lucifer sam

HOLUB SET FOR EDDIE WRIGHT RACEWAY DEBUT FLUIDAIR POWER Scunthorpe Scorpions, supported by Henderson Insurance, will give a home debut to new signing Zdenek Holub at the Eddie Wright Raceway on Friday evening (7.30pm), as they look to record their third victory of the season over the Newcastle Diamonds. The highly-rated 19-year-old Czech International will make his first appearance for the club a day earlier, at local rivals Sheffield on Thursday. Holub comes in at No 1, in place of the injured Josh Auty. Scunthorpe are due to unveil another new signing next Monday, who will replace Ben Wilson, another Scorpion ruled out for the rest of the season through injury. Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey says: “It was far from easy to find a replacement for the rest of the season for Josh, but I think we’ve landed on our feet with Zdenek. “King’s Lynn promoter Buster Chapman can’t speak highly enough of him, and I think he’s going to be a terrific signing. “We need to catch the teams in front of us, and gaining a victory over Newcastle to take the three points on offer will help us close up the gap. “We want to climb off the bottom of the Premier League table before the end of the season. “Unfortunately, we’d had an enforced three week break in home fixtures. The previous home meetings against Peterborough and Ipswich were full of great racing and incident in front of improved crowds, and I hope everyone who came on those nights will come back. “The Diamonds will prove a stiff test, especially with an old friend of ours, Tero Aarnio, as a recent addition to their line-up, and I’m sure another cracking night of action is ahead at the Eddie Wright Raceway.” Friday marks Newcastle’s first fixture since Lewis Kerr’s dreadful accident in the Premier League Fours at Peterborough on Sunday. Some terrific news is that Kerr is now out of the induced coma and is breathing for himself, but doctors has stressed it is still a ‘very serious situation’ and that he remains in critical care. Godfrey adds: “I was at Peterborough and it was extremely upsetting, to say the least. Absolutely no blame could be attached to anyone or anything because it was a pure racing accident. “When something like this happens, it puts a lot of other things into perspective. It’s always terrific how the whole speedway world pulls together at moments like these. Everyone at Scunthorpe Speedway passes on their best wishes to Lewis and his family, and he’s hoping for some more positive news very soon.” A reminder of the special promotion, which will last to the end of the 2015 season, which sees all accompanied children under the age of 16 admitted for free to home Scorpions' meetings. “We’re always looking to attract more younger fans”, says Godfrey. “And this offer is part of that. It’s the school holidays, and if you’re a parent, I can’t think of a better way than keeping your kids entertained on a Friday evening than bringing them along here!” There are 24 heats of action in total on Friday, with a nine-race second half including a six-heat Midland Development League match between Scunthorpe & Coventry. Admission prices for Friday: Adult: £15.00 Student/OAP: £13.00 Child (16 – 17): £5.00 Child (0 – 15) Free (accompanied by paying adult) Family Ticket £35 (2 adults, 2 Children 16-17) Match Programme: £1.00 Expected teams for Friday: FluidAir Power Scunthorpe Scorpions, supported by Henderson Insurance: 1. Zdenek Holub, 2. Alex Davies, 3. Theo Pijper, 4. Carl Wilkinson, 5. Ryan Douglas, 6. Josh Bates (guest for Ben Wilson), 7. Nike Lunna. Newcastle Diamonds: 1. Steve Worrall, 2. Rider replacement for Lewis Kerr, 3. Richard Hall (guest for Christian Henry), 4. Anton Rosen, 5. Ludvig Lindgren, 6. Simon Nielsen, 7. Tero Aarnio. Midland Development League teams: Scunthorpe Stags: 1. Jack Parkinson-Blackburn, 2. Stephen Whitehouse, 3. Jamie Halder, 4. Luke Whitehead. Coventry Storm: 1. TBC, 2. Mitchell Beckett, 3. Robert Parker, 4. Kyle Roberts.

So Glasgow are using R/R for the rider fourth in their averages instead of using R/R for the rider fourth in their averages. How is that "better"? All the best Rob

I believe the Scotsman is referring to the fact that this race will determine 13th to 16th positions. All the best Rob

Just a bit of poetic licence All the best Rob

News of new signing here: http://scunthorpescorpions.co/?p=3964 All the best Rob

First signing to be announced today at noon (or as close I can make it to then!) here: http://scunthorpescorpions.co/ All the best Rob

Although I'm old-fashioned and prefer books to e-books, I'd glad this is now available again, after the print version sold out, and recommend it to anyone who didn't get the hard copy. Tony Mac gets the tone perfect, without either sympathising with or condemning Kenny Carter. It unfolds as a horror story, but it's a book that is impossible to put down once you've starting reading. All the best Rob

Er, well I was at the few last meetings of 2014, and RG certainly didn't say that! All the best Rob

Oh well, decided not to chance it, Ipswich is a three-hour journey from here and a long way if it's raining. Good luck to the Scorps. We're the outsiders tonight, but I'd love it if the above somewhat smug words of Baldyman ended up rammed down his throat. All the best Rob

Ref had two decisions to make all night (Heats 8 & 12) and got both wrong. Wright should have gone in Heat 8 and Starke should have gone in Heat 12. Great to see so many people there last night. Meeting was OK (racing really only got going after the interval, although Heat 1 was an intriguing battle), but the large crowd created a good atmosphere. All the best Rob

AJ is as dull as ditchwater and been given too many permanent wildcard entries already. He adds nothing to the GP series. All the best Rob

No, it's not, it's just nothing has happened that can be publicised. I believe there is quite a lot happening behind the scenes. Winning the court case WAS a major step, but was by no means the final one. There was always likely to be a frustrating wait following that. I think the last thing that SOS Chairman Ian Swayer advised was to keep writing letters to Oxford City Council, backing the return to speedway and greyhounds to the stadium, because those letters do make a genuine difference. All the best Rob

Not sure it's fair to call the six Poles in 1970 "average". They provided the World No 2 and World No 3 that year. And the Pole who qualified "fifth" by the criteria the Poles used in 1973.... well, he only went and won the whole darned thing. But yes, I agree, the old qualification system used to be rather strange at times. At that one point around 1982-1984, the Americans probably had 5 or 6 of the best 16 riders in the world, and yet only four could make it out of the American Final into one of the quarter-finals (the Overseas Final). And Bomber is currently 11th. Yep, Hampel is injured, I'll give you that one, but he's still ahead of Batch, THJ and KK. Here's to Bomber finishing in the top three of the challenge again this year. All the best Rob

Agreed - much rather see Antonio in the series than AJ, Freddie or THJ, he adds far more value. All the best Rob

Yes, he transferred over in the year in question (1950). So by the end of 1950, one of the ten riders in the list was holding down a position with the mighty Wembley Lions. It's worth pointing out as well, that Jack Young (a second division rider) headed the qualifiers into the World Final in 1950. (Of course, in 1951, he was World Champion while still with Edinburgh). All the best Rob

You've never heard of Alan "Whacker" Hunt, "The White Ghost" Ken Le Breton, the "Black Prince" Arthur Forrest, or one of Scotland's greatest-ever riders, Tommy Miller? All legendary characters, every single one of them. All the best Rob

To get back to more important matters, I think the second division was strongest in 1950. The top ten in the averages that year were: 1 Jack Young Edinburgh 2 Arthur Forrest Halifax 3 Alan Hunt Cradley Heath 4 Ken Le Breton Ashfield 5 Phil Clarke Norwich 6 Derick Close Newcastle 7 Bob Oakley Southampton 8 Tommy Miller Glasgow 9 Pete Lansdale Plymouth 10 Bob Leverenz Norwich Those riders were already genuine superstars at that point – not just stars of the future. All the best Rob

Meeting rained off. All the best Rob

Been trying to find out for you, but no news as yet. No confirmed guest for Ben Wilson as yet either. Should have something more concrete by the morning. All the best Rob

Rohan Tungate banned for 21 days starting tomorrow according to Mike Bacon on twitter. All the best Rob

Graham Reeve must be referring to whether Tungate’s actions were deliberate or not (i.e. did he deliberately crash into Josh, or simply mean to shower him in shale). That he opened up the throttle and flicked out the back wheel are quite obvious from the video. This was what Rohan Tungate wrote on Twitter: “Regarding tonight’s incident with Josh Auty. It was not intentional, I was racing to the line with Alex Davies. We both raced past the line and going into turns 1 & 2. Josh had shut the throttle off and I was unable to avoid him. Most riders will understand that if shut the throttle off straight after the finish line it will be more dangerous, I hope this clears things up and I hope Josh is OK”. That makes no mention of Tungate flicking out the back wheel to shower Auty in shale, plus was he really racing to the line against Alex Davies? Doesn’t look that close to me. If he told the referee the same as he wrote on Twitter, then he was being very economical with the truth. Did Tungate tell Peter Clarke that he flicked out his back wheel or not? Or did he come up with the same story as is on Twitter? I sincerely hope that Rohan Tungate came clean and didn’t tell any porkies to the referee. All the best Rob

Interesting. If Rohan Tungate told the referee the same as he posted on his Twitter account afterwards, then it does contradict the video footage. All the best Rob

Er, this was a speedway meeting, not Jackanory corner. Anyone who has read Tungate's Jackanory story and then watched the video, will have noticed a distinct difference between fiction and reality. Tungate was at best, being very, very economical with the truth; at worst, he was intentionally trying to deceive. Auty is right out wide, all these stuff about Tungate not being able to avoid him is nonsense. Tungate couldn't avoid a rider right out by the fence on the exit of the second bend on the slow-down lap??? No, that's the stuff of fiction. Let's face facts, he headed out there intentionally. Tungate could be done simply because his Twitter statement does not resemble the video evidence. He chose to tell less than 100% of the truth and the question has to be: why? All the best Rob

And that's the exact point. To all those who say there is "no intent" - why did Tungate open the throttle back up? You can even hear that on the video. That was intentional. His action was to open the throttle and flick the back wheel towards Auty. The consequence was that he hit Auty, caused Auty to fall and caused an injury to Auty. Actions have consequences, and that's why Tungate should be punished and receive a ban. All the best Rob

Yes. Matt Williamson was used earlier in the season, when he wasn't in a declared 1-7. All the best Rob