BigFatDave

Righto, I've got a bit of time up me sleeve - Cricket doesn't start for a little while, aircon's flat chat - 41C today in Mildura - fridge is stocked (I'm just checking that the Pure Blondes are the correct temperature for consumption by internal evaluation - works for me) so I thought I'd better get my thoughts down while they're still fresh in what passes for my mind and before I descend into my usual post-meeting Sunday Arvo stupor. I've got no desire to harp on the early events last night; I reckon I've covered them elsewhere. Suffice it to say that by the end of round 2 and heat 8 the track had settled down a bit and was conducive to the kind of great racing we've become accustomed to at Olympic Park. By this stage it was obvious we were in for an upset result: four of the favourites; Davey, Chris, Justin and Cam had all dropped heats; Davey falling while leading: Chris losing his primary chain when leading on turn four on the final lap and visiting the fence; Cam through what I considered was a pretty harsh exclusion when the track was still playing a major part in proceedings and Justin starting well but going all the way backwards. Ty was looking good as was Cory; Rory & Sweets were tootling along quite nicely; Kozza was not quite as invincible as at Broken Hill and the rest had work to do. We'd lost Mitchell Davey after an altercation with the fence and the rest had serious work to do in order to keep up. Oh, did I forget someone - of course - our two-time World Under-21 Champ Darcy Ward was ON FIRE! I don't know about youse mob but when he's in full flight like last night I'd crawl over broken glass to see him! Round three saw a few interesting developements on the scoreboard: Darcy kept his Mojo working while Chris's fire went out when he got done by Kozza; Ty continued his steady progress; Davey's horror night continued while Kyle Newman came out and blitzed 'em, silencing his detractors and heat twelve saw Cory wreck the U-beaut technicolor tapes when his clutch slipped prior to starter's orders and a magnificent win from Rooboy, which sent the vociferous pro-Rory section of the crowd - Me & Mrs S - into raptures. The Track was really working by now and the confidence that gave the riders was evident as the times got faster and the racing more and more exciting. Round four saw wins to Kozza. and Sam; Chris showing us what he can really do and a thriller between Darcy, Rory and Ty after Darcy fell on the first bend with an all four back re-run then comig pout and smokin' em in the re-run. I think Davey could have been excused for a bit of helmet-hurling by now - nothing was going right for him by this stage of proceedings. The final round saw Davey putting the disappointments of the evening behind him and doing what he does best, blitzing Kozza and Cory; Thanks for that mate. Cam was firing by now and Chris's wretched night concluded with another fall; he seemed to pick up drive while leading in lap 2 on turn four and slid off to meet up with the fence again. By this stage of the series I reckon he'd have had bruises on top of bruises, but to his credit he never gave up and was generous in defeat. Heat 19 saw a thilling four-lap match race between Rory and Kyle - the prize a direct trip to the A Main - needless to say the ensuing Schlein Victory set me & Mrs S off again, while Heat 20 saw Justin - If it wasn't for bad luck he'd have no luck at all - Sedgmen using his local track knowledge to become the only rider on the night to lower Darcy's colours. Geez, this is thirsty work. Time Out!! (Gargle-argle-argle - Burrrrp!) Seconds out, Round Two! B Main time, and Kozza locked up on turn three, bringing a brilliant lay-down from Ty, who sensibly stayed down until the red light came on. Kozza didn't seem too thrilled with his subsequent exclusion but Dave Mills got that one right, I reckon. The ensuing re-run saw Justin streaking away, hotly pursued by Kyle who never gave up hunting his quarry down and finally got him on the fourth turn of the last lap - a ripper pure and simple. Right - we'd finally made it to the sharp end, and to be honest there was a fair bit of fatigue evident in the crowd - a signficant proportion of the Cam Woodward Support Group Team members were about as fatigued as Parrots by this stage of the proceedings, and noisy to boot - Country Boys eh - way past their bedtimes, perhaps? Can't take the pace I reckon - the Speedway Updates crew were fresh as daisies in comparison, if given to talking in tongues, burping and belching and twitching noticeably, but hey, that's Speedway. Darcy cleared out, hotly pursued by Cam, while Rory and Kyle enjoyed their own match race a few yard behind,and that was the way the race continued until Kyle decided to start practising for the 2012 London Olympics Acrobatics section following a coming-together at the head of the main straight by performing seven somersaults and a reverse backflip (with pike) between the start/finish line and turn one - degree of difficulty about 6.4 I reckon - while his bike continued on for another thirty yards or so before noticing it's complete lack of rider and coming to a halt halfway around the bend. Talking of halfway around the bend a heckler in the pro-Cam section decided to pay out on Kyle after he arose - to the cheers of the crowd - and started giving it to him on account of his Pomgolian Parentage and Passport - Kyle's response with a reference to the recent Ashes Tour and the possession of the Little Urn was priceless - Y'all come back Downunder real soon, Kyle! Re-run time and again Cam and Darcy battled it out for all four laps, with Rory content to keep on their hammer and wait for the inevitable fall-out - alas not to be - a well-deserved victory to Darcy; one can only ponder what might have been had he not had a 'mare at Broken Hill. We weren't finished yet, however, as Saturday morphed into Sunday with a run-off between Darcy and Davey to decide 2nd place in the championship - try as he might, the veteran of the field couldn't catch the young Queenslander, and capped off a great night for our Great White Hope - Onya Darcy!! So another Series comes to an end - Chris Holder a worthy champ - AGAIN!! To all who took part - riders , official, merchandisers and fans - a huge THANKYOU from this little black duck - see you next year on the hill. A great post-meeting barby in the clubhouse with special guests including Arthur Sissis' sister gave us Speedway Tragics the chance to thank our heroes in person; alas I couldn't shake Chris's hand; a good squeeze would have put him in Intensive Care - but in case I missed anyone or got your name wrong - I was operating on remote by this stage of the proceedings, thankfully the Automatic Pilot had kicked in, onya George - thanks again.

The best way to start a production line of British Talent is to follow the successful European and to a lesser extent Australian programs and start getting behind them from eight or nine years old. By the time the average young Overseas rider gets to the UK at age sixteen or seventeen he's had six or seven years of organised competition under his belt.

Today's one had PIGS on, FFS! Sorry to boar you, but Spiderweb tried to get in for his chop and offered to extend his years of experience in Makin' Bacon; alas his generous tender(loin) was rejected. He remains a broken, shapeless hunk of brawn. One of his rasher promises I fear. Tusk, tusk.

Yep, still the Sun-bronzed Adonis Brad Pitt Look-a-like.

A bit lubricated after the event as usual, but I made it to the Clubhouse to thank my heroes personally - couldn't shake hands with Chris - we contented ourselves with a low-key High Five - I don't think there's one single piece of him that doesn't ache! Sandie yer sums are all to - erm - how can I put this - well anyhow for starters Ryan S. got two points tonight as first reserve - had to take over from Mitch Davey after he Kummagutza and injured his hand, forcing him to withdraw from the meeting. Incidentally Brock Gates, who rode in place of Taylor Poole, also had a few outings swinging on a Sidecar - not often you see that these days.

502 Bad Gateway The server returned an invalid or incomplete response. Is this Cosmic or what? Just logged on to update the thread for Mildura and I got this message as above - I'm just about to stroll over to the Gateway Tavern for a spot of Lunch with Lunchy - couple of frothy chops oughta do the trick I reckon - Bad Gateway - NEVER! Mildura as usual gets right behind Speedway - a two minute piece on the news last night and plenty of inches in the Sunraysia Daily - Rory is tagged as the South Australian Veteran - makes sure it's right in everyone's line of vision. Anyhow, Spider & Scotland 1314 are going out to the track to bags a spot on the first bend; Lunchy's trying to stuff up me stream-of-consciousness reportage by telling his half-liners; the lads from the room next door in the motel - look out for the Giant Deckchair next time you're in Milly - are in hysterics watching us stumbling around attempting to load the Ute; not so much six characters in search of an author - more like four alcoholics looking for the plot. Ziggy (sportowyfakty) and Wally from Poland are around somewhere; Mick & Barb are in town; the Kirby Clan are recovering from a trip around the Vineyards (read Wineries) and the Pommy Backpackers are on the Rum. Looking good for an educational evening on Turn One. I wonder what colour Nightie Crazy Sue'll be wearing tomorrow morning? PS Updates are here.

Stone the flamin' Crows! Fair Dinkum, icypole, you're spot on! Two countries separated by a common language.

What's the NDL? 1/. Looks like 10 teams - that's seventy spots plus in my reckoning. That's a lot of riders to find, eh? 2/. Already ancient history. 3/. Who's this "many said they shouldnt have been" - are they on the management of the NL or the relevant clubs, or just people flapping their gums on here? 4/. What happened to Buxton? They Won, didn't they, and Newport came second. What are you on about? "examples like this could[and some will say should have]thrown the league into mayhem," - but they didn't, did they? More Gum Flapping. Whatever happens let's hope a few more folks get their backsides Trackside otherwise there won't be any NL to support.

He's a ripper, Iris - but you'd have seen him in Denmark, so you should know.

You of all people should know that that whole episode was down to one nepotistic Official with a chip on his shoulder and an axe to grind against Marcus personally, and because he was in a position of authority he was able to hamstring Marcus's project. We call it MA Queensland, and we have to put up with it, but hopefully not for much longer: reform candidates will be running for the MA Qld Speedway committee this coming AGM. In the Aussie Upcoming dates thread I've mentioned the planned 2011/2012 Australia - England Under 21 Speedway Tests, which will be held anywhere BUT Queensland. Any Anzac Tests in Pomgolia this season?

Nothing surprises me about Little Englanders, Cuz.

Just off out for a night's entertainment in Mildura, Mark - Lookout Sandbar! FB or PM me if you bet the chance.

Still waiting on Tappy's DVD, but in the meantime it's good to hear that Leigh is taking his retirement seriously by competing in Australia's toughest Off-Road event - the Finke Desert race.

No chips, thanks, 21stCH, I'm on a diet - mainly Humble Pie after the Ashes. Would you like some Cheese with your Whine? it's Vintage Australian Cheddar. What leagues are they, montie? You must know more about Aussie Speedway than I do, that's for sure. Rumour's come out of the NL AGM, not the Bumper Fun Book for Bigotted Brits.

If it is it'll be in the X-Rated section, Brynbach! Some very fine examples of in the Downtown Mall & on the Sunraysias buses today; lucky I can't get locked up for thinking, eh? Results from Broke'n 'Ill and standings, courtesy Of Speedway GP: Interesting to note they must have copied the scores from Speedway Updates before your eagle-eyed correspondent managed to get Lunchy to correct his glaring schoolboy error - Robbie Medson actually only scored one point from two outings. Taylor Poole went home after withdrawing from the meeting so we'll have a look around Mildura and see who we can round up for the meeting. I think Darcy's now blown up seven donks so Australia could be looking at a shortage of spare engines. BROKEN HILL HEAT SCORECHART: Davey Watt 13, Chris Holder 13, Kozza Smith 12, Justin Sedgmen 12, Cameron Woodward 10, Rory Schlein 9, Sam Masters 9, Cory Gathercole 8, Tyron Proctor 7, Darcy Ward 7, Kyle Newman 6, Richard Sweetman 5, Taylor Poole 4, Mitchell Davey 2, Arlo Bugeja 2, Ryan Sedgmen 0. Reserve: Robert Medson 2 - Oh, no he didn't!! B Final: Schlein, Woodward, J Sedgmen, Masters. A Final: Holder, Watt, Smith, Schlein. AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER ROUND THREE OF FOUR): 1 Chris Holder (20+20+20) 60, 2 Davey Watt (18+17+18) 53, 3 Rory Schlein (14+15+16) 45, 4 Darcy Ward (15+18+10) 43, 5 Cory Gathercole (16+13+12) 41, 6= Kozza Smith (13+7+17) 37, Cameron Woodward (6+16+15) 37, 8= Justin Sedgmen (12+10+14) 36, Ty Proctor (11+14+11) 36, 10 Sam Masters (9+11+13) 33, 11 Jason Doyle (17+12) 29, 12 Richard Sweetman (10+9+7) 26, 13 Taylor Poole (7+4+6) 17, 14 Kyle Newman (6+9) 15, 14 Arlo Bugeja (4+3+3) 10, 16 Mitchell Davey (3+2+4) 9. PS good photo of me & Darcy Ward at the Under-21s in Brisbane; I'm the one on the left.

More news from Chris Holder. Courtesy of Motorcycling Australia.

A disconcerting rumour Downunder that there'll be no Commonwealth Riders in NL in 2011. If so it's a victory for the Little Englander/anti-Speedway Brigade and opens up more spots for superannuated Poms who can't cut it in PL I suppose.

You forgot cute, Pollyana. Word about down here that a full-scale Under-21 Test Series could be on the cards next seson running under the auspices of the Darren & Sharon Boocock Scholarship; great news after this season's tour was hamstrung by a combination of the 'orrible weather and the dictatorial nepotistic decisions of a deluded Little Australian-driven Queensland MA. The scholarship team is based on giving young up and coming British riders a chance to compete in Australia against the same standard of Australian riders, and should run over about six weeks during December/January, taking in tracks like Gillman, Mildura, Broadford/Undera and Kurri Kurri. Teams will include riders of the quality of Kyle Newman, Kyle Howarth and Josh Auty against young up-and comers rather than established Oz Superstars. OzChamps is looking to run a bit earlier as well with a NSW round already pencilled in for New Year's at Kurri Kurri. Obviously the earlier we get these things sorted the easier it will be for youse mob to plan your Winter escape to the sunshine. I will be available to lead and/or inspire any tour group mad enough to venture Downunder in my traditional role as a Cultural Attache/Enforcer.

Well what a day! Another great episode in the 2011 OzChamps is under our belts as we say cheerio to Broken Hill and G'day to Mildura. We knew it was gonna be hot; "how much?" was the question and the answer was 'you shouldn't have asked!" It's a beaut track - perhaps more suited to long-distance racing - but all the riders I spoke to enjoyed themselves and more important everyone managed to avoid the fence, which could be defined as not quite as soft as regular concrete, which has more give. The controversial 'Three Laps Only' call didn't exactly meet with approval in the stands but there would have been far more mechanical carnage if we'd run four so sadly Referee BJ & co got that right. From the off, when the introductions were performed by our visiting raconteur and Man-about-Speedway Dick Barrie in front of the Commentary Box - miles away from the Spectators - there was a surreal atmosphere about the whole meeting, altho' to be perfectly honest this could have been due to the comestibles already consumed by your intrepid reporter - Peace & Love, Man! A decent crowd turned up to welcome our heroes including some very tasty examples of the opposite sex, especially the Fourex Girls - my thoughts about them? XXXX! The Sidecar supports provided us with welcome relief - and FOUR LAPS!! Doyley was down to ride but when he was unloading his gear he gave the shoulder a tweak and that was it - off to the quacks and out of the series alas - a sad end for him but he'll be back for sure. I hear his bikes are up for sale - they'd be a good score - hardly used! Flyin' Ryan Sedgmen was duly mobilised, but blowing his no 1 donk in the pits didn't exactly help his chances, even tho' it made it easier to mark your program before his races had even started. A bigger workload ensued for our sole reserve Robert Medson when Taylor Poole withdrew after four from three rides including a great opening heat win but Robbie answered the challenge well. Down at the blunt end Mich & Arlo performed admirably as ever without setting the world on fire. Sweets had another disappointing evening - I'm sure the best is yet to come but it didn't turn up at the Hill. Kyle, Cory and Ty all battled well while Darcy had one to forget - try as he might, and he always does, nothing went right for him. Memorable moments from the first half - Kozza on fire along with Justin, and a u-beaut power cut back by Chris to pass Cam Woodward. After the first three rounds of racing everything went pear-shaped for a while; the trackwork produced more problems and we only had one heat before it was Grader racing again. It was neck and neck for about twenty minutes with the Caterpillar without the lights taking it out by a Bullbar then the Caterpllar with the flashing amber light cut across the infield and should have been excluded, in my opinion. From here on in the racing improved 100% - we had thrilling dices, passing, faster and faster times - you name it, it was Speedway, Jim and just as we know it! B Main time loomed all too soon with Sam, Cam, & Justin arguing over which was the best gate while Rory bided his time, took what was left over - Yellow - then proceeded to blast around the outside of turns 1 & 2 in a typical Gating Blinder and ran away with the race! A ripper! The A Main was yet another of the Watt/Holder duels that we're getting accustomed to this series - fantastic entertainment - they should have run SIX laps I reckon! Kozza & Rory had their own dice at the back before Rory decided he enjoyed living more than trying to pass Kozza round the outside and settled for fourth! Thanks to all concerned especially Promoter Gavin Sedgmen, Referee Brendon Gledhill and Guest Announcer Dick Barrie for another one for the memory banks - the only problem with OzChamps 2011 is it's gotta end this weekend - Bring It On!! The Updates crew aka the Coalition for the Bewildered continued the conversation on the balcony of the Black Lion 'til the wee small hours - OMG!

It's designed to improve Bar Sales, Icicle - and judging by the Ginger Baker impersonator behind my Forehead today it seems to have worked a treat.

Think you might have the wrong end of the stick here mate.

All systems go out at the track - a picturesque Bull Ring in the middle of nowhere. Base camp has been established on turn three - we briefly considered turn 4 until we saw the 'Dry Area' sign so we settled for the best view in the house near the back straight bar & dunnies; and now we're back at the Pub recharging our batteries. Doyley is OK and will ride with the assistance of pain-killers; I'd offer him some of mine but they might kill everything else. Reserves are Ryan Sedgmen and Robert Medson. Gates open 5.00 tapes up approx 7.30. Be There or Be Somewhere Else!

Crumpy is fit and focussed - it'd take a brave man to bet against him.

Gotta keep yer fluid levels up, Brynbach! Gave it a trial nudge last night in preparation for STRAYADAY!!

Most NL teams already run five or six.