Steve Shovlar

Stations know it’s there. Can’t find a feed. Daddy live buffers all the time.

Anyone got a working feed? Nothing working.

The injury to Gilkes has given Pirates a better chance of a win. Weather looks ok. Heading down from Poole at 2.30..

Well done to Kelvin and Chris. Brilliant effort under extremely testing circumstances. I missed the first half of the meeting. Was Scoop mentioned?

Going to be. Dull, boring GP series as Zmarzlik has no real competition.

Well It’s hard and I am proud of Kelvin for stepping up to the plate. The show must go on and all that. It’s going to take a bit of time to get going. Well done to Chris Louis stepping into Kelvins shoes and Kelvin for stepping into Scoops. Not easy and I commend their efforts. I hope there’s no moaning about commentary. If there is they deserve any crap aimed at them.

Kelvin I feel for you. Very hard night. Thoughts are with you. Very brave to do this.

So it’s set up as usual for a Polish win. No Brits as the norm.

That must have been one hell of a nasty crash. Did the bike hit him? Going to be a few months on the sidelines by the sound of it. Get well soon. He impressed me at Plymouth recently. Harris guesting was the obvious choice. Who is at reserve?

Got quite badly injured against Poole when metal plates came through skin on arm.

Rotten luck Plymouth losing Gilkes with a suspected broken arm. He has been excellent this season and I for one wish him a speedy recovery. Plymouth will certainly miss him on Tuesday and he will be irreplaceable. Get well soon.

As a point they are interviewing Kolodziej and Walasek. 20 years ago these would have both been in the history books but with todays diets and fitness, they are still competitive,

Probably but some of them currently are. It’s getting the opportunity really. Imagine if the Worrall bros has been given the chance 5 years ago. But instead we see run of the mill Poles getting chance after chance in league one. Very difficult to break through. Oldies currently dominating, which is a shame.

Chris Holder and Walasek v Leszno. Amazes me in a way that Walasek is battling so well in the Polish Extraleague at his age. Seems like a likeable uncle with a secret. Experience mixed with fast bikes and keeping himself in shape. CH battling but the rest of Ostrow a waste of space. Surely better options out there than some of this team. Berntzon no more than a lower division heat leader. The Ostrow fans can enjoy this season like STFC enjoyed a year in the top flight but better planning required.

Well a couple of them Are. Destined to return to league one. Two decent riders short. I watch this and think some of the decent Brits would do a better job.

See my thread. Too much predictability. Not enough variation. Too few new talent coming through to beat the oldies. Some decent racing though.

Its getting to the stage where there are only going to be a few outliers with the majority Polish. I mean, seriously, Jack Smith in the Polish u24 league? We have better than that!

True but in all my years I have never seen such a lack of fresh blood and top talent in the sport. Zmarzlik has a free run for WC this season. Where’s his challenge going to come from? Swedes, Danes, Brits, Aussies, yanks, zip, nothing. Just watched heat 7 of Torun v Ostrow. Koldoziej, Holder battling past Doyle. Young unknown pole tailed off no chance of scoring a point. Now I spoke to CH at Oxford last week and there’s no doubt he looks after himself physically. In good shape to stay at the top as long as he can.

Watching the Polish league. Meant to be the best in the world but seems to me to be a far cry from where it was ten years ago. Where are the superstars? Most of the top guys are aged stars who have been around for what seems forever. Swedes? Nothing. Danes? Very little. Aussies? Nothing. Not sold on Lidsey. Both Fricke and Kurtz failed. Continental riders? Just oldies past their prime. Poles have Zmarzlik and Janowski and a few youngsters coming through, and so they should. Perhaps GB is not so far in a bad place compared to others with Bewley and Lambert. But it seems the top Polish league is getting cluttered with old Poles like KK, Walasek, Kolodziej, Gapinski. Etc who do a job but don’t set the sport alight. When top riders get to a certain high standard, they are currently able to maintain their position in the sport with fitness training, diet and because they are in the top bracket, continue to score and therefore pickup the best sponsorship and have the best equipment. It stifles youngsters and the sport gets bogged down with oldies.

Spoke to Trackerman who confirms that a load of red shale from Scotland, the same shale that Belle Vue use, is due for delivery and will be on the track by our next home meeting. Trackerman also said it was his fault he messed up the track prep and he was gutted it was not as he wanted it to be. He has so far improved the track no end so we can forgive a blip. It’s been very good so far this season until last night.

Not sure it will be a similar result to a few weeks ago. Eddie Kennett wasn’t any good and luck did go our way in heat 14 with Gilkes exclusion for tapes infringement. Think a point is on the cards but to win we need to come out guns blazing from the start not give an inch. Looking forward to coming down though. Can we Pay on the gate or advanced tickets?

Thought Atkins was at the start of his career. Surprising to hear this.

He certainly caught my eye last year at Poole with his racing. Was hoping he could be heading our way but think next season will be Poland league one and Premier.

Was the track still giving a big advantage to 1 and 3? How was the crowd?