Ace no.5

My thoughts exactly. There is not a chance in the world our management will pick Wolves for the semi should we finish top... The management will be backing their riders to beat Swindon/Lakeside (and I reckon there will be a good sized crowd for the semi) and then hopefully get a mega payday against wolves or a very good payday against Poole (going for 4 in a row!) in the final.

Ok, something that's bugged me a little tonight and the sort of thing that can make or break a season if it happens in a particular instance... Heat 9. Newman excluded for delaying the start twice. Pedersen replaces him and wins the race. Ok, fair enough... Until this... 23/5/16. BV riding away at Poole. Heat 6. Cookie delayed the start twice (despite one of these times making the perfect gate!). Excluded. Nobody allowed in to replace him?! So what is the official rule please?

I've not seen any announcements?! 😯😕

But the referee should know, whatever meeting it is. If a rider is at tapes messing around for a minute or so surely that should draw the referees attention...

Never once blamed Poole. I was one of the first to congratulate them. It's the SCB that stinks.

The only outcome is that the SCB will do naff all which is just plain wrong. I'm not saying anything should be done now but it just really irks me that nothing was done before the 2nd leg.

That's the one 😉😣

From everything I know about Cookie he loves BV too much to want to leave. I'm 99% certain that he would want to stay and ride with us in our new stadium. I'm also 99% certain that the club will want him to stay. It was pretty clear for all to see during the playoffs how much he loves the club.

My dad told me about what I'm assuming is the same thing just the other day. The way he explained it I thought the rider had declared himself fit to ride an hour before the meeting but as his name was in the programme in italics (for r/r), all his points were deducted... Thus we lost the cup final to Reading I think it was, after overcoming a large first leg deficit?

This is the bit that grates... Had roles been reversed the SCB would have docked his points there and then 😕

How silly you must feel... There is a fine line between confidence and arrogance. It's lucky the Poole riders weren't thinking like that tonight or BV would have won it comfortably.

And I would have every one of them back 😊

Very disappointed. Congratulations to Poole. SCB let the sport down again. A statement should have been made regards "gogglegate" before the meeting as it is quite clear that they were just hoping it would be an easy Poole win and that would be that, It wouldn't matter. But it does matter...

"The most decorated vs the legendary"... I like that! 😂

Me too. But like I said elsewhere, he should have just gone off 15 metres. I still think they'd have got a 1-5. But that we will never know...

On previous occasions where points have been removed from a rider the points have NOT been added to the other team, which would make the result 46-44 to the Aces. As others have said, they have to make a decision before tonight otherwise they will make themselves look even worse!

Matt Ford is currently in talks with Usain Bolt to replace the current Poole mascot just in case of this eventuality...

Yes. The SCB must act as a rule has been blatantly broken. No fault from Poole management. Maybe lack of understanding of the rules by both Newman and the start marshal but god only knows what the referee was watching when Newman was messing round at the tapes for 60 seconds!

In the past where riders points have been deducted for riding illegally the points have not been added to the other team. So I would guess that Newman's 2 points will be deducted and BV will win 46-44. I don't think the SCB can do nothing...

Lots of talking points from tonight but at the end of the day very proud of our guys for showing such spirit in such a bad situation. The difference was clearly the reserves (18+4 against 3!). Given ourselves a chance on Wednesday, however small. Fair play to Poole, they turned up with their 1-7 and did the job. As for the "heat 16", "walk for darcy" it was apparently cancelled by the GRA on health and safety grounds. What a crock of poop! Glad we're out of that stadium as don't want to be under GRA instruction all the time! Still plenty of money collected for the darcy fund seemingly.

Gomolski 3 points from 7 rides round Kirky Lane this season so my money is on him getting "injured" next weekend 😣😂

Take his 8 off and add 8 on for Coventry and it gets quite a bit closer believe it or not...

Agree with the tactical mishaps comments about Boyce. Can anyone tell me though how they work out the gate positions? The Aussies had 4 gate 2s out of the first 5 heats (7 out of the first 15) and then no others after heat 15. Seems a bit strange?

The gate bias was a bit of a sham to be honest. Of the 23 races, gate 1 riders picked up a total of 15 points (3 X 2nd, 9 x 3rd, 11 x 4th. Good to see Woffy prove that he should have been the wildcard tonight. Nicholls was lucky in the British Final where Woffy was the best rider. And congrats to the ref for spoiling the Final. Was the most blatant jump of the start ever! Should have been called straight back!

Absolutely no pressure on Hans to perform though this year, he had nothing to lose! It'll be more of a test when the pressure is on next year. Looking forward to it though!