stevethelion

Teams are : Lions 1.Doyle 2.Masters 3.Walesek 4.Wozinak 5.B.Kurtz(G) 6.A.Morris(G) 7.C.Wright(G). Belle Vue 1.Zagar 2.Fricke 3.Cook 4.Grajczonek 5.Nicholls 6.S.Worrall 7.Nielsen.

Teams are : Coventry 1.Andersen 2. Robson 3.Klymakorpi 4. King 5. Harris 6.Garrity 7. Sarjeant Leicester : 1. Doyle 2. Ostergaard (G) 3.Walesek 4. Wozniak 5. Zengota (G) 6.O.Greenwood (G) 7. Hall (G) Thought Lions could only use a PL 6 pointer for Bridger, as the 14 day facility had finished, but seems Zengota guests so maybe they've had it extended.

Looking at the forecast it seems like a bright sunny start to the day, but cloud increasing throughout the day with rain arriving about 11.00pm, so should be no sun delay this evening, hopefully.

Teams are Lions 1.Doyle 2.Masters 3. Morris(G) 4.Wozinak 5. Lawson(G) 6.S.Lambert 7. S.Worrall(G) Wolves 1. Lindgren 2.Thorssell 3 R/R for Musielak 4.Wells 5. Karlsson 6.Garrity(G) 7. Clegg(G)

Teams are: POOLE ; 1.Watt 2.Holder 3.North 4.Gormolski 5.Janowski 6.Starke 7.Newman LIONS: 1.Doyle 2.Masters 3.Morris 4. Wozinak 5.Lawson 6.C.Wright 7.S.Lambert

Walasek forced to withdraw from GP qualifier through injury ( left track in ambulance).

Lions have now signed Lewis Bridger in place of Mikkel Michelson who has resigned,so the teams for the meeting according to Lions website are SWINDON 1.Kildemand 2.Howath 3. Morris 4.Zengota 5.Batchelor 6.Rose 7.Wright LIONS 1.Doyle 2.Walesek 3.Bridger 4.Wozinak 5. Schlein 6. Newman 7. S.Lambert

Nothing on the website yet, apart from someone suggesting Summers on the Lions facebook page. I think the 2 they would have liked ( Schlein & Rob Lambert) are now riding in the best pairs.

Losing Walesek who had been riding very well at home were he had averaged 8.80,was a big blow . A guest for Mickelson based on his last weeks showing has to make us stronger.Losing Auty certainly makes us weaker ( Steve Worrall guests). Other guests are to be confirmed. I didn't realize that Pedersen had pulled out of the match at Kings Lynn with illness ( for the 2nd away match in succession) until I saw it on Lions facebook page & if the meeting had gone ahead Lions were going to use R/R, now if he's still ill that would make us stronger!. But he has been named in the Lions team on the website today.

Auty riding for Scunthorpe so will also need a guest at reserve.

Max Fricke again guests for Walesek. Kyle Howarth in for Mickelson who's riding for his Danish team.

Lions issued a press release on 4th March saying the 3 bank holiday fixtures ( 4th May, 25th May,& 31st Aug ) would now all start at the later time of 7.30, to enable Josh Auty to ride, following Scunthorpes fixtures on the same day. I don't know what time they were originally due to start.

Would think Nick Morris will be odds on to guest again as it will be more than 8 days since he last guested.

Hans Anderson guests for Lakeside,in place of AJ, which probably makes them stronger as I don't think AJ would have ridden at Leicester before. Carl Wilkinson guests at reserve.

Have to agree, I thought it was an excellent meeting on a well prepared track. Belle Vue certainly didn't go down without a fight & maybe the final score slightly flattered Lions. Nicholls was impressive & looked very quick. For Lions thought Walesek looked excellent for his paid 14.

MM's average is 6.02, but all home riders ( except D/U riders ) get a 5% increase, when calculating which guests can cover for them, so this takes MM's average to 6.32, has Rory's average is only 6.22 he can cover for MM. Hope that makes sense.

No, family bereavement.

I have to agree, I loved to watch Cook in action & remember him battling with Ole Olsen for 4 laps to get a last heat win to earn Lions a rare 40-38 win over Coventry. The only time i've shouted myself hoarse at a speedway meeting.

Lions cubs line-up as now changed following Sarjeants injury & Dan Greenwoods release from Newcastle.Dan now replaces Ollie Greenwood. 1.Marc Owen 2.Dan Greenwood 3. Tom Perry 4. Max Clegg 5. R/R for James Sarjeant 6.Tom Woolley 7.Adam Kirby

Lions cubs 1. R/R for O.Greenwood 2.Marc Owen 3.Tom Perry 4.Max Clegg 5. James Sarjeant 6.Tom Woolley 7.Michael Neale Stoke 1.Ben Wilson 2.Chris Widman 3.Ben Hopwood 4.Lee Payne 5. Jon Armstrong 6.Rob Shuttleworth 7.James McBain. Tom Perry has a practice on saturday to see if he's fit to ride.

To get the meeting on after all the rain of the previous week, topped off with the absolute deluge we had on the saturday evening, which must have left the track under water was a minor miracle, i think the majority of tracks would have postponed it on sunday morning without even attempting to prepare any type of surface, i think it's very harsh to criticise the lack of passing / excitement . Obviously with Glynn having to take 40 -50 tonnes of dirt off & then to put dry stuff down it left him very little time to prepare the surface how he probably would want to, given ideal weather. Under the very difficult circumstances i was just glad to see some speedway. I didn't think the racing was that bad, certainly no worse than the stuff i've watched on sky this season.

Like the look of that team, but i'd go for Henning Bager (5.21), instead of Jan Graversen. Jan scores decent amount at home , but his away scores are pretty poor. I think Bager could at least match Jan's scores at home & easily score more away than he does. But having said that i think Jan will be back because he's a Lions asset (i think) & that's the cheaper option.

The line up wasn't helped when the GB V AUS test match at Workington was rained off & then re-staged on the same day as the freestyle show this meant Kerr & Grajczonek who i think were both in the original line up pulled out to ride in the test match.

I have to agree the racing was gate & go, but if you listened to Glyn's interview before the meeting he said the rider's had requested that the dirt be bladed off completely because of the rain on friday & overnight, this meant they were riding on the base with no dirt left on the track & as Glyn said before hand it was very slick & quite dusty,so the riders obviously felt it was safer without the dirt & i suppose they are the ones risking life & limb so there thoughts must be taken into account, but it meant we saw speedway riding not racing.It was a great opportunity missed to introduce speedway to people who hadn't seen it before, because i would say the crowd was 2,500 ish, but with the quality of the racing i don't think many of the newcomers would return. It didn't help with having 4 qualifing heats involving the same 4 riders at the begining meaning each heat was taking so long because the riders needed to rest in between & then the main event only having 10 riders, meaning almost every heat was delayed because riders were having 2 rides on the trot, so it was very drawn out.I suppose the idea was right but would have been better with a 16 man event with riders of more even ability. Even the final was a bit of a farce with Ben Barker staying down on lap 2 when he could have easily got up, trying to force a re-run, because in a previous heat Andre Compton went down on the 2nd lap & the ref said the promoters instructions were to let all 4 back in, so with a precident set Barker thought he would stay down but this time the ref awarded the race after 2 laps.I didn't stay for the MX, but as i was leaving after the speedway had finished i heard 2 lads say " that's the boring bit finished now" , which i suppose about summed it up really, although by all accounts the MX didn't sound too thrilling.

On the Lions website it shows no fixture for next saturday, then MDL final on 28th & then says ADDITIONAL FIXTURES, MORE DETAILS TO FOLLOW, so presumably we are going to see some challenge meetings. I suppose the promotion had to wait for our play-off fate to be confirmed before they could start arranging additional fixtures.