Fourentee

Ah, you beat me to it! It was a delicately balanced tie before Thorssell's injury, which I feel just swings it the Aces' way now. But that, to me, was purely a racing incident. Thorssell had clearly got the drop on Tungate and I suppose if someone has to go it's the latter -- the leader sets his line -- but I wouldn't have argued with all four back. There's been a lot of to and fro on the forum about cheering when an opposing rider falls. I don't do it personally, finding it a bit distasteful (aren't I the po-faced one?!) but I am able to tell the difference between the panto huzzah which greets a gentle but undignified slide out and the stricken silence which falls immediately when someone has a big 'off'. I suspect most fans are.

Forecast is good from early afternoon on.

Interesting info, thanks for that.

Yes, the usual ethics of working out the way of leading is which team has the more points. :-) Not a problem and thanks for responding.

According to Updates site Workington led briefly after heat two and then were behind or level until the outcome of heat 13, holding on thereafter, so the Glasgow statement would appear to be correct. Or perhaps you thought they were referring to heat winners? Again, Updates gives Workington seven and the Tigers eight. As for Sarjeant, the Speedway Star piece quoted his team manager saying he apologised to the Workington fans, wanted to make it up to the club and offered to ride in every race at Scunthorpe for which he was eligible (on what was clearly a difficult circuit following extensive rain). Seemed a sensible line to take given what happened in the previous meeting. If you can recall what he said in the Derwent Park interview, I'd be interested to know which bits of the story he takes issue with. He has apologised on his Facebook page and in a story on the official website so the general tone seems clear. Cheers. Take your point on Williamson, but it would have meant three successive races for him. Not sure if he would have qualified anyway under top three scorers on programmed rides (do they still have that?).

Well, let's hope you're right!

Yep, fair enough. I would have the Aces down as marginal favourites (innate pessimism, perhaps!) as they seem to go that little bit better at Monmore than Wolves do at the NSS (Wolves needed a tactical ride in each of the away matches, coming up with a win and a second place). But there doesn't appear to be all that much in it either way. Hoping for two full teams and a brace of excellent matches.

Sarjeant and Bowtell named as the Wolves reserve pairing for the second leg.

I recall a couple of Scandinavian visitors of a certain age at Wolves just a few seasons back making a beeline for the pits to get a key autograph. They had one target in mind and were delighted both to get the signature and enjoy an extended chat with their hero -- not the current stars but Alan Grahame, latterly a machine examiner at Monmore. Five years ago Peter Collins was guest of honour at a classic bike show in Shropshire and I saw him approached by a man for an autograph. The two had one of those "and who should I make it out to?" conversations in the display hall and the man turned to indicate, some distance away, a profoundly disabled young man in a wheelchair. PC promptly bowled over, signed, and chatted to the recipient at length. Top bloke.

I suspect we've all been there. Despite being a touch typist I invariably transpose the same two letters in the word 'dyslexia'. Aware of the pitfall and wishing to use the term in a headline one day, I lifted my hands from the keyboard and 'one finger' typed it...neatly transposing two other letters instead. Not my finest hour.

As noted elsewhere, Bewley was tremendous last time out at Monmore and could be a key card if fully fit. Fricke likewise a concern after injury. From a Wolves perspective, the only lingering concern similarly would be over Masters' fitness. Let's hope for two fully-fit sevens and a brilliant two-legged tie. The Aces strike me as marginally better at Monmore than Wolves are at the NSS, but not much in it overall. Game on!

I would hardly regard them as biased towards Poole. Given the seemingly widespread expectation that Swindon might win the first leg quite handily, perhaps it was merely an effort to underline the potential for a close encounter and keep viewing figures up?

I suspect you may be right!

Hmm, but as ray c intimates a couple of posts back, who comes up? It may not be a long queue...

Excellent Steve, that did make me smile. Well done.

Would like to think that is par for the course throughout speedway. I'm sure every track will have its minority element, but at bottom it's a friendly sport. I like chatting to opposing fans, it's a shared experience and always good to have a different perspective.

Honest Alf, the punter's friend!

Agreed on Worrall. Masters admitted after Monday's match that he was sore and had probably made his return a little too soon. However, presumably Blunsdon's wide open spaces will be a little easier on his collarbone than Monmore's tight turns, so we will see. R/R for Schlein, I fear, will be the problem for Wolves here but I guess that's the trade-off for managing to field in Worrall a guest who, at this track, is potentially an improvement on the regular team member. In passing one has to doff the hat to Swindon for this extraordinary run of victories which surely the most fervent of their supporters could not have anticipated at the start of the season. Lunna, sadly, out for the season with broken shoulder and two broken bones to the back.

Agreed. I recall Wolves riding at Belle Vue and Coventry on the same day some years ago (think there was an odd number of teams in the league that year and agreeing to both matches meant all teams had a home fixture over the course of a Bank Holiday weekend) and it being something of a struggle. And that's considerably less mileage than the Aces are racking up today.

Well, they are certainly in form and currently top the table. Which team would you expect to win?

Carr was, indeed, exceptional; Bacon also very good although helped repeatedly by the ref's non-intervention over his rolling starts while I suspect that JPB merely found life a bit stickier in traffic than in fresh air. That's just track craft and at his tender age he's got plenty of years to get that under his belt. Exceptional progress already. An entertaining night all round though Cradley will be kicking themselves for all the points lost needlessly.

There's an alarming stat! Four near-misses, claiming a point on each occasion, but you're right. As far as the match goes, I'm with Beowulf. Given Poole's record, it really should be an away win but it's all too easy to mount a convincing argument against that happening.

Yep. If he's interested in Britain and Matt Ford (or any other promoter) reckons he's kicked on and is good value for his average, then clearly there's a deal to be done. It's obviously particularly incumbent on promoters to spot these bargains given that the sport runs with ceilings on team building. How committed to Britain Woryna (or any other of his countrymen) is permitted to be by the Polish authorities is, of course, potentially another matter altogether. And DC2's reservations expressed above on short-termism will certainly chime with some posters. But as to Woryna's average, FWIW no quibbles from me.

Fair point. Perhaps there's a cumulative effect with the home form. So much of this sport seems to be based on confidence.

That's the most curious aspect of it all. Perhaps the run of home defeats has instilled a lack of confidence among the riders concerning their own circuit, where away from home they tackle the track on its merits.