spanner47

Feared the worst as I got close to the track, but need not have worried. Many promoters would have called it off, but luckily the club invested heavily in an excellent drainage system, and with CL in charge of operations, and Bob doing his bit, we ended up with a decent evenings entertainment. Ok, Plymouth were there for the taking, but there was some decent passing and hopefully a further confidence boost for the whole team. I see Ben only scored a couple for Brum tonight, I bet he's cursing that new rule, I'm sure even he'd have managed double figures tonight.

Luckily i'm not one of those embarrassing sad little freaks that hide behind an alias. I've told you where i stand before, but you've never paid me a visit. For the record, I've been called Spanner for 40 years. If you think Sky will splash the cash next season ask yourself this, what was on Sky Sports Monday night this week? They've got Monday night footy, now they've moved some Rugby League, 20/20 to come, why bother with a dreadfully run sport that has stupid gimmicks like the double points nonsense? I certainly dont know it all, but they've spent a fortune of footy and F1, something has got to give.

Aljack, what planet are you on? There will not be an elite league next season in it's current form. Sky will either pull the plug, or offer a vastly reduced contract. Unless of course you think that elite league clubs can just brush off a hit of £100,000 (ish) each and still employ the current 2nd rate international stars (Holder,Ward & a couple of others apart) that they currently do.

There's nothing wrong with the team or the track at Foxhall these days, so i can only assume it's the cold weather keeping a few fans away. But compared to (certain) other tracks, our crowds are holding up reasonably well. Last season we only had one Thursday night when i didn't need a jacket, the lovely weather brought the fans out that night, and i'm sure if the weather warms up, the fair weather fans will come out. Speedway is a summer sport, a lot of people dont like standing around for 2 hours for 15 mins action in chilly temperatures.

Shame that Emil touched the tapes, but at least it gets us ready for the SWC final. 3 rider races will be the norm in that, unless the Czechs can find some world beaters in the next 2 Months.

Or on the other hand, maybe it's easier to score points in the diluted League. I dont care who scores the points, as long as between them we get 50.

Speedway must be the only sport in the world where you can get injuries and (sometimes) end up stronger.

I cant believe the doom and gloom after one bad meeting. The team is looking ok, Leigh and Rohan had a bad night, which you dont expect from the heat leaders, but sometimes that happens. Morten is a perfectly adequate 2nd string. If you honestly think there's a better rider available than Morten on that average, then please tell us who he is. As Chris always says, Morten is a confidence rider, and i'm sure he'll bang in some big scores soon. That ride in heat 14 on Thursday will have done him a power of good. The only rider who has underperformed (based on expectations) this season is Ben, but hopefully the way he finished last night will be the start of things to come. The updates didn't mention any passing, was there any? or was it all down to the 1st/2nd bend? I used to love going to Worky, but the track is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

Amazed there was no puddles on the track, as i got close to the track at 19-25 there was puddles all over the roads. But if the Ref says no, thats it. Hopefully it saved us a boring night watching a meeting on a wet track, thats not entertainment, shame the club lost a chunk of money and the supoorters lost a few quid in petrol, but if it had have gone ahead, and a rider had been injured, then people would be bleating "it should never had gone ahead". Mick Bates has seen more wet tracks than most of us, and if he reckoned it wasn't fit for racing, thats ok by me.

My 1st meeting of the season, and really enjoyed it. A superb track with good passing lines. After decades of neglect the stadium is taking shape, should look really good when it's all finished. Very happy with No's 3-7, and i'm always told, class is permanent, form is temporary, so i'm sure when Ben sort his engines out, we'll have a damn good team.

Certainly the nicest day we've had for ages. That horrible Easterly wind has gone, but probably too late to encourage fans to Foxhall this afternoon, it's been so bloody cold all week, i reckon the "once a season" brigade will have found something warmer to do. It's a shame, after last year when most promoters took a hit, this is all they needed, first 2-3 weeks of the season with the cold keeping fans away.

10 hours on a bus according to my mates who went last year.

Well done to the Diamonds for staying upright whilst some of the Witches kept sliding off. I was amazed at how positive the vibes were about the weather beforehand. I drove along Foxhall road about 5pm, and the drains were overflowing, it was awful. Great work by the track staff to get it rideable, just a bloody shame our biggest night for years, and we get our smallest crowd of the season because of the dreadful weather. Like a lot of fans, and most promoters, i wont be sad to see the back of this season, the worst (weather wise) on record??

With a bit of luck your lot will be chasing honours next season Bagpuss. Looking forward to our Good Friday meetings when you lot come back to a League that suits you. When was the last time you watched your lads ride? Buster & Jonny Boy must be chomping at the bit to get back to being a big fish in a smaller pond again. Instead of an empty Stadium for 2 months, you could have been watching play/offs and cup finals. Hmmm, if i owned my own Stadium what would i want?????

Nothing to do with a place for next season, it was a cup final. I think we can certainly trust Leigh & Morten (certs for next season). At reserve we should outscore them by a couple, just leaves the 3 Aussies in the middle, Rohan, Taylor and Dak at their best and we could win by about 14. But this meeting could be won/lost in the pits. They wont have ridden in cold conditions like tomorrow many times. I'm no expert on setting up bikes, but i've always been told you set things up differently depending on the temperature.

Like bruv, i'll reserve judgement on the crowd until tomorrow night. Having 2 cup finals in 3 days in financial suicide, lets hope the idiots that run this sport make sure this never happens again, and the cup in finished in July/August when crowd levels are always higher. Get there early tomorrow aljerk, even with horrible cold weather i expect last nights crowd figure to be doubled. Like us, table topping Newcastle haven't got a "big hitter", that should dispel the trolls theory about supa dupa No 1's.

After last night i feel more confident about winning the proper cup. All the riders did as well as expected except Dak, but he's been our best rider lately, so he's allowed one off night. For the past few weeks the track has been excellent, passing inside and outside all meeting (if you're quick enough), but last night that inside line didn't appear as good on bends 1&2. Message to Pete Simmons, when changing the reserves about, dont worry about who the opposition is, just put Tress in off gate 3 or 4, and Stefan off 1 or 2. If that bloody frog screws up anymore 1st bends when he locks up and screws himself (and sometimes his teammate) then we'll be dropping more points. I enjoy watching him ride after bend 2, but the number of times his cocked up the 1st bend when he's gated of the inside, is far far too many times for my liking, and no doubt his teammates. Oops almost forgot, well done to the Rebels.

Just hope all 7 of our lads have a good night, could get close. Be interesting to see which of the meetings the floating fans will pick. If we pull this off it'll be a great night, but it'll be a dead rubber if the rebels get off to a good start. But those that can only afford one meeting, might plump for Saturday, even though it'll be bloody freezing.

The rumours were rife tonight about the Sheffield meeting. Most suggestions were that it could/would be ridden at Leicester or Scunny, then someone said came up with a good un, as Sheffield are at Rye on Saturday, why not have a double header. Either way Mr Machin will lose money, i suppose he'll pick the lesser of two evils (if he has to). Once again some good racing tonight, but as allready suggested, it did look as if we didn't really want to win, but that could be doing a disservice to Rye. Probably (and not unexpectedly) the smallest crowd of the season, but nowhere as poor as most had anticipated. The form of Taylor and Rohan is still a big worry with the two finals coming up, really puts the pressure on the four that are riding well.

Sheffield rode on an off night when it suited them earlier in the season, but understandably they dont want a (pointless) loss making meeting against us. Not too sure if Ippo really want this meeting either. The only possible beneift of getting through is, if Newcastle & Berwick get through in the respective cups, then we could have a jolly nice Weekend 27th/28th, that would certainly suit me. Looks like if we're going to get anymore rain, it's due around teatime. If it does go ahead, then lets hope the Lads dont do anything daft, and save themselves for the big Meetings.

But isn't it the truth? I'm sure Ipswich would have ridden the meeting this midweek, but Workington couldn't (wouldn't) put the meeting on.

So we dont end up with the BSPA having to make a stupid ruling. Why not just say to Workington, this meeting has to be raced Tues/Wed this Week, if you cant arrange it then you lose the tie, we all know what the answer will be, and the Sport doesn't look too stupid (again). If this competition had been ridden in June (when it should have been) then we wouldn't be having these problems. And to those that say "but then the League wouldn't be finished", look what happened when we EVENTUALLY got a cut off date for the group Matches. Sheffield & Scunny got called off, so they hastily arranged to ride on an off night the following Week. It could and should have been sorted, but this proves the need for an independent fixture organiser, clubs picking and choosing when they ride, just simply doesn't work.

Most of the lads have been going well recently. I just hope they were saving themselves (and their better machinery) for the more important meetings this Fri/Sat.

Bends 1&2 appeared a bit unpredictable early on, but after that no problem. Cant be many tracks where you can pass inside and outside all night, good stuff!! Only Taylor had an off night, well done to the other 6, lets hope it's enough, it should be.

It's very rare to have a meeting over in 75mins in the Summer Months. It's pretty obvious most promoters couldn't afford the outlay of extra heats. To try and keep everyone happy (sounds impossible in our sport), why not go back to 13 heats, and have a 2nd half. The riders would get paid half price for the extra rides in the 2nd half. That way the promoters would still be paying out roughly the same, the riders would still be earning roughly the same, and those that want a longer evening out would get it.