CUFC_Brummie

Good win last night, known fact that Drury likes the track reasonably wet when we face anyone half decent this year so the downpour an hour before certainly aided us and helped us have the meeting wrapped up after 10 heats. JPB exemplary in his first 3 rides, Hall is going to score a lot of points for Cradley, Carr rode well and bar a rather strange looking second ride Hampshire was in great form again, if he can get his bike to be reliable for 20 laps a meeting then he's only going to get better. Tough night for Cupitt who must've had a magnet in his bike drawing him towards the first air fence all night, but he had a very good second place in there as well and he's done enough for us this season to prove it was an off night. Mountain was excellent for Mildenhall, Halsey got better as it went on, Jenkins didn't impose himself too much on the meeting but still a good return for a 16 year old riding at #4, and Armstrong had an absolute nightmare. If the track had been dry from the off they may have got a point, but suspect we took our foot a bit off the gas near the end as well. Very important win, hopefully we can keep it respctable and injury free on Friday before three critical meetings in 4 days starting Sunday.

Hall is a good guest for Mason and RR shouldn't hurt us so fancy our chances, and boy do we need to win, big meeting. We've got a pretty tough run in where you only really look at the Buxton meeting of being one where you'd be very confident of winning, dropping any points to Mildenhall, Cradley or Kent in our meetings against them could be very costly with Friday as probably a write-off and then two tricky meetings in the reverse vs BV and the trip to Plymouth. Kent have certainly found some form, Mildenhall have plenty of meetings in hand, and Hall should improve Cradley although you still can't help but feel they'll miss out at reserve, but it's going to be close. Despite tending to agree with the opinion of whoever gets 4th will probably get a bit of a roasting in the semi-final, I'd still like to see us in it just in case we don't end up running next year...... Very much looking forward to seeing Jordan Jenkins tomorrow for the first time, hopefully he has a quiet night though. 49-41 Birmingham.

Magnificent.

What's happened to Taylor Hampshire? Easy home win as per our visit to Lakeside last week.

Well done Kent for rearranging for us to help get a full strength Aces team down, home vs BV now August 23rd, Kent August 6th.

September 20th looks like the only option for a full strength meeting, there's still two more NL meetings to run after that date (IOW v Cradley and BV v Eastbourne which could both potentially influence the positions of the top 4) so should work even if it means a long gap between meetings unless we have any more rain offs. Only other option would be staging it on a Sunday but then it gets even more complicated with PL double ups.

They were both very impressive on Friday, Edwards especially, I've no doubt they'll get a spot in the NL (Lakeside if they're still in it) as soon as they're eligible.

Meeting off.

Good to hear, just need a bit of luck with the rain now and we should be in for a cracker!

So two guests and R/R for Belle Vue's heatleaders which is a real shame, with the forecast looking dodgy that might make me think twice about trekking up tomorrow but we'll see how it goes. In fairness to Drury's rational on not having any open dates on the fixture list it looks believable, the Aces ride a lot of Wednesday's, although we could've switched it with the Kent fixture and then not had any clashes. Forecast for Poole looks atrocious, if that gets called early I hope Belle Vue are allowed to track Bewley and Smith. If it goes ahead as it is, you'd hope we now have the edge, whilst Ayres and Davey are no slouches around Perry Barr, there's no doubt that Bewley is a significant upgrade on Bewley and that R/R for Smith is weaker too. Great opportunity for 3 points.

Wembley's roof only retracts over the stands, not over the pitch. There's absolutely no reason for BSI to rock the boat with Cardiff, the crowd is consistent, it's the second biggest in the series by some considerable margin, and you can guarantee it'll be on every year, absolutely no reason at all to try and usurp it.

God I hate Lakeside, awful. Meeting was over after heat 2 when Hampshire threw it into the fence on bend 2 having been well ahead, his bike then proceeding to be a smokey pile of garbage for the rest of the night as a consequence from the looks of it. A couple of horrendous jump starts called on Carr and Bacon yet again (although Carr did legitimately jump one, but still came from 3rd to 1st) didn't help our cause, but Hurry and Morley in particular were outstanding for the Hammers and the 15 point gap no surprise. On the plus side I had a pleasant evening standing with a Lakeside fan by the start line who was a very nice gentleman, and despite the fact I won't be home until 1am I do get a lie in tomorrow, but other than that I am thoroughly glad to see the back of Lakeside for another year!

All the best Zach, terrible luck.

I've made no secret of my disdain for the Lakeside track in the past and I was hoping I would never have to visit again after our drop down to the NL, but here we are, and as one of the easier NL tracks for me to get to I suppose I'd better make an effort, although looking at the weather forecast that might put pay to that idea as I'll have to make an early call on whether to commit or not. As per usual around here I just hope we don't embarrass ourselves, keep it competitive, and maybe give ourselves a sniff of a point going into the last couple of heats. I'd hope fitness permitting that Hampshire can go to town at reserve, and based on Laurence's home record so far Cupitt should hopefully have the better of him at #2. Carr had a decent meeting at Eastbourne this season which you'd like to think is a good omen, JPB is flying, but ultimately our guys look like they have very little experience around Lakeside and with this track at this level, coupled with the strong top 4 the Hammers have regardless of that, pretty much writes you off before you've even started. Should be a comfortable home win.

Why not stick in an extra 10 heats and let anyone have a go? It's not about number of heats, it's about the quality of what's run. It's 2017 not 1967, the public barely care about professional speedway let alone second halves, a few extra laps from kids isn't going to entice anyone in. People are interested in the main event, that's it. There's no harm in second halves for MDL/youngsters to go around, but it ain't solving any fundamental problems.

I'd have thought he has to count as a rider, otherwise you could potentially field no riders and concede a 5-0 rather than field one and risk an 8-1. Intention is probably that, it's just worded poorly like a lot of the rule book.

Terrible accident, hope he's alright.

As long as they're frequent (every 2 weeks) yes, and maybe it would mean the season could be run April-September and get rid of the meetings in March and October which do the sport absolutely no favours at all because the weather is still usually both cold and wet.

Justice.

Scrap this joker lark for the love of God.

Well I didn't see that coming, clearly overestimated the ability of Cradley's reserves and Ayres and Harris were extremely underwhelming compared with the challenge match at the start of the season. The track was very heavily watered and having read Tom Perry's programme notes I've no doubt that was a tatical ploy from Mr. Drury, it created a poor night of racing that against any other team I'd be pretty unhappy about, but on this occasion I'll let it slide..... Brummies made the gates, stayed on the bike and avoided last places though, same for both sides, excellent job throughout the team, big win.

Should be a cracker this, Cradley have the edge slightly with the heatleaders but Tom Bacon at 4 is massive for us. Roberts is undoubtedly the weakest of the reserves so Hampshire will need to have a good meeting to cover off two decent ones for Cradley. Heart says 46-44 Brummies, head says 46-44 Cradley.

Still on here - http://uk.eurosportplayer.com/tvschedule.shtml

Well roles reversed tonight, well ridden Mr. Parkinson-Blackburn, hopefully a significant night in your development. Another promising outing for Hampshire too, damage done for the Brummies last night though.

Ah, well buckle up kid, good learning curve this!