King Jamie

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.

Well done Glasgow. The people's champions 2025.

I trust the co-commentator on BSN will receive a fine for 'enjoying' the scenes and therefore, apparently, promoting violence. Load of nonsense. If there were scraps (handbags) at every meeting, the terraces wouldn't be so empty.

Easy win for a Tiggers team strengthened by the absence of David Nagel's Scandinavian. We'll be done over Hook, line and sinker. Our collective bunch of third heat leaders will have no answer and will be lucky to score 40. Can't wait...

8 from his first 3 rides at Redcar says you're talking drivel.

R/R for Victor, at first glance, looks like it's weakening the Monarchs quite substantially, especially given his home average of 9.23. However, from his 3 meetings at number 1, he's only averaging 6.77. Compare this to the 'replacement 4': JS - 7.77 MC - 6.46 KT - 5.82 MPT - 5.67 ...it may just about be manageable. Castagna and MPT in heat 13. I may have to hide behind the home straight sofa at that point!

While last night was possibly the most comfortable 4-point victory ever witnessed, yet again the lack of top end strength hit Monarchs hard when it mattered most, allowing the Bluebus Bears to collect the aggregate bonus point. Heats 13 and 15 remain a major annoyance this season. We've ridden 16 meetings in all competitions. Removing Berwick away last Saturday (abandoned after heat 12), this leaves 15 meetings. In 11 of those, we've lost a 5-1 in either 13 or 15. Last night was, however, the first time it's happened in both races. The only advantages we've gained were at home to Berwick (BSN, heat 13 4-2) and Workington (KOC, heat 15 5-1). No advantages have been earned on the road. Aggregate scores: Heat 13 - Monarchs 37-53 Opponents Heat 15 - Monarchs 29-61 Opponents That's a shocking amounts of points to concede and have to make up elsewhere across the board. There are some positives though. With the exception of the aforementioned Berwick abandonment, we've scored at least 40 points in every meeting. At least we're competitive then! To last night and it was good to see Justin Sedgmen finally collect his first home race win since 23 May (or 7 days earlier if you only include 'average counting' meetings). He must've been chuffed with that, as he rattled off another 3 in quick succession. For the Bears, Daniel King surely must be one of the best ever visitors to sunny Armadale. His only points dropped came in heat 9 when he was partaking in some Ace team riding, not that young Pijper needed any help to keep the blundering Michele Castagna at the back, the skipper eventually plopping into his favourite bend 4 air fence panel on lap 3. That basically summed up the Italian's evening. It's fair to say the pizza was somewhat flat. MPT continues to frustrate. A rider I've always liked (it's the name!), we're still awaiting him to show the kind of form which saw him pass Sam Masters from the back on more than one occasion at the Cardiff of the North. Always seemingly able to find grip where others couldn't, it simply hasn't happened for him as yet in a Monarchs race suit. His night ended up with him dribbling into the same air fence panel as Castagna. Perhaps he was told it tasted nice? That moment of what some may describe as blatant cheating should've opened the door for Victor P to at least split the visiting duo in the rerun. Alas, sadly not. The Swede looked shockingly slow and drifted so far off the line he pretty much invited Charles Wright up his inside. And, just to prove it wasn't a one-off, he looked even slower in heat 15. Any chance we can move him back to reserve? Pretty please?

Don't you remember Drew Kemp, Jason Edwards and Anders Rowe riding for the Monarchs in recent years? That's not an exclusive list of course. It goes back several years. Michael Coles, Lawrence Hare, Jamie and Jeremy Luckhurst, Justin Elkins, Justin Walker, John Wainwright. Much more recently, Ryan Fisher, Sam Masters, etc. Probably loads more. If Glasgow are paying extras (according to Mr Blobby), surely that's classed as competitive advantage. The promotions have a choice. Pay it or don't pay it. Simples. All's fair in sport and all that.

I know it wasn't me who said it in the first place but I absolutely would say the same if it was a Monarchs rider involved. I was a big Max Clegg fan during his career. Ironically, it was Mr Blobby who mentioned something along the lines of, "he's been treated unfairly by those in charge" when Max announced his retirement. I asked the Blobbster to remind me of the occasions he was referring to. Can't recall whether I got an answer. Anyhow, rules are there for a reason. No special treatment. Otherwise, it simply opens the proverbial floodgates. I also realise rules have been bent in the past. Doesn't make it right though. PS good luck to Ashton in whatever he does next. Speedway or otherwise, it's all kinda irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.

Something of a farce. Shame really, as Oxford was one of the meetings I was looking forward to. Sam Masters getting 7 rides is enough to induce sleep. Watching him dribble round the white line whilst half a lap ahead is not my idea of entertainment. I pay money to watch racing, not exhibitionism. He has the highest average of any rider in the Championship and is the only second tier rider with a Premiership average of over 7.00 (indeed, it's over 7.50!). "Look at me... dribble, dribble... I'm too good for this League... dribble, dribble... another win... Ker-ching!" Joy 🙁

That's not you dropping another jealousy bomb, surely?

The above shows why I flunked Science at school. Cheers chaps!