diamond@heart

Great result by the Diamonds. Could easily have gone and just tried to reach 31 but went for the win. Credit where credit is due.

Yes we are going to win a trophy but if Palovaara scores alot of points on Saturday for example and is instrumental in us progressing to Sundays final, I think it maybe harsh just to drop him as you have no guarantee that the rider u replace him with is going to be any better. I appreciate that you could leave Palovaara in and he could have a mare on Sunday. I don't envy George if he is faced with that scenario. We'll just have to c.

I believe so but it would then seem harsh dropping a couple of riders after they had performed well to get us to the final.

I thought it was just Kus and Lindgren missing. I believe Palovaara is available, might be wrong. If that is the case our lineup I assume will be Lambert, Worrall, Palovaara and Rose with Phillips as reserve!!!

Totally agree and if as we have seen happen, Rose has to ride for Kings Lynn, is injured during a meeting or the guest replace is not up to scratch or has an off night (Monday being the example), we are left with Phillips to cover his rides which frankly leaves us up s**t creek in a barbed wire canoe!! I have total respect for Danny and any other rider who competes in the sport we love, but as speedway is a lot about confidence, he seems to have lost his confidence especially around Brough. As people have commented, he is making the gate but after about 20-30 yards he is usually swallowed up by the other three riders and by the exit of turn two is then solid last and makes no in roads to catch riders. I was at Redcar recently and as he knows that track quite well I expected him to go well, but unfortunately, he was shocking, if you compare that with the first visit of the Diamonds to Redcar early in the season during the rain off, I thought he was one of our better riders (albeit against a lacklustre Bears team). He seems to now be suffering from a lack of confidence and poor equipment and I would like to see him improve and finish the season with the Diamonds but on current form it should not happen but I am not saying it won't happen!!

We don't have him for Somerset this Friday either!!

Fantastic performance by the Diamonds last night with our top 4 getting 53 points in total. Palovaara was brilliant last night and fully deserved his spot in Heat 15. I must admit I had my doubts when we brought him in but he has really surprised me and is a great addition to the team. I thought we would miss Lambert and Rose a lot more than we actually did and I was worried Scunny would run us close, but the Diamonds top 4 seemed fired up for this one, wonder what George put in the tea!!! Ludvig was outstanding and should ride injured more often and we demonstrated some great team riding at times. Onto Sheffield now which will be a whole different ball game and they may offer one of the toughest tests of the season I think. One negative last night was the once again poor showing of Danny Phillips, I for one think it is time we called time on his Diamonds career. He does not seem to be getting any better and if anything is getting worse and is often almost half a lap behind everyone else. In heat 2 he made the gate and was last by the mid point of turn 1/2 of lap one and then proceeded to go even further backwards. I do not have the answers and have no idea who we would replace him with but I think we need to. Roy said Danny was on a mission last night, I am still struggling to work out what that mission was!!! Great performance and good to see Kerr back and winning heats, even if he did seem to try and run Worrall into the back straight safety fence.

Any news on Ludvig?

He's nearly always at Cardiff and always comes and has a chat with the Diamonds fans. Cracking lad and I was disappointed like most when he left.

A1 northbound closed due to sinkhole opening up. Closed all day, may not affect travelling Scunny fans but maybe worth bearing in mind as could have knock on effect.

Wasn't aware it had to be an U21, would go for Bates then, if he is fit enough.

Drop Ellis and put in S Worrall and that would be my choice. I would note have King in the team but as British Champ probably gets a pick on that. If not I would opt for Garrity or Lawson, both young and racers with Garrity just shading it. No place for Nicholls and Harris in my opinion, Harris is rubbishe this year, linke most years and time to get rid of the old guard and nurture the up and coming.

Those were some of the best meetings I've watched, the first few took quite a while to run if I remember but the racing was always worth the admission price and to watch the likes of Branney, Lawson and Robertson mature as riders from novices was great. As you say, the league was spoilt by teams hunting trophies rather than nurturing youngsters, probably one of the reasons why British Speedway is in the state it is in.

Who's raving in the GP's!! Glow sticks at the ready!! Now that would make the GP's more interesting in my opinion.

Can't find the original post I found on Twitter but found this on Leicester's website. Good move for Ludvig as I believe he wanted to get back in the Elite. http://leicesterlions.co/ludvig-lindgren-replaces-davey-watt/

I see Ludvig is potentially about to sign for Leicester to replace Davey Watt!!!!

Lets hope so, as I think he scored well at Glasgow last year but was crap, correction, below par this year. Same can be said of Edinburgh and then a week or two later was flying at Fisher's testimonial. Fingers crossed.

Will all depend on how well our engine room perform for this one I think.

Great result. 😊 Great result. 😊

What was the score in the YDL match last night.

Totally agree and to quote the BSPA 'how was that meeting in the best interests of speedway. No idea how Ostergaard got rider of the night, maybe because he rode into most riders instead of trying to pass them!!! Worrall was head and shoulders above anyone else and as you state Bellego was next best. Onwards and hopefully upwards.

Well decided to go down to this meeting in the end and wished I hadn't. I thought Redcar deserved the victory and were only denied the win by a poor refereeing decision. Steve W was fantastic for the Diamonds and apart from Heat 13 looked like he was trying to win the match on his own along with Kus who apart from a first ride blip was back to the Matej we know (on the road). We missed Rose massively last night and just shows how having Phillips in the team and not scoring makes us vulnerable. I hope Redcar fans don't mind me saying this but even with an understrength team we should have beaten you and quite easily but to your credit you came out fighting, spurred on by Dangerous Brian (Ostergaard) and determined to prevent us from reaching the League Cup semi's. Ostergaard seemed to instil into the Bears something which has been sadly lacking in previous performances from what I have seen and maybe with changes that were hinted at in the programme you may kick on from here. One other point and I appreciate it is the same for both teams but I thought the track was very poor tonight, nothing on the inside and the dirt (what little their was) was on the outside and nothing on bends 3 and 4. Can someone inform the guy on the waterbowser that when you come out to water the track you have to turn the valve on to release some water!!! I think it maybe time to look at other options instead of Phillips. Redcar is one track where he has probably done more laps than most and he was shocking last night. He was miles off the pace and this maybe down to the fact that as he is not scoring the points so does not have the money to invest in some equipment. He seems to be trying to force the issue and by that trying to jump the start and when he misses the start makes not headway in catching the other riders up. He was well beaten by both Redcar reserves last night and you wouldexpect him to defeat at least Payne. The only point he got was gifted to him when Anderson was disqualified. I do not know off the top of my head which riders are amongst the draft riders but if Branford is one of them and is available, based on last nights performance I would snap him up. I know people will think I am overreacting at last nights defeat, but I don't think I am. I am wondering whether this is going to be how our season pan out, get ourselves into good positions in the league and cup competitions only to have to field a weakened 'select' side at the business end of competitions as riders have other commitments. Rant over. Yours, one very disappointed Diamonds fan.

SOLD!!!

Still can't make my mind up whether to come down for this one, on one side I should come down and support this patched up Diamonds side hopefully qualify for the Cup Semi's but the other half says f**k it, stay in the house and save your money!!! Decisions, Decisions!!!

I can't see us dropping Kus considering we spent a lot of money, t8ime and effort getting him over the winter. Seems madness to cast him aside. I have no axe to grind against Danny and I think he started the season in the challenges really well but he seems to have dropped off dramatically since then. I think he needs to score well in the match against Redcar tonight from a confidence point of view as well as a pleasing the supporter point of view. He seems to have lost the early confidence he had with regards our track and does not attack the bends as much as he used to. I hope he finds his confidence again and starts getting amongst the opposition as well as the points. I see Tero has tweeted he has come through his surgery and starts his recovery now. Will we have a space for him when he returns to fitness as Palovaara seems to be doing a great job, better than I expected. I agree with what a lot of people are saying in that it is annoying when you do not know if you are going to watch a full compliment of Diamonds riders or a team full of guests. I know we were made aware of this early on (or were aware of it) but that does not stop if from becoming both annoying and irritating. I personally want to watch Lambert, Rose, Worrall et al tear into the opposition week after week but it would appear that this is unlikely. I just hope that come the business end of the season and assuming we qualify for the play-offs (touch wood) we can go into those meeting with a full compliments of Diamonds riders.