King Jamie

Thank you for highlighting this to people on here. Personally, I'm well aware of the above, having been an accountant since I left school, many, many, many moons ago. However, a lot of folk don't know about this stuff and it's always good to point it out. My post was referencing Workington's former operating company going to the wall after accounts weren't filed since 19canteen. Therefore, I was asking if the reason the present venture isn't in trouble at the moment is because the accounts aren't due yet. Perhaps I'm old fashioned and I just expect company officials to carry out their duties on time. Surely the same mistakes won't be repeated this time. That would be absolutely unforgivable. Good luck to the Comets 🙂

Is that because the accounts aren't due yet?

Hooded? Did he claw back the deficit?

Indeed. I was planning on buying a hot dog when I went in. Turned out to be a really hot dog. Anyway, really enjoyed the meeting. In response to the 'no passing' claim, it's factually incorrect on this occasion. There have been a couple of drab affairs this season (Oxford was beyond dreadful) but tonight was decent. Excellent, solid scoring throughout for the home side. DanT was outstanding and (I think) young Loftus won 3 consecutive races in Monarchs colours for the first time? Happy to be proved wrong on that one. Having highlighted Justin Sedgmen's apparent shortcomings off gate 4 recently, it's only fair I tip my hat to his efforts in heat 3. Well done Sedgy. Also good to see Michele Castagna back on form and SuperGrahn mixing it throughout. It was a night when not a lot went wrong for Monarchs. We also enjoyed the seemingly now customary 5-1 from the Thom(p)son non-twins in heat 13. For the Bears, not too many positives. They did try. Nicolai Klindt even made a pass! Vinnie Foord was good value. And I do like Jody Scott. Such a cool wee style. He looked like he was struggling off the starts all night though and I also think he may have got a tad lucky to be allowed in the rerun of heat 14? Oh well. Roll on next time...

Summer only started two weeks ago (well, two weeks tomorrow to be precise).

There's no such thing as 'confidence'.

Not the warmest of evenings (ed - what do you expect in Scottish spring time?), as Monarchs and Scunny shared the spoils. Firstly, a huge thank you to Nick Morris. One of the best guest performances for a while. Take him out of the equation and we would've been on the wrong end of a doing. The remainder of Team Australia were a mixed bag. Well done again to Kye and absolutely no criticism of young Loftus, who's just a wee laddie and still in his senior speedway nappies. However, the same cannot be said of Justin Sedgmen or Mitchell Cluff. I'm sick and tired of watching Sedgmen start from gate 4 and, instead of cutting across to the inside or riding a natural line around the fence, he goes so wide he looks like he's collecting a cuppa from Mrs Campbell's tea shack before turning. The end result is a shockingly meek concession of position to an ever grateful opponent. No idea what he was doing in heat 5 either. I suspect that one will get blamed on bike problems. And as for Cluff. It was like watching a totally different rider to the one of recent weeks. He seems very uncertain in traffic. Heat 2 was wholly unacceptable. A distinct lack of effort. Again, I suspect that will also be blamed on bike problems. I tell you, I don't recall Jamie Luckhurst encountering too many mechanical issues during his career. Then again, he was different class. Riders nowadays simply couldn't lace his steel shoe. Re heat 6, I reckon I was closer to Dayle Wood than DanT was. And I was standing on the home straight terracing. Some decent races last night. For once, the Thom(p)son non-twins couldn't deliver a 5-1, as they were outpaced by Josh the liar (ed - that's a bit harsh. I hope everyone calls him Joshie from now on, just to annoy you) in heat 13. However, highlight of the night came in the next race as Nick the suave guest pulled off the move of the season as he made a molehill out of a Mountain. Heat 15 wasn't bad either, and the meeting finished with impeccable timing, just ahead of the next deluge from above. Roll on summer speedway. And no more draws please...

Tonight sees the return of Josh 'Edinburgh is the only Championship team I'll ever ride for' Pickering... in Scunthorpe colours 🤔

Green sheet averages cut off at the 23rd of each month. The up-to-date figures for Poole are 'up to 27 May'. However, the home meeting against Glasgow that evening isn't taken into account until July (up to and including 23 June).

With the exception of the meetings they'd previously lost, both teams entered this one unbeaten. Therefore, it was always going to be a tight affair. Good to pick up the win in the end. Watching heat 1, I thought to myself, "Richard Lawson doesn't run too many last places." Just then, he snuck inside Chris Harris to claim the 3rd place. With that in mind, come heat 15, I thought, "Richard Lawson doesn't run... no, I can't finish that sentence". A few seconds later, the clinching 5-1 was confirmed. There was mention on here earlier that Kyle Newman doesn't like sunny Armadale. All I can say is he's got a funny way of showing it. Quite honestly, he must be one of the most enjoyable and stylish visitors to watch. For a number of years, I would've happily welcomed him in a Monarchs team. Granted, it's highly unlikely to ever happen, given he lives down yonder but, hey, I can only but wish. Good to see William Cairns given his full name on the big screen (black mark for the programme though, which failed miserably throughout). Hopefully one day the impressive Mitchell Cluff's name will appear in full. I'm not buying into this Mitch nonsense. Roll on the second leg and another Monarchs victory...

Funnily enough, when I went back to bed, I did think about the need for a minimum number of meetings as a threshold. You're probably looking at 3 in order to give at least a semi reasonable sample balance and avoid freak results. I suspect it's an idea which wouldn't work in practice. Otherwise, it would've been introduced before now.

As Scunthorpe is currently sitting 2.21 under the points limit, I suspect the idea is a non starter. Imagine being able to replace, say, Nathan Ablitt with Nick Morris, Lewis Kerr or Kye Thomson. On the Simon Lambert thread, there was mention of home and away averages. They used that system in the early 2000s. I liked it. It seemed a lot fairer than the likes of Scott Smith being magically absent from his upcoming trip to sunny Armadale, whilst being replaced by someone who could actually score a few. Paul Pickering for James Grieves at sunny Owlerton was another shining example. Another way to be fair could maybe be to use the missing rider's average at the track concerned e.g. say Justin Sedgmen is injured and Monarchs are going to, I dunno, let's say Glasgow. I don't have the stats at hand but, just using memory alone, it doesn't seem like he scores 'big' there? Let's say his Ashfield average is 6.85. That would be the level of guest cover available, not his rolling average of 7.52. Similarly, if there was a track he excelled at, the guest couldn't even be higher than Sedgy's green sheet figure. Either way, it's far too early on a Sunday morning to very drowning in numbers. I'm going back to bed!

All I can say is I'm glad there wasn't 25 heats last night. That must be one of the most boring meetings I've ever attended. Whatever the cause was, Monarchs staff, please get it sorted ASAP because that cannot continue under any circumstances.

Sunny Armadale is just Cardiff without the roof. What's not to like?

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.