Steve Shovlar

Excellent news. It looks like the shale has been lacking a decent clay percentage. On another note, when up in Berwick recently, I was take to where the old Berrington Louth speedway track was located. It was in the middle of nowhere on a single track road, then up a farmers track. Impossible to believe that such a remote spot had a top flight speedway team. Nothing now remains and it’s just farmers fields. Except for a great big pile of shale. Don’t know if the shale would be any good for anything after 26 years sitting there, but there was lots of it!

Joking aside, this Poole team would be challenging In the premier playoffs. Perhaps not quite as strong as Wolves or Peterborough but better than the rest.

He’s not had a bad meeting for Poole this season. Hopefully that will continue on Wednesday. Schlein has been the worry and has had a dip the last month. Priority on winning a title this season is my guess. Let’s be honest it’s a 2 horse race in the premier league.

Pretty poor meeting sad to say in front of a decent crowd. Usual Monmore fodder with lesser quality riders dialled in and beating visiting riders of a higher calibre. Trick track.

Funny I thought the move was completely legit as Douglas wasn’t on the line. Come in hard and move him over. This is speedway not tiddlywinks. Mind you I understand the booing from Wolves fans.

Very strange for Steve Worrall to look so poor. Hasn’t had a single bad meeting for us this season. No real difference in strength really between the two leagues so quite surprising. Saving himself for Wednesday at Brum hopefully.

Are these the same cameramen as the Russian GP? Missed the pass again! Clueless! The camera colour balance is also awful with a bright orange/red picture.

Another excellent performance from Jack Thomas, following his good effort at Poole yesterday.

And next season?

The starting gate looking like a potato field is the norm. It is ripped up on purpose. what needs to happen with the stadium is the lease is revoked from the current landlords. They are not fulfilling their obligations of providing a sports facility for the people of Poole. No dogs, no football, no five a side pitches, no nothing. They make their money charging nurses to park there for the hospital. Take the lease from them and give it to Matt Ford and a consortium to bring sport to the stadium. Matt has said previously he knows he can get a group of businessmen together to do this. Gaming International or whatever their current name is, are a failed business. Wherever they have been, trouble follows. Where is the new Swindon stadium? Where is the new Torquay Utd stadium? Thank the Lord they don’t own Poole Stadium.Matt said the council is 100% on his side.

Are you going to put in an offer? Do you know of anyone willing to put in an offer? Do you think there’s anyone at this current time willing to buy a speedway club? Even a successful one?

Think Matt said there was an issue with the landlords and that the rent for each year was always paid in advance. He didn’t go into detail but reading between the lines the landlords could be demanding a much higher rent for next season. I might be off the mark. The landlords no longer use the stadium at all and only use the car park to charge nurses to park there for work. The only people to now use the stadium is the speedway. Matt said the council back the club. It’s about time the council withdrew the lease from Gaming International.

You shouldn’t feed the troll.

Yes

No.

The racing at Poole is usually very good with lots of passing. This year it’s been very good up to the last three meetings where the track has been underwatered and today when this hole appeared.

Just got in and jumped into the shower for the second time today. Well what can you say? Quite a bit actually. I got into the stadium an hour before tapes up and the track looked like a battlefield. A tractor was working on bends three and 4 and you could see it had taken a big watering. But with 25 mins to tapes up the Birmingham team we’re not happy with the track going into bend 3 and the tractor spent 15 minutes sorting it out, removing dirt. The track looked rough and patchy but as heat one took place it wasn’t bad as it looked. Heat 2 was no issue either but heat 3 was a different story. A hole appeared, invisible to the fans in the grandstand but James Shanes went through it and his wheel buckled under him throwing him almost over the handle bars before he landed in a heap on the 4th bend. The 2 minutes for the rerun were cancelled and riders, management and track staff went and had a look at the issue. The interval was called at this stage. But ten minutes later everyone was still standing looking at this hole, what was described as the size of a kitchen table. Lots of kicking at shale and shaking of heads. I thought this has abandonment written all over it. The trackman then drove off to the tractor pits and changed to the blade. He came out and took off a huge pile of dirt in a trench down to the base. The track staff and Danny King then packed and smoothed out the hole. Again everyone stood about gawping but Rory Schlein went and got his bike, everyone ran off to the safety of the infield and he blasted around 3 laps with no issues. Riders as we know have a tendency to shake their heads, come out of racing mode and want to clear off home. The ref said all good and on with the meeting. Of course all this delay meant the track had dried out so we got several heats in dusty conditions before another short break when the bowser came out. Throughout the meeting the area of concern was dealt with between each heat and the meeting concluded without further issues. We have to thank the riders for not refusing to ride as that would have been catastrophic. As for the meeting, a one sided affair. For Poole Danny King was untouchable. Superb 15 point max. Backed up by Cook, Worrall and Schlein. Basso was unluckily not to score paid 3 in heat one but his bike played up when we’ll clear in second. For Brum, the standout rider for me was Jack Thomas, who was criminally under used. 9 from 5. Both Morris and Cartagena had 4 rides when they deserved 3. Not a great meeting and not a great advert for the sport. After the meeting Danny Ford said they would be working in the track before the Glasgow meeting on Friday.

He lives 20 mins from the track.

Constant maintanance of the hole between heats. Danny Ford said they had been working on the track since EWednesday but this hole only appeared after heat 2. The track is being bladed before heat 11.

About to restart. Next issue is dust. Not been watered track looks dry.

Schlein just did three laps no real issues.

No. Dont recognise them. Never seen an issue at this spot before overwatering opened up a hole?

Thats Frankly disgraceful to be honest. This will cost the club massively. They have dug a long groove and are raking out the hole. Dumping loads of shale on the grass.

This looks off. Every rider and trackman gawping at hole nothing being done. Lots of shale kicking nothing more. Big crowd not going to be happy.