eide67

Craig Cook is a far better rider than he showed on Monday night. He wasn't out of his depth as far as rider quality is concerned - he's beaten many of the other riders involved this season, including Bjerre & Harris, as well as all the other Brits with a chance of getting in the squad. What he doesn't have is experience in this type of meeting and he did look nervous and perhaps froze a bit - didn't look his usual self on the bike. I think if he'd made the pass on Ljung stick in his first race he would have had a completely different night and probably got around 8 or 9. He's generally got the better of Jason Doyle this season, beating him on Doyle's home track in both leagues - pretty spectacularly from the back at Somerset in the Sky match - and I'm sure no-one is suggesting Jason was out of his depth in Event 1. He probably could do with some media advice (although he may well not have said everything quoted in the Scotsman article - that particular journalist has got previous), but he strikes me as his own man and there's a lot to be said for raw honesty sometimes rather than banal media babble. A trip to Prague would have been great experience for him and helped his development. A missed opportunity by Team GB I think. Good luck to the four who are representing GB and the silver lining for me is that Cookie will be at Redcar on Thursday and Armadale on Friday.

From the 3rd bend it looked like Joe had just got past Ludvig on the outside with Max charging hard on the inside and about level as they entered the bend. There appeared to be contact between Max and Ludvig which sent him flying into Joe and both into the fence. Difficult to say if it was Max barging Ludvig or Ludvig turning into Max but definitely not Joe's fault in my opinion. If I'm being honest my first reaction was that I thought Max would be excluded. Overall I thought the match was fiercely contested by two excellent sides on a track on which it was difficult, but not impossible, to pass.

Came in from being taken out for Father's Day to find Monarchs only 4 down after heat 9. After going 6 down (7 on agg.) after the next heat I thought that was just too much for this patched-up team. Incredibly exciting to watch online as the results came in for the last 5 heats - it must have been absolutely fantastic to be watching it live at the track. Brilliant result for the boys in blue & gold - they just don't know when they're beaten. Commiserations to the Diamonds after an epic cup tie. These are two great teams this year who, unbelievably, have not won either of their last two home meetings!

Fantastic meeting between two good evenly matched teams on a superb track. I though there was just enough dirt to provide great racing with passing inside, outside or, in Jozsef Tabaka's case, right through the middle. Heats 7, 12, 13 & 14 were the pick of the bunch for me, then the cookstar rounded it off in an epic final heat. Looked great in HD - I'm away to watch it again!