom 4. The other 3 have already achieved that goal!

Surely all seven should have ambitions of being a heat leader in the Championship? If not, I would suggest they're in the wrong job.

Bit harsh. Ashfield was modernised years ago.

Are there stats for this type of thing? I don't doubt that Harris is near / at the top, but it would be interesting to see who else was up there. Separate tables for Premiership and Championship would also be welcome as it should show the difference between the quality of opposition. For example, does Charles Wright make more passes in the top flight or second tier. Does he score most of his points from the gate at Redcar but have to do more from the back at Oxford? I wonder how many 'surprises' we would find in the top 20.

Bit early to be switching on the Christmas lights.

May just have to try 'that little bit extra' in every meeting, as opposed to in the play offs.

The circumstances are different. Gusts, on the Monday, told Oxford he couldn't ride on the Wednesday. He then rode on the Tuesday but missed Wednesday, as promised. Silly boy Francis. Nagel missed a meeting on the Tuesday, then rode on the Wednesday. If he rides on Friday, I can't see a problem. If he misses Friday, then we can discuss potential bans. But not beforehand.