SteelShoe

I've witnessed riders who struggle to deal with dirt but look comfortable when tracks are slick. I would imagine the best gaters prefer slick as such conditions appear to make it harder to overtake. In my opinion too grippy a track isn't great while sometimes slicker conditions can produce good racing . Tracks prepared with enough dirt to produce a good outside line along with adequate moisture level to prevent a track becoming too slick seems to produce better racing in my subjective view. Consistent tracks, prepared with the sole aim of facilitating entertaining racing should be the ultimate aim because fans pay their money to be entertained.

The Oxford fans absolutely love him 😇😂

I watched the Edinburgh meeting on BSN and thought Cookie said slicker and more consistent.

Pleased you had a good day Montie 👍

Very entertaining meeting with some cracking races. Nine scores of 5-1 4 to Scunny and 5 for the Comets meant the tie was close throughout. The Kennedy brothers impressed for the Scorpions especially Declan who bagged 10 points which included 3 heat wins. He was involved in two close 5-1's over Comets 3 and 4 pairing of Tate Zischke and Fraser Bowes the latter of whom in particular raced hard with little reward. Not sure this Comets paIring has worked particularly well over the two weekend meetings and I think both riders will have better days going forward. It was good to see Antti improve as the meeting went on, he was particularly impressive in heat 15, would love to see the level of skill and confidence he displayed coming through more in his away performances because there is a real racer in there. Good to see Jye bagging 8 points following an exclusion in his first ride bearing in mind he came out of a 3 rider first bend crash at Redcar Friday night looking a bit worse for wear. The 1-5 to the Scorpions in heat 14 after bringing in Steve Worrall as a tac sub took the meeting it to a last heat decider. Choice of gates for the Comets was important as gate 4 hadn't produced a lot of points during the meeting, Scunny would surely have taken 1 and 3 if it had been there call. Bit surprised Declan Kennedy didn't get a full 7 rides and I thought Comets may have used Vinnie as a reserve switch in heat 14. Jacobs machinery has failed him in both weekend meetings something he will need to sort out. Steve Worrall was solid for the Scorpions as was Connor Mountain. Jake Allen wasn't anywhere near as impressive as he had been the week before ar Redcar. I had hoped for a greater margin of victory to put us in with a shout of the aggregate bonus point but after witnessing how competitive the racing was I was pleased with the win. UTC !

Nice day over here Soupy👍, like you hope good meeting and injury free 🤞

Yeah , Cookie called for Berwick to be slicker last week on BSN.

Promoters have to realise gate and go speedway will kill the sport and alot of that appears to be how tracks are being prepared. There was not much to help racers in the track tonight, same as last week and Redcar is one of the better tracks for entertainment. Hope young Tom and Ace are okay.

Well done the Bears whose top 5 were stronger than Comets tonight. Gating was generally crucial and like last week not a drop of water went onto the track during what turned out to be an extended meeting. Great ride from Charles Wright who bust a gut to unsettle Batch and execute a fine pass in heat 15. Congratulations to Fraser Bowes on his first heat win in British Speedway , a much improved start from the young Aussie resulted in a tapes to flag win over a previously unbeaten Anders Rowe. Tate was looking more like his old self as the meeting wore on, won't be long until he takes the chequered flag in front. Jye took a hefty fall after being the meat in the sandwich on turn one heat 1 , hope he isn't too bashed about.

I think last week you guys were generally way slicker out of the starts . Because there was very little moisture in the track it appeared that there was not the usual outside line. Hopefully a bit more moisture tonight and we can gate a bit better than the Scorps did 🤞😃

Yeah it's about time we had some Speedway to watch, into May already and not had a meeting . Hope we can get something from the weekend. Friday a tough start at Redcar, the Bears track was very dry last Friday with lot of dust on the back straight, nothing much grip wise out wide for riders to use so gating was vitally important. Hope their is a bit more moisture in the track this Friday.

First time i've seen Oskar Polis and he looks a classy intelligent speedway rider. Sedgy aggravating his broken wrist was tough on the Monarchs because he was gating well and looking quick. Cookie's gating was at it's best for the Bandits and he was looking fast, only beaten by an intelligent cut back from Polis in heat 13. From a Worky perspective it was good to see Jye getting a meeting in, hard to believe its not our first meeting until friday away at the Bears.

Easy for Poole in the second half of the meeting. Thought Lasse was going to have a good meeting but the fall related to the shed chain followed be the mechanical failure on his second bike done for his evening. Only Klindt had the class to take the fight to the Pirates although young Ben Trigger done well. Joe Thomson and Mitchell Cluff looked a weak 3 and 4 on this showing and suspect a change won't be long in coming. Alfie Bowtell and Ben Barker offered little. Tough place to go but on this showing Plymouth will struggle away.

Antti and Vinnie having a practice.

Yeah the season always feels short as it is but starting our home team schedule on 3rd May feels all pretty frustrating. Heaven knows what some of the riders must be feeling like.

Been some long periods of rain this week although thursday was nice. Got to Edinburgh yesterday around 1 pm yesterday and it was dry Looked at my phone around 2pm to find the meeting had been called off on the back of a forecast of heavy evening rain. Started raining about 2-30pm but intermittent. Dry coming home until we got to the Scottish Uplands when it started raining again and turned heavy. Don't know how it turned out in Armadale ?. Still raining in parts of North west Cumbria with the odd dry area but it was wet in Workington. Heavy rain ensued for the rest of the evening well into the night. It was still raining on and off this morning up until about 8 am. With this being an early start I could well imagine there would have been soft spots which would have done nobody any favours. Would think that is what probably done for the meeting.

Could use Antti at 5 at home. Fraser might really take to the track he looks a sharp starter and very stylish. Jye might also put himself into contention to. We will know soon enough 👍

Yeah, teams have either built with strong heat leaders/ weaker reserves or gone for more strength in depth. Winning all your home fixtures is vital and if you can pick up the odd away win with aggregate bonus points here and there it should be enough to make the playoffs ?. I agree about a fascinating season. I really don't know how Worky will perform until we get out on track as a 7, we have potential but there are unknowns and our sub par performance in the Pairs didn't help answer any of these . We will need to be strong at home because our track holds no real advantage.

Armadale has never been an easy place to go to for the Comets. The early season form of Tate has not been at the high level he was at early last season. This is probably to be expected following his crash at Belle Vue and relatively inactive season back home. Just hope his form and confidence can pick up quickly from here now that he has had a few meetings under his belt. The KO Cup and BSN Series are important to our season. Progression will provide more meetings for riders and fans in a season where there aren't that many We need Batch to lead from the front and hit the ground running until some of our guys find their feet. Edinburgh have recruited well, having ex rider Palovarra at reserve is a strong point at present and he is way better than an assessed 5. Time to be focussed and competetive, keep it tight as possible to help give us a chance in the return leg. UTC !

Possibly a bit jaded tonight Bomber following 3 consecutive days racing, we shall see.

Quite true, his first bike was also reported to be down on power.

We were present and commented on just how bumpy it appeared from watching the bikes skipping over them on turns 1 and 2. Regardless of this we enjoyed the meeting and it was great to see Bomber win the title.

Chips were poor too. Curry sauce might have helped but they had run out of that.

46.4 😃

Can't say I noticed it being long drawn out either. We were having a good crack in the spring sunshine. Wonder how many moaning were watching it on TV ?