NJC71

Proctor was making starts tonight but didn't appear to have the speed and was being passed to easily. If he is struggling for speed at a tight track like Brough then he is bound to find it tough at Sheffield. Absolutely no lack of effort though and he is obviously a miles better rider than he is showing at the moment. Must be massively frustrating for him. Hope he can turn it around soon as he should be a strong heat leader in the PL.

Yes but no need to be so patronising to others when you do so. Like to me last week when I mentioned the lack of fixtures in the PL this year. Interesting that George, in his programme notes tonight, said the lack of fixtures was a "ridiculous situation".......possibly nothing to do with a certain tournament then? Where's that humble pie.........

Typically condescending response from you. Agree Summers has been poor around Brough in recent seasons although he normally does a good job when guesting for us and looked on the way to a good score in the Redcar match until he blew his engine. Lambert also has a poor record here although who knows what the options were. I see the update site has r/r for Lewis Rose. He rode for King's Lynn in midweek didn't he?

I don't particularly like Berwick but I don't go on Berwick threads slagging it off every opportunity I get.

Be honest you have some sort of agenda against Newcastle for whatever reason. Why else would you post critical remarks about meetings you weren't at, that didn't even involve your team? All a bit pathetic really.

The track was certainly not awful. There are I'm afraid crashes in speedway at every track but when it happens at Newcastle the usual suspects are quick to slag the place off. Looking at the three crashes, Allen overcooked it on bend 3 and slid off. Not a bad crash but unfortunately he dislocated his shoulder. Lewis' crash was the worst. My main criticism of the track is the lack of lines to overtake this season and because of that riders are having at times to go very wide to get grip as we saw with Lewis tonight, trying too hard to overtake and getting too close to the fence. Not sure if his footrest got caught up in the fence but it was a bad accident and unfortunately it seems he may have a broke collarbone. A big blow to both ourselves and King's Lynn as well as to Lewis himself as it obviously rules him out of the British Final tomorrow. Hope he is back soon. The third crash was caused by Aspgren basically not turning into bend one and cleaning up Lewis Rose. Can hardly blame the track for that one. Overall there was some decent racing. Good to see Lindgren back to something like his best. Certainly much more competitive out of the start. Great performance from Chris Mills who gated well and rode with speed and confidence. Also a fine performance from Charles Wright who again was very impressive. Odd night for Nick Morris who has a dislike for the track and threw a number of points away before a good win in heat 15. Of course Berwick is an awesome track. The racing mecca of the North East. There was nothing wrong with the track last week, Berwick just rode badly.

Unfortunately a bad crash too for Lewis Kerr who is on his way to hospital with a shoulder injury. Some bad crashes tonight.

Is it just me or does the PL seem short of fixtures this year? Only 6 matches throughout the whole of June and only 5 currently scheduled for July for the Diamonds. For the riders who aren't doubling up or riding abroad that is a paucity of matches. Must be a real struggle to make any money. Needs looking at in the Winter.

Actually thought it was a decent meeting. Good crowd, decent atmosphere and the racing was ok for me and keenly contested. Ludde continues to struggle out of the starts, he was last out of the start in all four of his rides and really isn't giving himself a chance. Can't be faulted for effort but really needs to sort his starting out if he's going to get out of this dip in form. At the moment he's just giving ammunition for TWK and company to criticise him. Lewis Kerr and Robbo were both superb again, good comeback from Lewis R and a good effort from Simon Nielsen who I thought rode well. Word for Craig Cook who as expected scored heavily, but showed his class by slowing down to allow Lewis to get his max in heat 15. Don't necessarily expect that from a guest but it was a good touch and I'm sure he'll have gone up in the estimations of Diamonds fans as a result. The Bandits are a solid side but just lacked a bit of power against the Diamonds top 3. Certainly no lack of effort from either side but a much needed and deserved win.

Was at the stadium for the greyhounds last night and the track was under a fair amount of water. Will take a big effort to get it ready. Hope the forecast changes for later.

Presumably a guest for Danny King as he's on his way to Germany for a GP qualifier on Monday. Take your pick George.

Can't agree with at all. Lindgren is an excellent team rider. His ride to stay behind Henry and ahead of Lasse Bjerre at Peterborough was one of the best bits of team riding (or riding for the team) that I've seen. Another good ride behind Mills on Sunday and there've been plenty of other examples over the last few seasons. Ludde is a very talented rider in my opinion and always gives 100%. He is just very inconsistent out of the gate and gives the impression that he possibly isn't the best when it comes to track set-ups etc. He always seems to struggle when the track is dry and slick which it has been most weeks this year.

Henry is a quality rider who scores well at most tracks. He was very unlucky to lose his place at Newcastle in a bold move that hasn't worked. Wish him well at Glasgow. Strange timing though as Henry has been available for a while now and Lemo has scored ok of late.

Cook again looked extremely quick when it mattered tonight... Not convinced about him on the bigger stage and the bigger tracks though (e.g. Swindon the other night).

I thought Edinburgh were fortunate to win tonight. King went through the tapes in a race he would probably expected to have won, Kerr then came off when second in heat 8 with Greenwood doing likewise in heat 11. All points thrown away by the Diamonds and this should really have been all over before heat 15. Yes Cook's exclusion for bringing down Greenwood was debatable but Lindgren was gone in that heat so that only really cost the Monarchs a point max. I've said it for weeks now but the track is not helping the home side. Passing anybody is clearly a thankless task which certainly led to Kerr's fall as he pushed the bike out too wide searching for grip which just doesn't seem to be there at the moment and too many heats are over after the first corner. A couple of decent moves from Lindgren and Kerr aside this was another meeting where the closeness of the score and not the quality of the racing provided the drama. Quite impressed with Ollie Greenwood on what I assume was his first meeting at Brough and it was good to see Stevie Worrall ride so well. He looked quick and smooth tonight and has certainly never ridden Brough with such confidence.

If you look at the averages you'll see that the following riders have an average less than Schramm's and therefore can guest for him. Obviously Fox isn't an option. No disrespect but none of the below have any prior form at Brough which makes them a stand out choice and no doubt some won't be available or won't fancy it. Oliver is probably as good a choice as any and rode well against us at Peterborough albeit on a totally different track. Liam Carr 3.0 Roland Benko 3.24 Simon Nielsen 3.81 Josh Bates 3.55 Simon Lambert 3.00 Aaron Fox 3.37 Oliver Greenwood 3.40 Joe Jacobs 3.46 Luke Crang 3.00 Rafal Konopka 3.00 Matt Williamson 3.00

Looking forward to this one. Obviously very tough for the Diamonds. Cook did look very poor at Swindon the other night but he had little trouble getting two 15 point maximums here last season. But if Danny King rides like he did last week the clashes between the two could be eye catching. Masters, Fricke, Deek and of course Stevie W will also be a big threat. Sedgmen normally struggles around Brought but has obviously improved a lot since he last rode here and the tight turns here will probably suit the American youngster Fox. Nothing to lose though for the Diamonds although all 6 or 7 will need to be on form and gating well to win it. Not Impossible. Assuming Schramm is still out we'll need a guest who can compete. Luke Crang looks the best option to me if available.

Makes sense and a real bonus that he is now on a 3 and can replace Dan Greenwood. No disrespect to Dan but he didn't look ready. If we can get Rose and Schramm fit we look a bit stronger at the bottom end.

His average is 0.05 too high to replace Dan Greenwood. Could see him as a short-term replacement for Schramm though and when Chris is fit Danny King might have an actual average which may open doors for him to be retained.......

Surprising but welcome win for the Diamonds against a disappointing Witches side. Seemed unlikely early on, particularly when Robbo and Lewis conceded a 5-1 in heat 5 but we hung in there and got a deserved win with that last heat 5-1. King, for the fist time really looked like the powerful number 1 we thought he'd be and Lewis K was flying all night, that one heat apart. Had Lewis been in that form from the start of the season I doubt the team changes would have been necessary. Will be interesting to see them both up against Cook next week. Chris Mills battled hard for his points tonight and picked up some valuable third places. If Chris Schramm is going to be missing for a while yet then there must be some mileage in offering him a short-term deal as a replacement as guest options so far have looked poor. The value of having an experienced reserve made all the difference tonight. Ipswich were poor and must be disappointed at missing out on what looked like a great chance of an away win. Expected a lot more from Richie. He left to further his career but the Polish rides don't seem to have been coming and if anything he looks to have at best stalled this year. Hope he can turn it around. I was very impressed though with Gino Manzares who was worth more than his paid 5 and was unlucky to be excluded for bringing down Mills in heat 8 - not convinced there was any contact. Finally, interested to hear Robbo's comments on the track in the programme. I've said for weeks that it has not produced good racing so far this year and it seems that is because of work carried out in the winter which now needs to be rectified. Hope they can get it sorted because at the moment it is seems very difficult to pass out there, with only Ludde able to manage it tonight. Typically it was his only decent ride.

If it goes ahead must be a good chance for Ipswich to pick up some away points as we look desperately weak at the lower end. Obviously early days but from his first three matches Danny King has not been that impressive, averaging only 8.0 so far. I'm sure that will increase but seems fair to say when he gets an actual average it will be at least 2 points lower than his assessed average, probably more, which will give us some scope to strengthen the bottom end a little, albeit too late in the season to make any real impact.

If you bother to do your homework before insulting me (and other GEORDIES on here) you'll realise that Newcastle declared a 1-7 including both King and Lambert but it was rejected by the BSPA. My point was that the 1-7 with Lambert would have been a worthwhile change which would have strengthened the team. But (and this is the tough bit for you clearly) with no Lambert, I don't think it was a good idea to go ahead and they should have left the team as it was......

You're clever. I just said the changes Newcastle PLANNED to make would have worked HAD they been able to sign Lambert but not without him. I do actually realise he "aint riding PL" and no it's not difficul(t) to grasp....

Easy to be wise after the event but I said at the time, the changes would have worked with Lambert but not without him and that certainly looks to be the case so far. Shouldn't forget that we were struggling before the changes (just three race winners v Workington) and although I'm sure King will have far better nights than he did tonight, we look woefully weak at the bottom end and I doubt having Schramm available would have made that much difference. Can't see what else we can do now other than get on with it. What's done is done. If we are going to have to endure a poor season with a struggling side then lets at least have some good racing to enjoy. It was another desperately dull match with hardly a pass of note. There doesn't appear to be anything on offer on the track to give the rider in second or third a chance to overtake. Ok, it's been hot so I'm sure preparing the track wouldn't have been easy but it was pretty much the same against Workington. Riders like Robson and Lindgren who aren't noted for making fast starts really need some sort of grip somewhere to give them some sort of chance of overtaking. It never looked like happening tonight. Well done to Redcar who took full advantage and were well worth the 4 points. The Edinburgh match is looking a horrible prospect. We might get more points at Armadale.