drew2

You obviously are not aware of the new drainage installed over the winter then by the Town Mayor and his team at the OTA! I reckon if the practice was this evening on track it would have happened but typically this year they change it to the afternoon and the weather still wins. Track looked pretty good this evening at 7pm.

If they did that and they showed old meetings including guests and R/R would you wish to leave??

Now he has a regular team spot at Scunny this season and therefore more track time I fully expect Jake Allen to be a big improver in 2018.

Some might think it is released on April 1st with some of the recent years rules!

I would go at the OTA with: 1 Doyle 2 Holder 3 Allen 4 Lawson 5 Wright 6 BWD 7 Jonas A strong number two is crucial with the TS rule returning possibly being used in Heat 8. Jake will be easily strong enough to cover heat 12 at home now. Away though I could see him revert to number two with JD and Holder at 3 with Rich and Wrighty swapping too at 4 and 5??

I seem to recall even Somerset had complaints of the noise but when the testers came out on a race night all they could hear was the M5! Good news though for speedway if it is correct.

I see that Brean Golf Birdie is also running at Taunton tomorrow at 12.35 and hopefully will have finished by the time this race starts!!

I know the promotion already do get out and promote to the holiday parks (we have a Somerset Speedway sign in place at Brean Leisure Park/Brean Golf Club). We do need to change the sign though as it states Friday nights! I have also known Debbie to stand in the Leisure Park car park (with the owners agreement) handing out leaflets on weekends before too. I remember one weekend I had their Speedway advert trailer plonked outside my shop window too! One issue that has hampered this a bit is the fact that Friday became changeover day at many of the Parks in BOS/Brean. A family arriving to the area on a Friday with kids probably just want to get settled into their holiday surroundings rather than turn straight around and head back to the OTA for a speedway meeting. With the change to a Monday or Wednesday racenight this might open this avenue up a little bit more for holiday makers to attend. I have also suggested a 'speedway flyer' bus service might also be a way to get more holidaymakers attending but as you said ideally the Park owners want that customers £1 to be spent with them.

That is what Peterborough fans thought though wasn't it last season???

Certainly got the Scrabble Championship wrapped up already!

Jake was already back in Oz on the date of the re-arranged Presentation Night.

I see Jake has signed for Scunny in the CL and with the points limit I reckon he would be great value once again for the Rebels as plenty of scope for average improvement from him.

It was more an issue with the visa Jake was over here on rather than no one wanting him. He was raring to go and wanting to ride his bike during the Rebels PL summer break! Once the visa got sorted he flew around Scunny as we all knew he would.

Somerset on a Friday??

I haven't witnessed him this season at the OTA but he has been a class rider for many years and would be a good signing. I follow Hans on Twitter and he is always honest in his opinion of himself as to how he performed which i also like.

Last season the Rebels Presentation Night was considered too expensive by some, even to celebrate the PL Trophy winning season. This year a 'cheaper' option was planned, as some had requested, but the support was low once again. One difficulty in any club situation, whatever the sport, is pleasing everyone with these type of functions as I well know. Sometimes you just can win! I will openly admit I wasn't planning on attending this event originally due to my work commitments I have over the weekend but that all changed to assist the club as mentioned below. Coupled with the lack of current riders available/fit//willing to attend it was always going to be difficult. If we had stayed with the same one to seven we started the year with, I guess a few more riders (Starkey and Jan) might have also been available to attend (although Rohan is now a SGP reserve on Sat). The usual announcer and his stand in were also unavailable for the re-arranged date so I was actually lined up to stand in for them, (so even that role was requiring a 'NL guest', quite apt really with how the rest of the speedway season has gone!! ) I was actually looking forward to compering it though but was also thinking it might not be an easy 'baptism' for me on the mike. (BTW the way I am just a fan of the club but have plenty of experience of this type of event through my work as a professional golfer) People have said what about holding the event in November but for those of you maybe not that local to Somerset the first Saturday in November is Bridgwater Carnival followed by the Burnham and Highbridge event on the Monday evening. The rest of the Guy Fawkes circuit then follows at various Somerset towns over the next 2 weeks. Trying to run it that weekend would have been very difficult as so many local people are involved in that huge event in some way or another. Travelling around Somerset that weekend isn't easy either. Some of our Aussies would have already returned home as well so wouldn't have been able to attend either by then, especially if they wished to return home in time for their home SGP. Somerset's first year in the top league has been a struggle. The inconsistent fixture list with massive gaps is a joke and I am not sure how that came about to be as bad as it was with all fixtures crammed into the end of August it seems. Somerset almost HAD to move up due to the geographical nature of the setup of the two leagues, which I completely understand, but that brought with it the issues of the weekend of SGP's accounting for certain riders missing more often than they appeared at the OTA. Add that to other rider availability issues of doubling up etc it was a complete mess. Other teams also tried to bully the 'new boys' into fulfilling fixtures at certain times to suit them it seemed to me. I don't think one match all season happened at the OTA without a guest or R/R on one or both sides which is wrong for everyone. I know the Hancock family love their speedway, and along with Garry May, put their heart and soul into running that club but this year has been extremely trying on so many fronts within the sport for them. The frustration maybe boiled over in the statement but that is probably because they love it so much. Whatever the outcome over the winter months within the sport I will certainly be back supporting the club next season along with my family though. I will also now try to support other functions within the club when I possibly can. What happens next as a whole for this sport in GB, who knows though??

and we are all entitled to one of those.

Yeah all those air fares must be great!

Do believe Rebels wanted the 15th but you were scared then as your number one couldn't be bothered as he wanted to ride in some tinpot in Germany instead and you wouldn't get a facility!

Is anyone from Wolverhampton way able to tell me when they wish to try again to race this meeting at Somerset? I guess they have probably already announced it but I haven't seen it yet.

One announcement made me laugh earlier when they were debating the track conditions was that 'Wolverhampton riders were not keen to ride with so many big meetings coming up for them' ......... hang on I guess that was both of them there tonight then??

Jake Allen is back for the Rebels I understand which makes us stronger.

Aren't Peterborough riding anyway??

Looking at the other fixtures on Thursday, the doubling up riders and of course the averages they (Kennett and Starke) are pretty much the only options available to the Rebels as guests. Another great one in the wonderful world of speedway we have Paul Starke, a Somerset asset I believe, who we dropped in May, who rode against us on Monday for Leicester and now is back in Rebels colours three days later. Wonder if he will dust off his team suit from the start of the season for one night only to look the part???

Running the Rebels Golf day yesterday I spent a bit of time in the company of the Belle Vue management team and what a great bunch of guys they are. They have got some great ideas and plans for the club. They need to improve their golf though but that is another story! Regarding Rohan, he was actually due to play in the golf day but called Lemo early in the day to say he couldn't play golf but felt he could ride. I saw Rohan in the pits and he was mostly concerned about gating/starting but reckoned he could ride. His bikes were out of the van and all ready to go. He also showed us the bruise and wow speedway riders are a different breed!! His leg was so so swollen at around 6pm (which a picture was on Twitter) so when they announced nearer the start time that he had been ruled out he wasn't a great surprise to me. Apparently the bruising had got worse as the day had gone on and I ain't no doctor but I can imagine if he had had another fall and hit/damaged that area again (as always seems to happen) he could have been in big trouble. In the end his well being must come first. Ok, the three rider races were not ideal but things change so fast sometimes in speedway. On Tuesday morning, the two line ups absolutely looked fine with Bellego being a decent guest for Bjerre (which he most definitely was!). After Max's accident in Sweden and then Rohan's spill the two teams that actually took to the track looked far from matched equally. The only thing I can see that could have been avoided/improved the situation was the naming of a number 8 for Belle Vue to cover Fricke. As Somerset had no second half racing planned the only other rider there with a bike was the rebels mascot who is under 16 anyway! No team ever seem to name a number 8 anymore for whatever reason and the Rebels suffered a similar fate against Glasgow in the KO Cup last season at home when both BWD and Tom Bacon were ruled out early on when they were already tracking RR for Wrighty!