Speedy swindon pete

Going to be a long night....

PK you stupid boy. needs to get it into his head that the meeting is longer than the next bend coming up.

At least we know what the track will be like come the playoffs at Brandon. Should imagine Colin Pratt is getting his spuds in there tonight ready for a few weeks time.

Pahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.....hahahahaha. Sorry to the decent cov fans on here..

Sarjeant on a roll tonight...

Another own goal for british speedway tonight, in front of a (i should imagine very small) TV audience, yet again. I posted this after Swindon's first home meeting of the year in an abortion of a meeting against coventry.....sounds all too familiar;

Why stop at sky meetings?

I'm not talking about every track being the same...I'm saying the track is vastly better off with surface being consistent and predictable, be it consistently grippy or slick. The riders at least know what they're getting. Pre World Cup break, the Swindon track was bumpy, lumpy and inconsistent. The racing was crap. They worked on it over the break, fast forward to last Thursday...showers predicted, none came come tapes up. The track was a bit dusty and quite slick, but the racing was miles better than before, night and day the difference. All the riders were able to give it a go. How people can moan about riders not having the balls, or throttle control, whilst we watch 10 heats of riders wobbling round a track, following each other, infront of a crowd of what looked about 50, tonight, is incredible. If you sat down and watched that with a normal human tonight who didn't know much about speedway, then come the end of heat 15, turn round to them and say, "well that was ok!, at least we got a couple of decent heats. fancy coming to pay 17 quid to watch it next week?", they'd want you sectioned for Christ sake. Sometimes I think a lot of speedway fans are nearly as bad as the promotion. Fans are leaving the sport in its droves with hardly any coming to the sport fresh, it's on it's arse over here, yet some think its because the riders aren't brave enough anymore.

I thought Swindon did quite well, all things considered, too. However, I wouldn't use that meeting as a barometer for form or team strength at all for either team, unless cov are planning on having the track like that again this season. Andersen and Jensen in particular, just didnt want to know.

Quite true, and I'm not disagreeing with that, but it can't be hard to prepare a consistent, fair surface that gives more if not all riders the chance to RACE, not just ride it, in confidence. Coventry's own Hans, Jensen, and Hansen, weren't even slightly interested in racing tonight. Is it any surprise to see Harris revelling in tricky, deep conditions?! Fact is, he is an incredibly rare breed, and I'd say after seeing him a few times, Garrity is one of a similar mould. But what has Harris done at places where the track is up to the standards we quite often see on the continent? Largely guff all. Its easy to say that theres no decent racing if riders aren't trying, but having tracks that we have to wait 10 heats for it to settle down first, is just not normal for a vast majority of the riders. We can bleat all we like that riders aren't brave enough or trying hard enough, but we know what most of these riders (and the bikes) are like now. Are we supposed to sit watch the fans leaving the stadiums in droves because we have to wait to the last quarter of the meeting for the action to start? And people wonder why the sport is on its arse. Fact is most riders these days are used to tracks that are consistent and decent from the first heat, to the last heat. Tonight hasn't done anyone any favours, except possibly the treasurer of the Chris Harris fan club, and his own self esteem.

How does having one, nearly two, decent races, out of 13, constitute the track being fine? I expect the people paying to be there tonight, and paying their sky subscription fee, were hoping that they'd get slightly better value. Unbelievable.

What? What are you on about. I said fair play...he loves the rough stuff. Cardiff 2007 the track was like a billiard table, wasn't it?

Fair play bomber....different breed on tracks like this.

Because its not worth the risk trying to go wheel to wheel with other riders on this track. Saw howarth nearly wipe Andersen out. Morris and Garrity come to grief when trying to ride the same line. Gusto said it himself, you don't want to be side by side on this track at all.

It was Robinson who was in charge of the match at Swindon against cov at the start of the season. He and Rosco flared up at that meeting too. Dave certainly has a track record of being a total egit. Can riders still go off 15 metres after 2 mins these days?

Oh how I would love it....love it if we take points off Robinson....err Coventry I mean, tonight.

Absolute abortion of a meeting. Surprised worrall was excluded to be honest, in real-time it got pretty tight as garrity came underneath him forcing worrall onto that horrible berm of dirt. Thought some common sense could have come in to play regarding the position of the riders and the conditions (could've been all 4, or 3 more likely, back)....but this is that complete tool and control freak Robinson we're talking about. No complaints about Morris going...surprised Dave managed to get that one right. Od just call it off and take the boys home now rosco...this has been a write-off before the meeting even started. No point getting guys injured in the circumstances.

Shock...the track hooks another couple of riders off. You can forgive a dry track if expecting rain, but a ploughed field like this is unforgivable.

Gusto looking deadly quick, if he can hang on to the bike.

Christ sake. Ref is a tool but for Christ sake rosco give them a clip round the ear would you. What the hell was batch expecting to happen there?

Incredible

What the hell is going on?! Who's the ref?

Enjoyed it last night. Was away for the Lakeside meeting, so was struck how good the track was compared to before the World Cup break. Superb. A little on the dry side but considering the forecast, understandable. A few strung out heats as per, but some decent races too, not masses of passing, but some good close racing. Ron comes in for a lot of stick from a fair few corners of British speedway, even from plenty of Swindon fans claiming he can't prepare a track, but he's obviously done superb work in the few weeks he's had to work on it. Fair play. Pick of the heats had to be heat 15, talking of which, Dakota seems to be making big strides in the last few weeks. Looks to have some great speed in his bikes. The way he picked off Woodward and the Michelsen (who has been one of the fastest visitors to blunsdon this season) was sublime. If that was Ward on sky, Pearson would have had a lump in his trousers for the rest of the week. If only he could gate, it would make it much easier for himself. Greaves coming good too. I had faith he'd start scoring some decent points after the first few rides I saw him in at the Abbey. I think the thing that sets him apart from a lot of the young and struggling FT riders is that he has absolutely no qualms about chucking the bike into the bends at full pelt. Watch him against a lot of similar standard riders and you're struck by how fiecly he throws the bike into the first and third bends, even at close quarters with other riders around him, after that its just a case of being able to control the speed mid bend, which he seems to be mastering now. Great performance. My only major concern is with Simon losing confidence in his current team position leading up to the play offs. He's still scoring points, but not as freely in tougher heats. He looked on the pace last night saying that though, and did very well to over haul Pedersen on his TR (more great management wizardry by Greer by the way) in one heat. I don't think the slicker track suits him, he's enjoyed plenty of blasts round the fence this season, but that line wasn't quite there last night. Enjoyed the kids after too, entertaining stuff. The only thing lacking was a bit of atmosphere from the crowd. Christ it's like a library under the main stand these days. It seems people can barely spare the energy to bother cheering or making any sort of noise at all. Think the promotion need to have a couple of meetings where they give out a few air horns to the first few families through the gates to try and make some noise. It wasn't that long ago that speedway was a good noisey night out with people enjoying getting behind the team, whether they were wining or not. Now people just seem to stand in silence just pondering on whether to watch question time or something more risqué on channel 5 when they get home. Still have Swindon down for a valiant play-off semi loss.

Same s**t, different year.

Rosco struggling to motivate his team again I see.