Steve Shovlar

Heeps was always a serious force to be reckoned with around Oxford. But being passed by Starke and Cairns after lap one showed how poor he was.

Agree. Unless you talk about Lawton’s lemon helmet colour for a while. Be interested to know the demographic of tonight’s streaming audience. Many from Dorset I should imagine.

No would have been at Wimborne Road.

38-52. Much better performance than last night albeit against weak opponents. All chipped in. Lawson pocketing Masters 3 times out of four. Heat winners in 11 of the 15 heats. Heeps being past by both Starke and young Cairns. Thought the production excellent with good commentary from Lee Kilby. Camerawork good as well as the girl in the pits who had little to do tonight as it was pushed through.

I always attend every home meeting. Poole much better tonight. Weaker opposition but much more determined. Good to see.

Streams now up and running. Good as always from Oxford with Lee Kilby.

I took the lineup from BSN. Nothing up on speedway updates.

You reckon? They have very strong reserves in Heeps and Knudsen. They should clean up, especially Heeps.

Bloody exciting. Either going to romp league 2 or crash and burn. Holloway has sorted out the mess.

Nope. Pure glory hunter cheering on the smallest team in the PL. 🙄 STFC for me in lower league football. However I am a maximum points holder at AFCB and will have a season ticket next season when they are offered to max points holders. Back on topic and come on Pirates let’s beat those cheetahs!

Agree with that. If there’s no pressure on riders at Poole, where is there pressure? Poland of course where it’s ruthless and has led to suicides in the past. But no one is putting any pressure on Cairns more than himself. He clearly has ambition and huge drive to succeed. The fans don’t put pressure on him as he’s a young lad in the genesis of his career. I remember Lee Richardson when he joined us. 0,0,0.. but he came good. Exceptional in fact.

It’s about expectation. Poole are expected to be at the top but I understand your point. Yes we could clean up, though not likely. Watching this years Poole team has been a struggle. Where is the flair? Yes the team has come second but the racing the majority of the time has been flat and a bit lacklustre. Only Richard Lawson nd Anders Rowe have excited. Cook has blown hot and cold and the rest a bit meh.

Poole still do have good away support, but it’s a lot more expensive to travel nowadays plus clubs have live streams so many, myself included, pay for these instead. If this was league or not a foregone conclusion I and more others would attend. Having said all that I will be at Leeds on the 27th, Palace on the 18th Oct, Man city on the 1st Nov and Villa on the 8th Nov cheering on AFCB. And will take in a few STFC matches as I always do.

Looks like the rain forecast has come to nothing so far. Will buy the stream later if nothing materialises.

Spot on. Before a wheel was turned this season we knew the team was not good. At first I couldn’t believe the rumours of Starke and Kerr. When they were proved to be true, some of us stated at the time it was a terrible lineup and so it proved. The team has huffed and puffed itself to the playoffs. Starke proved to be a poor signing with crap performances and no spark to his racing. A mobile chicane sorry to say. Some will point to his average but nearly all riders who were better in previous season occasionally turn the clock back and have a few good meetings. Starke has flat lined through the whole season. I have been harsh on Kerr. He can’t pass wind. Early season he was diabolical, gradually improving from mid season, but his equipment is not up to the job and he regularly gets engine failures, costing us and because of this we have lost matches away from home. He was good overall last night except for one race where he just followed around Milford nit even getting close. Agree we should keep Lawson, who has aged like fine wine. He has just got better and better. Quite remarkable for a rider who was just thought of as a standard mid order journeyman for the majority of his career. At the peak of his career right now when most riders of his age are on the wind down. Anders Rowe has much improvement in him. I feel next season is going to be a big one for him. We see a potential top rider in there at times. Needs more consistency, which will come I feel sure. Will Cairns is so young, many forget. Think a very young Dan Thompson with more potential. He is aggressive, but extremely raw. Needs plenty of time and worth giving him it. Zack Cook has his eyes on the premier league to the detriment at times to us. Perhaps he should quit the Championship do his own thing. Tobias deserved his place this season and at times has shown to be a match winner but he has hit his ceiling. No improvement left and time to move on. Another club would pick him up. For the first time in years the team building was wrong. It’s impossible to be winners every season and to be honest it’s good for the league that the title is shared around, (though not as a Poole fan) We are not out of it yet, and ride normally well at Redcar, though it needs all riders to step up to make it through to the final. A very hard task against a Bears team who battled for every point.

Cairns is just 16. He has a great future in the sport, no doubt about it. There’s no pressure on him or over expectation.

First off well done to Redcar for keeping it close. The Redcar reserves were the ones who did all the work, beating Starke and Cairns, and Tobias, who seemed to have a brain fart on bends one and two tonight. I have said all season Poole are not good enough this season and it will take a hell of an effort to progress to the final. Some very hard racing. Rowe and Kings battle was tough stuff. Lawson superb. Mention to young Jody Scott who has come on leap and bounds. Gates one and three seemed to have an advantage. Gate 4 was very soft as the rain had got into it. Poole very unlucky with 4th Tobias tapes EX. Ref didn’t see it and Edwards fell on bend one on his own. But allowed back in as the tapes infringement comes first. All to play for and Poole riders do like Redcar. But think this time the bears might get through to the final. Redcar v Edinburgh in the playoff final? What were the odds?

Absolutely no surprise. Weather really has broken down to autumn low pressures and heavy rain belts and strong winds.

Fourteen points not enough for Edinburgh. They gave it a go but you can’t throw points away at the end of the meeting. Both semis Glasgow are in they have to make up 14 points.

Edinburgh just blew it in heat 14. Not watching to know what happened but Hodder should never have got that paid win.

There you go. A 5-1 to Glasgow in heat 15 and only a ten point defeat. Easy to make up.

Glasgow will pull this back and win over two legs. 13 and 15 they are strong.

Can’t see Sunday going ahead. Rain sweeping over the whole country during the day. Expecting the Redcar leg to be called off tomorrow.

I find this quite bemusing. Glasgow are on the far side of the pits. Anyone shouting abuse would not be heard. In fact the Poole riders would even struggle to hear anyone shouting at them and they are facing the fans. Also, there are no fans directly in front of the pits as this area is out of bounds to supporters. Having never seen anyone shouting abuse doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, but when did it happen? It sounds like a load of hokum to get the Glasgow crowd riled up.

When Kurtz did this at Ipswich for Poole, he never rode for the club again.