NJC71

Boom.... Expected a comfortable home win but not by 34 points. Surely that will be enough even if we are in PL select mode on Thursday. We got 40 there in the League and that was with Garrity banging in a 15 point max. Without him it looks a hopeless task for Sheffield. The Diamonds were awesome. Victor exceptional as was Ludde. Breathtaking wins for Ludde in heat 14 over the decent Andersen and again in heat 15. Sheffield were poor with Stead having one of his bad Brough nights. Howarth gave it everything but has rarely scored well here. Berge and the two reserves were off the pace. I've said if before but I'd back us against anyone over 2 legs providing we can field our full team. That probably won't be necessary here. As others have said I have no idea why Stead was excluded in heat 13. Utterly bizarre.

I think Sheffield will do well to keep it to 10 points. Garrity is a huge loss - different story with him in the side.

Whoever owns his contract has first option. Steve is a Belle Vue asset. Very good point for the Diamonds taking advantage of a number of falls and retirements for the home side. Could have been better had Lambert started like he finished or Kus finished like he started! Nice to see Danny back amongst the points at the unlikeliest of venues.

Hard to comment without knowing what options were available to us but an already tough match is surely now an impossible task. Would have preferred even a decent third heat leader type than r/r - e.g. Robbo.

Bit harsh to say it's a shambles. At the end of the day we will never have squads, at least at PL level, as there is no way a rider will sign for a team when he'll only be used when others are unavailable. With the lack of riders, doubling-up is a necessary evil at the moment hence we will have situattions like Monday. As long as it's 7 v 7 I don't mind too much. It's rider replacement that short changes us. The alternative is that Newcastle didn't sign Lambert, Steve Worrall, Ludvig, Victor and Rose due to their availability issues. What sort of team would we have ended up with? Question is, do you want to watch an exciting young side that could challenge for the title or a probably much weaker side that wouldn't have the availability issues? I know which I prefer.

Big if but it would not make sense to take on an England match - plus get the meeting done before the 6pm deluge...

We'd be without Lambert & Rose though....tough old season.

Sensible decision. That's no home match in the whole of June. Can we really afford not to run on GP weekend?

The weather forecast looks a replica of last week. 😕

We've only ridden 2 home matches in the league and already been to Glasgow, Sheffield and Edinburgh, probably 3 of the hardest away fixtures and we got at least 40 at all three which home fans reckon were their most entertaining matches of the season in each case. We'll climb up the table in due course once we get more home matches in. The team hasn't yet fired all on the same night but in a play-off situation I'd back us to have won over 2 legs in any of those away matches with a full team which I reckon we'll have come the play-offs. Keep the faith.

Yeah right. Cheap team with Robert Lambert, probably best young rider in Britain at number 1 and one of the best riders in the PL at number 5. As well as two Swedes. Giver over this is not a cheap team and we should be thankful we have such a competitive side given the crowds we get every week. We've won plenty of trophies over recent seasons and IMO the promotion are doing a bloody decent job on no doubt very limited resources. Danny is struggling as I'm sure he realises. Certainly no lack of effort on his behalf. If there was an obviously better option I'm sure we'd take it but until that happens we should get behind Danny and give him the encouragement he needs to try and turn it around. Speedway is a tough sport at the best of times let alone when you aren't scoring, travelling hundreds of miles for nowt putting your body on the line. Must be soul destroying. Good luck to Danny - hope he can get a break and a bit of luck and get some points on the board soon.

Tough call on the tactical as Kus had done nothing in his first two rides so can forgive George that. Easy to be wise after the event and let's not forget Kus only won that heat after Bates came off. Was surprised though that he left Rose in heat 9 against Berge & Howarth. Thought Phillips would have come in then allowing Rose the easier ride against Sissis in heat 11. At the time I thought that was a strange decision - ok Rose didn't beat Sissis later on in heat 14 but he had beaten him in heat 2. 40 at Sheffield is no bad effort. As at Redcar heat 13 was a killer but I wouldn't swap our top 2 for any others. Still confident we can make the play-offs at least.

So are we to assume that every time we have a Thursday match we'll be without the two Swedes? Why? I don't remember Ludde missing Thursday matches last season. Or has the Swedish second division changed race nights?

Lewis Kerr also rides in the EL though. There would be no point, we'd just be adding Lakeside into the Belle Vue/King's Lynn fixture clash problem.

[quote name="Dandelion" post="2792044" timestamp="1464970354 I am sad to hear that Ipswich have dropped Lewis Kerr I know he left because of the journey to Newcastle every weekend, but I also wonder the possibility of maybe bringing him in to replace one of the riders who are missing a lot to try and field a stronger and more Newcastley team I am unsure of Lakeside's race nights though and whether this would even reduce the amount of missing riders and guests I hate seeing changes to the team, especially when most of the riders are going great, but it's kinda annoying seeing so many guests and travelling and paying money to go around the country to watch guests ride Just my opinion and I'm sure many other people's So the double up riders are Lambert, Worrall & Rose. Rose is a reserve so that means dropping Lambert or Worrall for Kerr? I don't think so.....

Made a late decision to travel down tonight and enjoyed a good meeting although obviously a frustrating outcome for the Diamonds. That said we didn't deserve to win and were probably fortunate to get a draw after the poor decision to exclude Andersen from heat 5 (obvious all 4 back). Richie also got away with a blatant roll but he was picked off by Belego anyway. The Bears were certainly strengthened by having Ostergaard in place of the out of form Bjerre but when we turn up with 3 guests we can hardly complain. Also no point in moaning about having so many riders missing - this is the path we chose so we just have to get on with it. Tonight, like Friday, we were hindered by a normally very reliable guest having a really poor night. Richie just couldn't get out of the start and didn't look quick either. 13 last week, 6 this week on the same track but that's the way it goes. Garcia also couldn't replicate last week's score but certainly no complaints from me. Coty rode his heart out and was involved in the best and most brutal race I've seen in a long time with Ostergaard. Really enjoyed watching him ride - he couldn't have given any more he just couldn't get out of the start. Steve was immaculate as ever - heat 13 always looked like being decisive and unfortunately with Richie not at the races he had to try and deal with both of the Bears top 2 on either sider of him and just got squeezed out. Robbo did a good job and Kus was excellent after a poor opening ride. Danny is struggling - he can't buy a start hence he is trying to anticipate it and getting pulled back. A tough job riding at this level when you're not scoring, look at Steve just a couple of years ago and look at him now. Redcar rode well with only Buckhave not contributing. Having a decent number 1 made all the difference. They need a decent number 2 badly. Racing was decent - heat 6 an absolute classic. First time at the STMP for a few years and I enjoyed it - would be better if there was some grip for the riders particularly around bends 3 and 4. Richie and Kus lost places by drifting wide there. Needs to be more lines for the riders to attack as there used to be but it's one of the best tracks in the country for viewing. Great to get so close to the action. Only had time to see the first race of the junior match. Nice smooth win for young Mr Parr. Hope the young Redcar lad was ok - nasty fall.

To be fair to the BSPA we all moan when competitions drag on for ever so we can't really complain at the push to get this match done. The League Cup began in late March and we've only had 4 matches to arrange/rearrange. We also knew when we put this team together that Thursday and Friday night's would be problematic with rider availability so in all honesty we don't have much to complain about. The team still looks strong enough - no excuses.

In a play off situation Newcastle would have been at full strength and would have won comfortably over the 2 legs IMO. If's, but's and maybe's of course but pretty confident Lambert would score 4 or 5 more than Fisher, Rose probably double figures given what I saw on the night. Only an opinion and time will tell. Barker is obviously far better than he is showing at the moment and will surely improve. He needs to though.

Was really looking forward to tonight but the track ruined the meeting for me. It has been good this season but for some reason it was very heavy tonight and coupled with the low lying sun there were too many incidents, particularly on the 3rd and 4th bends - Glasgow certainly getting the worst of it. You could tell early on that most of the riders were struggling with it. When you get a match like this with two top sides you really want conditions that allow the riders to race which wasn't the case tonight, certainly over the first 6 or 7 races which was disappointing. Would certainly have settled for the win before the start. At full strength I think it would have been pretty comfortable. That said Sissis did a decent job and Fisher picked up an important heat win. Can't grumble with Glasgow getting a point given their misfortune on track tonight although I'm not convinced that's a league winning side. Lunna, Garcia and Ayres battled hard in very difficult conditions tonight but away from home they may have too long a tail which would have been exposed had the Diamonds been at full strength. As for us, impressed with Victor who has had a good weekend. Lindgren wasn't at his brilliant Brough best but battled hard but I'm still not convinced by Kus although to be fair he delivered in heat 12 when it mattered.

Impossible to predict. You can probably only be reasonably sure what you'll get from the Worrall's, Lawson & Lindgren. Barker, Summers, Fisher and Kus can be brilliant and awful in equal measure here, often in the same meeting and in Barker and Fisher's case sometimes in the same race. I don't recall Ayre's riding here before but Garcia and Lunna didn't do much with Berwick or Scunny last year but then again you could same the same about Sissis. With Lambert & Rose I would have been confident of a home win but both missing and suspect guests greatly weakens the Diamonds, so it could go either way.

Yep I recall that so if it wasn't allowed at Berwick why was it allowed today? Only in speedway.

I guess it's to stop heat 15 being an anti climax if a rider goes through the tapes but agree it surely just encourages riders to try and anticipate the start and will probably lead to loads of re-runs. Wouldn't have mattered anyway.

Disappointing not to get a point but Glasgow away is obviously a tough one and 40 is ok. Very disappointed with Kus though. Been ok at home but he was signed primarily for his away form and his best away return so far is 4+1, albeit from just 3 meetings. Needs to be much better than that if he's to justify the big effort to bring him here. No news on a guest for tomorrow but if it's r/r I really fear for us especially with no Rose. If Kus rides like that we'll be well beaten.

Can't go r/r against such strong opposition. We only need 1 rider to have an iffy night or get an injury and we'd be in trouble.

Should be a cracker. Not sure where we go with a guest for Monday now. Options look very limited. Kevin Wolbert?