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I am pretty sure that I cannot be the only one who had noticed the quite superb irony that the three tracks treated so shamefully as regards race nights have all made the play offs

I keep shouting this from the rooftops mate..

Not up to the high standard of meetings I have seen at Workington this season but the fact that it went ahead at all is commendable, particularly after it chucked it down about an hour before the start. Might have been a few wobbly moments but, in reality, the Comets always looked like winning against a Peterborough team that didn't seem that interested. Huge credit to all the riders, though, for getting on with it without complaint. I am sure that we can all think of some that would have voiced opinions in no uncertain terms. The speed at which the meeting was run was all important, because just after heat 15 it absolutely threw it down, and did so several times on the way back. Again, credit to all concerned. I thought Steve Whitehead overstated it a bit but there's no doubt that Workington have been treated pretty shabbily this season by both the BSPA and other championship teams. For that reason, and the fact that they a brilliant little club, its fantastic to see them make it to the play offs

Loving shovvys meltdown.

Congrats to all concerned,but it does make you wonder why this effort to get the meeting on is not replicated sometimes in the middle of the season.Everybody knew it was last chance salon for both Teams,and the attitude was different from riders(or were they told to get on with it).The Posponed Berwick match earlier in the season the sun was out 1/2 hour after it was called off.Double standard from Promotions and Riders IMO .Well done to the Bandits.

Withholding his services my arse. Belle Vue are cheating to strengthen after the 15th August. Simple as that. If a rider withholds his services after 15th August its r/r for top 5 and if a reserve they should have to go with 6. Simple as that.

Might be an idea to take some to Rye tonight!

ASSETS are a figment of promoters' imagination

Congratulations in the following order:- 1. To the Bandits who adapted to the conditions right away & gave the home side a gating lesson over the first seven heats to build up a 16 points lead which was sufficient to ensure a final 6 point victory, despite being unable to win another heat over the remaining eight. 2. To the ref & the riders of both sides who were prepared to delay the start till 8 pm and then served up some decent races, including a memorable heat 13 contest. . Special mention to ref Willie Dishington who kept proceedings running smoothly tonight, and also at Ashfield on Tuesday, completing both meeting in under one & half hours 3. And last, but not least, to the track staff who incredibly managed to produce a decent racing strip after more than 12 hours of intermittent heavy rain beforehand, culminating in another deluge just before seven.The fact that they salvaged an apparently lost cause in less than an hour, was I believe, appreciated by those present and at least offers the Bandits the opportunity to stay in the hunt for a Play_Off place.

Deluded

Think Ged Rathbone should pay the Newcastle fans the £8 for having to watch Peterborough at the moment

Not so. Many websites would use the word "they" or "the" (name of club) so as to maintain objectivity (if you check you will find that this is more often the case). Different if a person is being quoted within "inverted commas" and only then the word "we" will appear, but not in the words of the reporter which will be "they" or "the" (name of club). The point Bagpuss seemed to touch upon was that Mr Hunter tends to present an all too partisan and personalised approach. While in some ways there's not much wrong with being passionate etc and you know what you will get with Mike (I for one reckon he is an honest chap that tells it as he sees it), however it is also appropriate (many would say more appropriate) to present a less overtly partisan manner and instead a more objective and (some would say) a more professional manner. Part of it may also be who is the intended audience, it seems Mike is only speaking to the Monarchs faithful, while it appears other sites have a wider audience in mind, and yes on checking you will find that the latter approach is more common, including the website of a club further west and whether you love them or loathe them they are reckoned to be clued up on the media side of things.

Stop talking out of your arse!

At Workington the biggest low, the sickening crash that ended Dan Bewleys season. The high........hopefully it’s still to come!!

What was it Graham Muncie said on Rock Sport Radio this week "Who remembers who won the KO Cup it is all about the league" Ha Ha

It seems to me some posters on this forum should tell their club to practice what they preach, with regards to the club concerned who have historically bent the rules season after season.

Mr hunter takes great delight that the bandits only took 3 points and not 4 , is he the most biast reporter the sport has ?

A big well done to the track staff for ensuring the meeting went ahead after all the rain during the past couple of days, and to all the riders from both sides for giving it a go. Hopefully no-one picked up any serious injuries. Into the play offs we go then, and still in 2 cup competitions - not too shabby for a TEAM that many had written off before the season had started and who have had to overcome a number of obstacles put before them this year. It would be nice to get Ty back from injury which would give us a fighting chance against anyone. Bring em on!

Come on , wake up and smell the coffee , there is major difference, Danny Phillips wanted to ride while mark Riss doesn't want to ride , so he is effectively withholding services so Ipswich are entitled to a facility.

Common decency would let them in full stop for just their ticket Anyone prepared to make 2nd trip of that distance deserves to see Peterborough for free Wouldnt be too hard to sort out who was genuine

Common sense would surely be to let Newcastle fans use their tickets and pay the difference.

Shame that.

I was being polite before his fan club come defending him

Ully needs to pack it in for the season.

It baffles me how Danny Gappmaier has managed to maintain his team place. Shouldn’t be anywhere near that side next year

Well done to the bandits. If ever a team deserved to be in the play offs it is you but alas it is not to be. A great weekend to savour and something that can carry you through the winter months. You did the town of Berwick proud and hopefully next year you can go one step further.

Well done Berwick. PS Why wasn't Drew Kemp in Heat 14?

Crap racing.

Floodgate?

Eeriest track I have ever been to. Halfway thro the meeting the cloud lowered. Driving out of the car park all we could see in any direction was the colour white as we were literally in the cloud, the ground including the roadway was an off white colour. Was very very spooky. We followed the rear light of the car in front but how the heck the car at the head of the queue managed I dread to think. As I recall the refs box was an old double decker and the medical room/ changing rooms was a shipping container.

Thing is despite the bleating from the south coast nobody knows anything, it’s all supposition and conjecture. People probably would be up in arms if it was Poole in Belle Vue’s position because for them it would be yet another stunt pulled whereas it isn’t really the Aces’ MO. And as others have said it doesn’t really appear to present Belle Vue with any huge advantage.

There we go hahaha it should of been off... I can’t think of a Berwick rider crashing all night and they’re the away team. The track was fine due to a terrific job done by the track staff l.

Yes it is,you are misreading what I am saying IMO..Its just my opinion .Why would it be cancelled in any other week is the question I am asking.

Yes, nothing was cut and even though it was a very late finish there was no shortage of patrons who took the opportunity of doing the track walk afterwards, it was a real eye opener to see the track close up and how different it looks when your actually on it, and also the feel of the track under foot and how in some places it was like a very hard slightly sandy base but out towards the fence there was a lot of loose shale which I personally I wouldn't want to put a back wheel in knowing how these modern bikes can take off when they hook up.

If he was didn't do any good

But why would they ask him to step down now after the Witches season is all but over.... surely they should have done that a week ago?

….and one side no-one expected to be where they are.....SHEFFIELD!!! (not to mention the ridiculous decision by promoters to shorten the season to just 15 league and cup matches, meaning the season was over whilst the kids were still in the middle of their summer holidays).

No problem with the weather down south fortunately and no celebrations either. But it is nice that they were cock sure well some anyway that they were certainties to qualify then win it , aint karma a bitch . On a side note how good was it to see Jye Etheridge score well , just another wee reminder to ram words back down the throat of people who said them well done Jye.

Sorry but the current product has to change. I was at Lakeside last night watching Craig Cook thrash others (apart from Lawson). Keep a top league by all means but allowing top riders into both leagues is wrong. The sport has in the past only profited rider wise by keeping a production line of new riders and this has been stifled in previous years. Time to change before it’s too late and if that means weakening the product then so be it.

I'm all for renaming the Play Offs as the "Up Yours" Trophy ! We can all change our race night music to "Friday On My Mind" Muck fe even Robinson Crusoe can ride on Friday !!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Berwick, their riders attacked the track from ht 1 and got the result they deserved. Theo was the trump card Plaudits to the track staff (I would never have believed it would go ahead having been there from 5pm) and to Willie Dishington for rattling the meeting through in an amazing time I’m not having a go at our riders as, although they took too long to get going, they never gave up. Early bath for us but hey ho, that’s Speedway. KO cup time ........

Comets absolutely deserved it all things considered, and would not be surprised if they went on to win it now...

It was a really good crowd, I hope a few influential people were there last night to witness the fact there is still very much support there for a speedway track in Essex. As soon as I got in the car park you could see this was going to be a big crowd, I was really worried that they were going to run out of programs but I got lucky and still managed to get one, I would have been well and truly gutted if I had not because this was a lasting souvenir to our time at this venue, the meeting ended up dragging but to be honest I wasn't even aware of the time until later because it was just so nice to catch up with those who have not been for some time. It was what should have been a sad night but to me felt more like a celebration of the venues existence for all these years despite the many times that the stadium or the club itself has been up in the air as to whether it would see another season. The biggest thing was that it wasn't the end of the club full stop, we keep going at another venue for the time being and I do intend to support that now where I can because although my head says we will never have a track in Essex again, my heart says otherwise. So we still have a team, we have somewhere to race, now we just need an organisation who can run British Speedway properly and orderly.

To be fair it’s a very fair and gracious match report, although the use of the word ‘we’ should be banned from the website of any professional sports team/club.

Good post totally agree with all the above

Think if we win at Newcastle we could finish top, it’s late tho’ ....if PBoro don’t win at Lakeside. It’s a credit to the promotion that the Comets have had no team changes and done as well as they have.

Full credit to the Bandits who were prepared to attack the track from the start. It was much slicker than the past few weeks and this seemed to catch out the home side completely. Despite it being very wet initially, we had two very good races, heat 6 when Jacobsen performed a sublime outside pass on Wells to streak away to win, and heat 13 was quite superb, with the same 2 riders passing and repassing. That was two more good races than we had a week ago. It's funny to think that last week on a super grippy track, Arena were accused of not trying, yet tonight on a slick trick, it was the track to blame rather than the Monarchs riders. Put simply, one team wanted the win much more than the other.

Could lakeside be the first team to have 3 home meetings in the same day. At this rate tonight's match will finish tomorrow and then they have two in the evening

Only by running a double header which their shouldn’t be a need to do.

But said nothing about the track.. Only saying it as i see it, if people dont like what i write then they shouldnt reply. End of the day they know im right but would never admit to it.