Noelinho

The weather will change throughout the week, no point worrying right now. On paper, Poole don't look scary, but they do have a knack of getting it done.

I was thinking that… does he realise, if the bikes are 15% faster, he must be 25% slower? I don’t mind Zmarzlik winning, but I do mind the lack of any real racing. Too much from the gate. Hold a round at Ashfield. They’ll bitch about it being dangerous for the first eight heats, and when they realise they can roll off the throttle it’ll get a lot better. Added bonus: Phil Morris won’t get in so the track won’t drown.

Yeah, they both impressed me tonight. Drew looked more focused and Nathan held his own, having been miles off the pace on all previous visits.

To speak of the racing, heat 9 was a good one. I thought About was unfortunate to be excluded as all four were pretty much together, but the racing between Allen and Bidding was very good. A few unhappy home fans that Allen caught the back of Claus's bike starting lap four, but I thought it was fine. Claus came across hard.to clamp the inside and he gives it out pretty hard. I think he's big enough to look after himself on that one.

Also remember, there were quite a few heats with away riders running consecutive heats, so the referee had to make an allowance for that. Even then, he didn't give them long.

The meeting started bang on time. The two minutes for heat 1 went up at 19:28. There was no grading after heat 4. There was a very quick grade after heat 7. Everything else is in the control of the referee. He didn't dither either. There were two stoppages for Scunthorpe riders who hit the deck. And the Glasgow riders were at tapes first in every heat. Heat 9, Scunthorpe the Scunthorpe riders both appeared on track with 6 seconds on the clock. But somehow the promoters are at fault. There was no issue with the running of the meeting.

See? Can't win. Call it off? Get pelters. Run it? Get pelters.

Clouds are getting ominous now.

There is no interval tonight.

What's the issue?

Eight heats gone, mental drops has turned into a light drizzle.

It's always 7:30.

Yes. Track looks great.

A few odd drops occasionally but holding up.

It's not a terrible forecast. It might rain, and it might rain at the wrong time if it does, but it's not a lot of rain that's expected. The skies have looked like opening most of the afternoon, but still no drops. Anyway, I am convinced it will rain, and I'm always wrong!

Conversely, my forecast, which was bad from 6pm earlier, is now good until midnight!

They're pressing ahead, according to the track staff. Should be a good meeting as long as the rain doesn't get in the way later on.

It’s one of those days when it’s hard to know what the best course of action is. If they call it off now, and the predicted rain after 6pm arrives, it probably looks a good decision. If that rain doesn’t come, the rest of the predicted rain during the day wouldn’t be enough. So would it be better to risk looking silly calling off a dry evening, or losing out financially going ahead with a meeting that doesn’t get completed? People will throw stones either way…

There's rain in the forecast all day, and particularly after 6pm. Could be a frustrating one. They might be tempted to call it off.

It could, but I can't think of an illness where I'd be happy to drive all that way home again, but not to stick around for 2 hours in a dark room.

I can donate my Michael Fish Award for quality speedway weather predictions.

We have six riders who are delivering the goods, and one who is inconsistent. We are on a good place, and certainly better than it has been for a few years. At least as strong as 2019, I’d say.

If you’re going to replace Lee, it has to be a clear upgrade. For all his inconsistency, he has a great rapport with the fans. There would be a lot of unhappy people if he was sent away and the replacement wasn’t clearly scoring better.

People have short memories sometimes. Cami said heat 13 is the best race he’s ever seen round Ashfield. Others have said similar things, It might not even be the best race this month. Heat 8 against Birmingham was incredible too. I guess last night was a local derby, with a lot of away fans present, and the tight nature of the match, and that meant there was a lot more riding on it, but as a pure race, Nowak’s win against Birmingham was more incredible. That’s what I love about Ashfield. You can have a few heats where not much happens, but you always feel like there can be an explosive race (or more), every meeting.

I can’t say I noticed track grading being any longer than normal? They did need to water the track alongside the grading, but I don’t think they were doing anything they don’t normally do. The interval was longer because they had the draw for the U21 final, but that was already planned.