jbell1995

A lot of people interested in this one obviously... Not sure of any team news as yet either..

Gladiators begin their busy bank holiday weekend with a trip north to Redcar on friday evening. Unsure as to what the situation is guest/rider replacement at No.1 but will be a tough ask for the Gladiators you'd imagine with a Bears side featuring Wright, King and Edwards.

It was another good meeting at the Colosseum on Saturday night. Track was in great shape and another decent crowd in. Great to see some Tigers fans down in Devon as well. Some good racing on track, Harris obliterating the track record was a treat in heat 1. Miracle both Jordan Jenkins and Joe Thompson walked away from that crash under their own steam. Best wishes to Joe and hopefully Jordan is okay as well. Fair play to Cami Brown and the Glasgow promotion for getting the fixture on with their guest choices. Both Jenkins and Jason Edwards gave everything they had for the Tigers cause. Wish them all the best for the rest of the season and look forward to their return to Devon in 2025

Whilst I accept Barker got a jump on Harris in Heat 11, people need to look at the video again and see the initial movement at the tapes comes from Jack Smith

That’s not great. Shame for Cami and the Tigers promotion. Could be tricky trying to put together a team. I guess this where it’s beneficial to build such a big lead after the first fixture

Morning all, Another fixture tomorrow at the Colosseum. Chris Harris and Glasgow in town. Always a bigger crowd when Harris is in action due to a number of Cornish supporters joining us. Should be a good meeting but interesting to see what teams are announced

Due to the outage this thread hasn’t been overly active but just a little thought from Wednesday. What a great night. Some brilliant racing and some great individual performances, most notably Scott Nicholls and Dan Thompson. As one of the 20 or so travelling party at Sandy Lane on Wednesday just a huge thank you to Oxford for their kind welcome and messages of thanks via the PA system throughout the night. We had great fun and always look forward to our trips there. Sure we made a lot of noise but it’s all in good faith and we tried our best to really get behind Garry and the team and hopefully you all enjoyed the joviality of it all. We’re made to feel welcome at so many tracks and it’s always the case at Oxford. Best of luck in the playoffs. I fancy us to maybe nick this aggregate point however with only a 12pt deficit to overturn but that should be a great meeting to end the campaign for Plymouth (unless something drastic happens in the coming weeks!)

Some people might scoff at Jason as the guest but I’m a big fan of his. Always gives you 100% and he’s a good guy too. Look forward to getting behind him and the team tomorrow

The Gladiators head to Oxford on Wednesday night for the first of three vital away fixtures before the end of the season. Team News will be interesting as Garry looks to try and secure a strong guest booking in place of Covatti. Good number of Plymouth fans making the trip for this one with a bus coming from the track. We will make sure we get right behind Garry and the team

Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed last night's meeting. Great crowd, beautiful weather and some excellent racing by two committed teams. Plenty of close, good and occasionally hard racing but a good, jovial atmosphere in the pits between both sides. Track was in good shape if not very dusty at the end but it has been a very warm week. A great advert for Championship speedway in my opinion. Ben taking the law into his own hands was a first for me and I'm sure it'll be the last time we see that from him but he contributed to a great meeting with his 3 completed rides. He took some stick on here for Friday, personally thought that was the most comfortable he's looked on a bike all season last night

I’m not sure what your expectations were of the side Garry May could’ve put together? As someone has eloquently explained on the Gladiators Facebook page when someone questioned the choice to go RR at No.1 - Out of the 14 riders available to Garry and Mark, 6 are reserves, 5 are second strong with only Kemp, Cook and Heeps as second string. Realistically the only two who could score as well as rider replacement is probably Zack Cook and Drew Kemp. However stepping up from being in the middle order for their teams to being the team’s leader at No.1, against a side who’ve been excellent all season is a really tough ask. Simply put there’s a lack of riders. There’s also a financial decision to bring into the mix. Plymouth’s chances of the playoffs are about as small as they come. They’d need to win AT LEAST 5 of their last 8 and claim a bonus point win or two in there as well, why waste money on guests when you can give your other riders track time as we try and shape the team for 2025?

Plymouth team for Friday: 1) Rider Replacement 2) Alfie Bowtell 3) Dan Thompson 4) Patrick Baek 5) Ben Barker 6) Joe Thompson 7) Jacob Hook

Real shame for Kyle to have lost his spot. Won't forget that performance late in the meeting against Berwick where he stood up and was counted when the side needed it most having lost Barker early in the fixture. Fingers crossed he can find himself a spot for next season somewhere. As the above post mentioned, with the way the fixture list panned out this year, it didn't help him not racing regularly. Something needs to be done next year with the fixture list across the Championship to stop situations like this. I'd be an advocate for racing against the other teams twice home and away personally

Not heard anything yet for either leg. In the announcement of Baek's signing last night, Mark Phillips did say Garry was still trying to source two guests (Fri and Sat)

Saves making two separate threads. Scunthorpe host Plymouth on Friday and then the reverse fixture in Devon on Saturday. Scunny looking strong this season…

I’ve just seen a duck swim past and he’s complaining about how deep the puddles are. 100% the correct decision to stop unnecessary travelling. People’s cynicism at times is baffling. The rain was consistent throughout the night, as someone who’s been awake since 3am I can vouch for that and it’s become torrential in this city this morning and isn’t relenting. If you want proof, get online later and check the cricket scores for East Cornwall and Devon… if you see a ball bowled west of Taunton today you should go and buy a lottery ticket!

You're right about replacing him, I just can't invisage there's anyone out there who'd be able to replace him this late in the season. I would imagine where possible, Batchelor will be top of the list to guest at home but away it may well have to be R/R. Can't go around just throwing money at guests anymore. Time to look ahead to next season imo

Inevitable unfortunately. Such a weird incident as well for it to happen on the start line. When he came over to the Gladiators fans on Bend 2 on Wednesday you could tell very quickly it was a bad one. Shame that it hasn't worked out.

When it rains it pours for Garry and Mark. If Covatti’s injury is as rough as it seems then Batchelor… send for Batchelor!!

Not a lot to be said about that. Congratulations to the Pirates who took full advantage tonight. Chastening night for the Gladiators. Covatti and Newman both leaving with hand/wrist issues it would seem. Best wishes to them both for their recovery. Huge thanks to Drew Kemp for his efforts tonight. Credit to Garry May and the team for coming over to the Gladiator fans on Bend 2 at the end of the night; hopefully they don’t take the defeat to heart, didn’t give up and actually scored more than some previous Plymouth teams have on other visits to Wimborne Road. Wasn’t much going on during races tonight, passing was at a premium. Atmosphere seemed very subdued and flat which is a shame. Onto the next one for the Gladiators who now just need to finish the season as strongly as they can.

Drew Kemp in for Dan Thompson

Sure it will be fine. Looking forward to it

Poole: Lawson, Thomsen, Cook, Cook, Brennan, Hagon and Foord Plymouth: Covatti, Bowtell, Thompson (or facility), Newman, Barker, Thompson and Hook as per Pirates website. Looking forward to returning to Wimborne Road, it’s been a few years since I was last there so should be a fun evening I’m sure

This is spot on and something I've referenced many times on here before. The sniping doesn't do anything but damage unfortunately. Speedway is a sport that is struggling right now outside the Premiership and having listened to Mark Lemon the other week suggesting Belle Vue need to kick on and make big events (Like the SoN) a success otherwise they're not sure how much longer they can sustain the National Stadium, that should be a big warning to everyone, if we actually needed it just the position of speedway in the UK in general We need everyone working together and on the same page to help the sport out, not constantly running clubs down when they're trying their best, often with little financial reward at the end of it.

I would say anything from 600-750, preferably the top end of that. This is a big meeting in context of the season. We saw a few decent crowds last season, Glasgow at home springs to mind was a particularly big crowd. We'll have to wait and see I guess. Just glad to finally have some racing at home again, feels like an eternity