King Jamie

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.

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.