TheScotsman

Is there not a rule about saddle position? (Only joking!!)

You may not have said that but plenty others on the thread have said it. Yes I was surprised that Joe got the TR instead of Theo but in their previous outing in heat 7, Joe passed Theo early on and made a better fist of it than Theo. Obviously the Team Manager is the best one to answer why else Joe was chosen ahead of Theo. As it turned out it was a good decision because Joe took 2nd instead of Theo's 4th but there again Theo after a decent first ride only mustered 2 thirds from his next 3 rides so was hardly on top of his game. Since it seems some Ippo fans are crying out for praise, I am happy to accommodate - Ipswich were comfortably the better team on the night so well done - no quibble. Just as Cookie was comfortably the best rider on the night so well done - and there should be no quibble about gates, team riding or any of that crap. Monarchs were well beaten even with 5 joker points and Cookie was never going to change that. I'm old enough to remember Ivan Mauger dominating the PL in the early sixties. He got the same kind of stick that Cookie is getting now. I bet Cookie is well chuffed about it all. (And before anyone starts jumping up and down - you know who you are! - I am not saying Cookie is or ever will be in Mauger's class!! )

Nutz - I was referring to Mitchell's form before his wrist break at Glasgow. I seem to remember he was going well. He was way out of form when he then broke his leg but came back too soon to have got his confidence back.

I don't think monarchs fans have been bothered more about Cookie's max at all. I think it was Ippo fans who raised it. Yes it was good that he finished ahead of Barker 3 times but only really because of the heatergate affair leading to his match exclusion. And in fairness, Barker looked nothing like 100% fit. Every Monarchs fan that I know of is just disappointed that when Cookie has come on some blistering form, some of his teammates have gone backwards in scoring. Max unfortunately picked up injury and illness and is a way below the standard he was riding to a few weeks ago. (This is in no way a criticism of Max who has had an outstanding season.) Sneddon has had a decent season but obviously the run up to his testimonial took away a bit of an edge. Visssing has been so up and down. And losing Mitchell Davey when he was hitting some good form was a blow. He probably came back too soon after the first break and is of course now out long term. The NL guests have done very well - take a bow Josh Bates and Liam Carr - but Mitchell might have scored better home and away. And then there's Joe Tabaka!!! Fantastic trier, lousy gater, but such an enigma!! Maximum man at home - big scores at Somerset and Ippo - and novice type scores in between!!! You never know which Joe will turn up. But to expect him to finish ahead of Tungate or Barker in a heat 15 decider at Ippo? I don't think so, not even if he had first pick of gates. So I think most Monarchs fans accept that the team is mainly 1 man at the moment and that the all round strength of Somerset, Ippo and Newcastle will see us off and there will not be much that Cookie can do about it.

OK - from the official site then............ Craig Cook was exceptional again in scoring his fourth successive maximum at Premier level. He team rode Derek Sneddon home in heat 11 for a 5-1 Interesting bit of forecasting there. However it's doomed to failure because I somehow think Ippo will be in the same group as Edinburgh and there is no way Edinburgh will get to the final unless a few of the team start to score some points consistently. Oh forgot to ask - were you at Ippo last Thursday to see what actually happened?

Whatever!!! So how about this from the offiical site............... Craig Cook was exceptional again in scoring his fourth successive maximum at Premier level. He team rode Derek Sneddon home in heat 11 for a 5-1 I rest my case m'lud.

Interesting to hear that Joe said on Friday that there was no way Cookie could have slowed the race down for Joe to get past Tungate and Barker who were too good for that. He had to go for the win. And you'll see on the Chatzone Updates for the Newcie v Monarchs match, the comment re heat 11........ Heat 11 Rosen, Schramm, Cook, Sneddon Result: Sneddon, Cook, Rosen, Schramm (65.8) 1-5 (34-32) Deek around the outside which allowed Cookie through the inside,Cook rode good race to protect Deek. Not a team rider?

Did you come on the wrong thread? Anyway no - he took gate 4. Oh and by the way, while you're here, updater's comments for heat 11............. Heat 11 Rosen, Schramm, Cook, Sneddon Result: Sneddon, Cook, Rosen, Schramm (65.8) 1-5 (34-32) Deek around the outside which allowed Cookie through the inside,Cook rode good race to protect Deek But of course he can't team ride

I was over by turn 3 so couldn't see what was going on at the gate before the race so I'll have to bow down to you on this one. Given the weak lighting I doubt I could ever have seen their faces that well anyway!! I agree that the outside of the gates gets more traffic during the meeting than the inside, but bear in mind that gate 2 produced a win in heat 6 (still early in the meeting) and then only by Cookie in 13 and 15. S even without the traffic it still wasn't producing winners.

It's all opinions - life's rich tapestry (or whatever the gumph is)!! You try it in one match and it backfires. You change it in the next one - it doesn't work. Only JC and CC know what was the thinking and the discussion. Ah whatever happened to young jackal?

Glad to be of service LW! I hope to get back for the play-off return (bound to be Ippo /Edinburgh!). I'll definitely bear in mind your fine dining recommendations! Can't beat Mildenhall chips yet but I live in hope!

either

Leicester must be the best track in the country - he beat the track record 3 times with the 3rd one being in heat 15!!

I suppose it was not grippy patches and icy patches either then? Must have misheard Risager on the mike.

Heavens above!!! I've heard/read it all now!! It was a ploughed field they were riding on for heavens sake, not Armadale's silky smooth surface!! And the rest of the team were struggling to either get out of the gate or stay on the bike. If Barker had come to Armadiddle and clocked up an 18 point max and taken away the homester's track record (subsequently amended to only equalled but we won't query that!!) then maybe just maybe one or two of the locals might be eating the same bunch of sour grapes. I suggest you try a better greengrocer!!

I prefer choice too - load of rubbish that there should only be one source of information!!! But back to the Cookie debate........... Surely it's the Team Manager who decides the lineup and gates for heat 15? So you can't go moaning at Cookie for taking gate 2 if that's the case. It also kind of hides the fact of why was the gates choice so critical. Surely all gates should be near enough equal. So it's a problem with gate preparation that gate 4 should have been so bad (and gate 1 so good - 7 winners out of 15 from gate 1). And it was not a foregone conclusion that Cookie would even have won from gate 2 given it had only thrown up 2 winners prior to heat 15 (the same as gate 4) and one of them was Cookie and the other Barker. So the likelihood that Smokin Joe would have make the gate from there was very slim - he is in no way renowned for his starts. So we would have almost certainly had the situation where Ippo would have been first into the first bend with Cookie having to work his way though/round to get past them. Far better therefore to give Cookie a better chance of the win from gate 2 and hope that Smokin Joe could split the Ippo guys. I also seem to remember Monarchs had tried putting Cookie on the worst gate in heat 15 of a recent away match at Berwick and it had backfired with Cookie only taking a third place with Joe in second when they needed a heat win. And as for this rubbish that Cookie should have slowed down the race - I have to say that with the lumps and bumps and patchiness of the track on Thursday that could have been a recipe for disaster. Far better to get the hell out of it and leave some margin for recovery and hope that Joe could pick up a scrap. There seems to have been a lot of comment about Ippo team riding in that heat 15 - well to me ideal team riding is both riders alongside each other, one outside, one inside. I don't remember much of that in the race. One Ippo was in front of the other most of the way because it was too rough to have risked anything else. But I am of course being biased!!

My obviously very biased take on last night's performances. Not a great meeting or spectacle at Ippo last night unfortunately. The good things....... - more improvements to the stadium since I was last there for heatergate - they have added yet more banks of seating along the back straight so most of that area is seated now (but not covered). It's certainly one of the best appointed stadia around at the moment. - Cookie's performance - majestic and untouchable from the back straight on lap 1 onwards - so much faster and smoother than anyone else The bad things........ - £2 for a tray of chips in the diner which, after a 10 minute wait while they were cooked, turned out to be thin frozen chips cooked in oil which was not hot enough and so each bite brought a squelch of warm oil into your mouth:(. Abandoned them after 4 chips. - the lack of atmosphere - it all seemed very flat, but probably not helped by Monarchs "efforts" up to heat 9 - the music is rubbish!! The track was a bit rough and very patchy in places and bend 2 seemed to take quite a while till it was smoothed out. Risager was interviewed and said there were grippy patches and icy patches (not real ice because it was a pretty mild evening and had been like that all day!). And it's very dark on track - the shale is a dark colour and the track lighting is not great because it seems to be aimed at the stock car track on the outside. For Ippo......... - Barker seemed a bit subdued - he said on the mike that he is still in a lot of pain so I doubt that the rough track helped him much. Nice to see he acknowledged at least one of Cookie's wins with a wave (a genuine one!!). - Heeps came on to a decent performance with 2 wins - Tungate and Lanham did their job perfectly well, with Lanham a bit unlucky to lose power in his first race to let Joe through for third - Risager started like a rocket - 2 very fast starts (one from the graveyard gate 4) gave him 2 good wins but then he came up against Cookie in his next 2 - Ellis was ok but in truth I expected more points from him. Deek and Max were the only Monarchs he beat, though he is entertaining to watch. - Hawkins was a surprise. He looked half decent and beat Max 3 of the 4 times he met him. For Monarchs........ - Cookie was untouchable as mentioned earlier. There was a bit of confusion about his track record though. I thought they announced 56.5 and the electronic scoreboard showed 56.5, against Barker's previous time of 56.6, but the scoreboard changed during the next race to 56.6. Intriguing!!! He had won every race before the others were through the last bend. - Deek had a nightmare. A great start in heat 1 but the race had to be restarted. A great start in the rerun but picked off by Barker and then Heeps. A good start in his second race but then picked off by the Ippos and then sliding off when at the back but cleared the track. Then sliding off in his 3rd race and getting stuck under the air fence and being excluded. We needed some points from the skipper. - Theo started very well with a good win from Tungate but then disappoined with only 2 more points from his next 3 rides and was overlooked for a TR in favour of Joe. - Joe was very impressive and even made the gate in heat 14!! After a lucky point in his first ride, he battled really hard (I take back my criticism!!). Put everything into trying to get past Heeps in his TR ride but to no avail. Won heat 14 very comfortably against Lanham and Ellis but had the graveyard gate 4 in heat 15 and just couldn't get past Tungate though he tried everything. - Claus was also disappointing. Started with 2 seconds then messed up bends 1/2 in his 3rd ride to let James Sargeant though and finished comfortably at the back. Not at the races in heat 13 against Barker and Risager. - James totally demolished the tapes in heat 2 so was never in the hunt from 15m and slid off when still at the back but cleared the track. Not close in his next ride but had a steady 3rd in his 3rd ride after Claus messed up. - Max was a bit of a mixture. He finished comfortably ahead of Ellis in his first ride but was way adrift in his next 2. He looked a bit tentative going into the first bends so maybe his injury and the rough track didn't help. He turned on the style to beat Tungate in a close race in heat 12 but was adrift of the Ippos in heat 14 when we needed another point. So we were near to a point but yet so far. 8 heat winners but 12 no scoring heats combined with only 9 points from 2 heat leaders tells its own story really. By contrast, Ippo were solid throughout with evryone looking capable. The gates were all important though - gate 1 had 4 winners out of the last 6 heats and 7 throughout. Gate 4 had only 2 winners all night - Cookie obviously and a Risager flier in heat 4.

Read your Ippo match programme.

I quote "Bens long term aspirations and ambitions are to be successful after making the transition to the higher echelon of the Elite League, become a renowned Grand Prix star and ultimately to be speedway world champion. Many have this aspiration, however Ben is one of the few that have the drive, determination, desire, competency and realistic chance of achieving this ambition." So there ya go then!! He has a realistic chance of being world champ but Cookie has no chance of even getting to the GPs!!! All depends on who you are listening to (or reading)!! And he's only 9st 5lbs (59kg). Who'd have thought it!!

I think they look pretty classy really. Part of his black and yellow colour scheme - as per his website.

You should read the comments in the programme. Quite disgusting and inflamatory.

Fishing trip's on I see!

A couple of lines on twitter is hardly going to provoke anyone. He obviously felt he needed to give a little more background to his actions without being able to give all the details. (perhaps because Edinburgh are appealing the decision?) I've never know of Cookie being hot headed and certainly not a dirty rider. He has however been blasted on the BSF for that incident in the Fours when all the evidence of videos and stills shows he was innocent so has been subject to a lot of provocation. He is usually a pretty cool head otherwise he wouldn't have knocked up 20 odd consecutive heat 15 rides unbeaten by an opponent, home and away.

I think the injury was to a wall heater.

Which part is not true and how do you know? Were you there?