Lewis

Rob Godfrey interviewed in the local rag is hoping to have the team finalised next week, all going well. Some clues given - Josh Auty to be #3 in the averages & Douglas at reserve mmmmm A bit like Soduko this LOL 1. ? 2. ? 3. Josh Auty 7.24 4. ? 5. ? 6. Ryan Douglas 5.03 7. ? So I think #4 & #5 will around the 5-6 pt mark, with #7 being a possible 3 pointer..... Really haven't got the foggiest , wonder if Rob is on the wind up?

Number 1 - 7.89 Josh Auty 7.24 David Howe 6.34 Thomas Jorgenson 6.15 Ryan Douglas 5.03 Lewis Blackbird 4.93 Palm Toft 4.92 Total 42.5

"but I am sure they will be back with their orignal teams again next season"

Will have another go now the season has finished, assuming 42.5 points limit for the PL. Hope Ashley Birks gets well soon but would be suprised to see him fit for the start of the season, so my apologies Ash, if your fit then I would choose different New Rider 7.78 PL or 4.66 EL (Thorssell / Mellgren / Summers / Fredrik Engman 7.0 ass/ Sam Masters) Josh Auty 7.24 - Josh is much better rider than this average & I was suprised to see it so low, can easily push that upto 8.0 David Howe 6.34 - An injury ranaged 2013, very low average, Mr.Scunthorpe Thomas Jorgenson 6.15 - Suffered early doors in 2013 but is better than this, would expect him to push on now. Ryan Douglas 5.03 - After a mid season tune up became our ace in the pack. Lewis Blackird 4.93 - Just gets better all the time, although 26 years old, its only his 2nd full speedway season. Stefan Nielsen 4.70 - Showed at Somerset what he can do, a Scunthorpe asset. total 42.5 If we could get these riders in (Jensen/Summers/Wright), it would be great but I am sure they will be back with their orignal teams again next season Michel Bech Jensen 8.52 Aaron Summers 7.14 David Howe 6.34 Thomas Jorgenson 6.15 Ryan Douglas 5.03 Lewis Blackird 4.93 Charles Wright 4.30 total 42.41 Still big question marks over Ash birks being fit for part of 2014 & will Josh Auty still be doubling up? Do we need a big hitting number 1 (8.5-9.5 pts) like Edinburgh / Somerset / Ipswich / Newcastle, seems to be the way for a successful league position, would Josh Auty make that in 2014? I dont think Klindt is the answer though, he is so unpredictable, if he doesnt gate he often finishes last. Your thoughts?

Enjoyed this meeting, good show early on from Doolan, Wells & Compton for Sheffield & the Scunthorpe reserves were awesome. Klindt got better in his last heat & rider of the night, before that he was very poor. Thought Koppe & Maasen were awful, Albin was competetive but didnt have any pace to challenge the leaders, mad rider though & good to watch. Auty won the rider of the night with a class pass on Klindt but yet again is an enigma during the match, cant seem to win a heat. has struggled with this consistently throughout the season, very steady though, gets his 7-8 pts but doesnt often threaten to get 10-12 pts like to me he should as a #1. Thoughts on the match anybody?

Hopefully Sheffield can find a proper number one for the re-arranged fixture, which is now scheduld for Sunday 29th September. Glad they cancelled early, think the crowd would have been affected by uncertainty when there is a chance of a rain-off.

Interesting article from Scunthorpe promoter Rob Godfrey in the local paper.... http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/Scunthorpe-Scorpions-team-plans-hold-Godfrey/story-19781730-detail/story.html

I said often, not always.

Think the point is though that the reserve often getting 7 rides are ringers on low averages, especially at the start of the season. Not a lot you can do about it though. I do think though it is taking the proverbial when these reserves are then used for guest bookings on ridiculously low averages. Although I think the rolling average should remain, possibly guest averages only, should be from there last 12 matches, to reflect current form.

I dont thnk Scunny have that many assets, if you remember we lost 3 fifteen year olds before they were elegible to other clubs, if not the reason then definietely one of the nails in the coffin for the demise of Scunnies NL team. A few years back we didnt get a penny for Woffy as at that time CL clubs couldnt have assets, also Auty signed up for Coventry about 2-3 seasons before he had a ride for them. All Scunthorpes legitimate assets have ridden for them, now that is the rule which needs changing with EL clubs able to pick up assets who may not even have seen their track. I can understand the youngsters though, they need money for machinary etc & where is the money...

I'm not a fan & really dont see the point in the home team being able to use them, they already have home track advantage.

I agree, last season against Scunthorpe, he talked virtually for the full match! Nearly all waffle, managed to filter him out after a few heats, thank god!

Hi Montie, just took them form the BSPA greensheets, probably wrong, you have any proper ones?

Josh Auty 7.93 David Howe 7.23 Ashley Birks 6.98 Thomas Jorgenson 6.89 Ryan Douglas 3.79 Lewis Blackbird 3.64 New Rider upto 6.04 Total 42.5 As for new rider's.... & please these are riders which will fit not which will necessarily be at the EWR Tyson Nelson 5.99 MP Toft (with better bikes!) 5.34 Cameron Heeps 5.66 Mason Campton (not sure of hs CMA, just under 5.0 if I remember correctly. Max Frike 6.0

Glad to hear that David, hoping you get well soon and rediscover your mojo

Find it hard to believe somebody would wish a rider to crash and get hurt, considering there was only one fall all night? Doesnt make sense at all. I do remember saying myself though, I hope summers has an EF on the line of heat 15, completely different context I know, maybe that is what the person meant, that they wanted Scunny to get a win rather than a rider get hurt. To be honest I think commenting about a single person making that statement is scaremongering, malicous and completely disrespectful to the 99.99% of Scunny fans. Be a bit like me saying the same thing about any fan, doesnt even need any proof, but tars everybody with the same brush. A crap post ashdad and complete nonsense.

Enjoyed the meeting, we were the 2 scunny fans in the temporary stand having the craic with 3 or 4 redcar fans, really good laugh I think Douglas was wrongly excluded in heat 12, it was clearly wrong, at worst should have been all 4 back but hey Scunny had a tactical earlier so I think to gain a point was a fair result. Summers looked good, somebody said he had one of Harris's engines, whoever's it was he could have rode 15 heats & never been beaten, top class. Well Auty & Howe are suprisingly not performing at all, Auty is averaging less than 6 & Howe less than 4 in the most recent four meetings, not good enough for your top two, hope they can rediscover some form soon, although I will support them no matter what, would be especially good if Howe can get his confidence back before the end of the season ready for next year. Like others I was really impressed with Klindt, Jorgenson & Douglas. Anyway it was a great meeting & well done Redcar, hope you have a successful end to the season in the playoffs.

First of all best wishes on a speedy recovery to Ricky. In response to your question & hopefully to put this discussion to bed...I was in the stand where 1 (one) person said something derogatory, he was quckly shouted at by at least 10 people, all of them probably Scunthorpe fans. Theres always one person who doesnt think before speaking.

I think RG does a fantastic job on the Mic, he tells it how it is, has a laugh, what more can you ask for?

First of all congratulations to the rebels, they were in great form, with every single rider battling for every single point. Look like top 4 this year along with Newcastle, Edinburgh & Worky. Now for Scunthorpe, I dont really know where too start! They were poor, very poor, seems like its the same every week but todays result has really hammered it home. Auty, had 2 good wins today, was blocked off by Howe at every turn in his last ride. Overall is doing okay but is just not clicking for some reason, he should be up there with Doyle & Cook. Howe; Looks a world beater one minute & then gets beat easily? A real conundrum. Should be scoring 10+ at home and is getting 7 from 6 rides? Birks; RIding to his potential, nothing to say about Ashley either way. Toft; Where is the Toft from last season? No power and when he does trap he ends up falling off, arguably cost us a a few points this season, he should be the man to stick a point or two on his average, at the moment is riding with confidence but poor bikes. Blackbird; Riding better than the 2 points he got today. Douglas; Had a good day today, is this where he pushes on? I really hope so because I was seriously thinking he should be binned as soon as he gets an average. The season is just about screwed up already for the Scorps with no Morris, irving or Masters waiting in the wings to take a place. We pretty much blew it from the off after Irving retired with Bates & Douglas, a very poor reserve pairing coupled with the main body being inconsistent. We had Armstrong last year, Douglas this... Darcy Wards dont come about very often, I really hope we stop looking for them. Three teams struggling this year; Scunny, Glasgow & Sheffield - you will see a common denominator at reserve! How to rescue this season? I dont know how to get Auty / Howe winning consitently and being feared at home but probably Toft needs a last throw of the dice with his engine tuning up. Give Douglas a few more rides & if he doesnt start reaching a 4 pt average, strengthen the team. To not win the title is normal for the defending champs after having to reduce the team average but to draw / lose at home once is bad, multiple times is unforgivable! Rob looked & sounded so annoyed today, I really hope he sticks with it, gives them a kick up the backside and gets them firing again.

Hoping for a comfortable Scunthorpe win but my head tells me this will be close, need Auty, Howe, Birks & MPT firing together or we will be in big trouble. Initially thought this would be a hammering by the rebels but after tonights performance at Newcastle I am more optomistic... Scorpions to win by 4 pts.

Well I didnt expect us to get anything tonight but another abject performance from a few of the scorps, think thats 11 meetings now and still waiting for some form. I dont know the answer to get us back on track but our #1 & #2 + 1 reserve scoring poorly away is getting very regular. Wish that Rob had sorted out Tofty's bike & not Douglas's, last season when he got his bike tuned he was riding like a heat leader. Cant see us getting anything from newcastle, just hope its a good meeting and all stay safe.

Wow another load of ringers drafted in for Worky! FGS your riding Glasgow, not Swindon! This is ridiculous. If your averages are calculated for the last 38 meetings, then IMO guests should be calculated over the last 12 meetings to show current form and stop this nonsense.

I went last year & thought the stadium, facitilies, fans were great BUT the track shape was wrong, you could see it immediately and it ruined the meeting, hence this year no visit from me & I wont go back until its sorted. Seems that at many tracks, the tractors are out way too often, I dont know what happened at Leicester vs Redcar as I wasnt there but after visiting Sheffield , Worky, Berwick etc it amazes me that the local fans even put up with it. IMO Unless conditions are dangerous, then grading should only be allowed after every 4 heats.

Sidney its not about Toft or Birks being a reserve standard, its a matter of building your team to your best advantage to win, if that means having a 5-6 ptr at reserve all the better, the strong reserve is then available to take rides for any occurence e.g. Tapes infringements, machinary failure, loss of form, injury etc with the two we have your not far off gauranteed a 4th place . With 9.5 pts to play with, Douglas & Bates where not the best choice at all. I will support these two at the matches I watch as always but that doesnt mean I cant say on here that they are not good enough (yet), I sincerely hope they do improve, I was impressed with Bates in his last ride, right up with the back wheel of the Ippo riders but still a last place. I wouldnt like us to go the full season training our reserves to be 3 pointers when nobody else is doing it, I have patience but not forever, we've been through this before with many reserves given way too long. How long is that? I dont know but if your not scoring more than 3 points at home after 10-12 matches then its enough.. like I said I hope they both make it. As for your top five not clicking yet statement, you are right they are not there yet but last nights draw was down to the reserves; 4 pts for our reserves & 16 pts for the Ipswich reserves, okay they are probably one of if not the strongest reserve pairing in the league.