Steve Shovlar

Good meeting with some fine battles. Bewley being replaced in one of his rides was a nasty call. Madsen, Zmarzlik and Magic top three this year. Woffinden showing a lack of aggression.

VK looks to have gone down

Pleased they got on with it. Hate dragged out meetings. As for the track, there was as much passing last night as when Helmsley designed the original track. Almost none. I have been to Leicester quite a few times over the years and can count the amount of passing there on my fingers of both hands. Hardly ever any. Gate, make sure you are leading down the back straight and game over. Last night in heat 15, once Worrall had gated, I thought the only way he would lose it is if he had an ef or a bad mistake. They have changed the shape by bringing in the corners but something is still seriously wrong. The inside off bend two needs to work but once on the high line a rider could bust a gut, only to see the other rider ride the wide line and maintain the lead. The third and forth bends just don’t seem to give any opportunity of a pass, though Hans fell asleep in one heat allowing Worrall up the inside for a straight. The club had the opportunity of a Bydgoszcz shaped track from the get go and completely blew it. Sorry but that’s how I see it and his scores show the same. When he came onto the scene he was a bright rising star who looked destined to go places. At Swindon he looked a real force and with Doyle was very hard to beat. But the fact that Poland are not interested, and his scores are mediocre shows the forward momentum he had has vanished, and he is now at his level. Potential unfulfilled.

After our great win at Leicester the Pirate ship moves on to Sittingbourne on Tuesday for our first ever visit to Kent. Really I have to say it would be disappointing if we didn’t pick up 3 points here. Scott Nicholls is going to be tough to beat but surely we have a team capable of beating the home side? Might make a day of it and visit the Sheppey Leysdown Riviera.

Looked like the shadow of the rider he was when at Swindon a few years ago. Definitely looks like his best seasons are behind him. Thought he would progress to bigger things but slipped back considerably.

Just got back and has to go down as one of the shock results of the season. But arriving at the track with the Poole boys walking the track you could see they were really up for it and so it proved. Every rider battled hard for every point and Pirates were often first out of the gate and at Leicester it’s not easy to pass. A good crowd, no controversy, and three unexpected but certainly deserved points for Poole. First home defeat for Leicester in three years but all good things have to come to an end and clearly they are still the team to beat if you want the title in 2021.

Wright doesn’t have anywhere near the scoring potential of Ben Cook. Expecting a 52-38 type scoreline tonight. If we can get 40 points I would say that would be a good result for Pirates tonight.

Cook had never seen Redcar before but was unbeaten until his fall last night.

James Wright comes in at reserve in place of Ben Cook. Alfie Bowtell comes in at 2. Hearing that Ben will need a skin graft and could be out for a period. Hopefully not too long. He has been excellent. What should have been one of the biggest clashes of the season is unfortunately reduced to a one sided affair, due to injury to Cook and the problems of bringing in a replacement for Keleher due to covid restrictions. No disrespect to Wright but he doesn’t have the same potential to score big as Cook might have. A shame but those are the breaks you have to suffer sometimes. At least it’s still early season and we should be sorted 1-7 by the time of the playoffs.

Takes away an opportunity of challenging for a point imo. Ben has been scoring well above his average and we won’t be able to cover for him.

That will rule him out for a while. The one rider who was scoring big from a low average and can’t be replaced very easily. A real shame. Get well soon Ben!

Taken away by ambulance.

A win at Kent, beat Leicester on Wednesday, beat Glasgow the following week, and we will be up there. I don’t expect anything at Leicester tomorrow night though a point would be a bonus.

Think there’s more chance of one league than Poole moving back up. Variety is better than seeing the same team every other week. Wouldn’t be Suprised go see a revamp this coming winter with north/south with top 4 meeting in play offs.

Utterly predictable meeting. I have managed to predict correct score in 7 of 11 heats. For an 8 team league the gap between the haves and have nots is huge.

It was clear from the first meeting that Zane Keleher couldn’t ride the track. All over the place. Even last night he was badly tailed off. The right call, even without the behind the scenes issues of which I am not privvy. I am sure his gating will allow him some points in his home meetings but on his travels it will be hard for him.

Coming up for this one and it should be a decent meeting. Weather is currently looking a bit iffy though. Fingers crossed it stays dry.

The reason Zane Keleher has scored a few points for Plymouth is because he has some gating ability and it’s almost impossible to pass on that track. Tonight showed what he is like on a racers track where gating won’t guarantee points. And I have nothing against Zane and wish him the best in his career. I couldn’t make tonight as I was returning from the Lake District but was getting reports through the meeting and was told it really was men against boys, with the exception of Bjarne and C Cook, who tried to stem the flow.

I am not there on Wednesday either as I am on holiday on the stunning Lake District until Friday. Should be going up to Leicester on Saturday.

The facility was granted for 7 days. It’s clearly explained in the Bournemouth Echo website. But due to ~covid it looks like he won’t turn a wheel in anger for us.

Just watched the meeting without knowing anything about it. A very tough meeting and some nasty crashes. Holder and Pedersen the innocent riders but not much blame for Bjerre, who was just cutting back as the other two were joining him at the same spot. The other crash was also nasty with the rider getting it all wrong coming out of the second bend. Took a whack into the fence before his head too a big whack from a rider. Could have caused major trauma. Hope he is ok.

So attack the poster rather than defend the undefendable? Bowtell had no support on the back straight last night. Many Plymouth fans were calling it a dirty move.

Well a few locals with blinkers on might try and give the benefit of the doubt to Bowtell that he didn’t mean to fence Hume, but any normal speedway fan who saw what happened was gobsmacked and it was clearly a calculated and blatant fencing when he knew he had lost third. Dirty little rider is Bowtell. Nothing like the Schlein / Bowtell race. Schlein got up the inside, passed Bowtell and blocked his run to the line. Jason Crump said it was a fair move if hard and the only way to pass. Bowtell just smashed Hume into the fence while alongside, caysjng a nasty fall for Hume. Rather than show heat 15, perhaps showing this heat would have been more interesting.

We on the back straight did have a very good view of it. Hume was passing Bowtell and as he went alongside of him, Bowtell rode him into the fence. All the locals said Bowtell was clearly at fault. You could see Bowtell knew he was in the wrong as well. It wasn’t a case of closing the outside, as Hume was already there. He was basically barged into the fence and took most of the straight to come to a stop. In fact Plymouth Promoter Mark Philips predicted Bowtell would do this 3 weeks ago. ‘I can assure you Alfie will not forget it , it was RACING , it may be Rory complaining next time lol …only 3 weeks away for the Gladiators v Pirates league match’. https://plymouthdevils.proboards.com/thread/10347/gladiators-poole-22nd-june-koc?page=4

Certainly not anti opposition bias Pinny. Just thought the move from Bowtell was bad, as the video clip shows, and he should have been excluded for what was dangerous riding.