scotchopper

Apparently the regular water bowser blew up and the bigger one they brought in to replace it put far too much water down and wrecked the track. Riders just couldn't ride it and just as it started to improve at ht10 it started raining. On a night where rain was expected they should have left well alone.

In the words of John cleese whoever prepared that track tonight deserves a damn good thrashing. Was quite looking forward to this and fancied Edinburgh's chances but left very frustrated and disappointed. The only race I enjoyed tonight was a 5-1 to Newcastle. I always feel sorry for speedway promotion when they get a hard time for taking money off supporters but George English should have been handing out free tickets at the exit. Then the ref just finished it off perfectly with a shocking decision not to award ht14. It did make it easier for them not to run ht15 and maybe we should just be grateful that no one got injured but that is not why I drive 2.5 hours and spend £16. 3rd time this season I have been left extremely disappointed by a pl promotion.

Any weather updates for tonight? I reckon the monarchs can finish a difficult week on a big high

Not sure why I doubted my own team, even without getting out of 2nd gear they still had far too much for the rebels and took a well earned victory. Wasn't the most exciting meeting as Somerset struggled to win races but Sam was fantastic tonight and the simultaneous pass in ht13 with cookie just underlined the dominance, put money on Sam for a Max next week. surprised they took Brady Kurtz out his last ride. A point was out of reach and thought it would be better for him to have another go at the track. Really pleased for Deek, great ride to follow Sam through in heat 4 and solid points throughout. Stevie worrall was also excellent and deserved ht15, again showed we had a bit to spare as if needed points for an aggregate win cookie would have been in.

I think this is the decider for 1st pick on the play offs. Both teams have similar fixtures remaining so monarchs have a slight edge at the moment, whoever wins tonight should claim it. Although rain offs could still be the deciding factor. We are a wee bit vulnerable at the moment so it will be close but I still expect monarchs to edge it.

Well done somerset, on fire just now. The video of Kurtz was fantastic Only positive from a monarchs perspective is that it is better to have the blip in form now rather than at the business end of the season. We'll be back.

Just watched it back again, high speed with a couple of close races with faster riders chasing but not finding a way past. Only 1 genuine pass in completed races that was vissing on masters in heat 6, imho passing before bend 3 of lap one doesn't count. Real precessional stuff and I would struggle to watch that every week. The real difficulty in passing was summed up in ht14 when a track specialist had to go back wheel chasing against one of the weakest riders on the night unfortunately misjudged it and we had a massive crash. One of the worst I have seen in 35years watching speedway. Really hope both riders are OK, thoughts with them tonight. Well done to Berwick on their win, really sharp and determined. Monarchs developing a couple of cracks but would rather get them out of the way now before the real important meetings start.

Very Interesting meeting today with a close score and some good passes. missed opportunity for the tigers with monarchs top 2 off form and fox scoring zero it is unlikely they will have a better chance against us this year. In the end the monarchs 1-5 only ran one last place and unbelievably that was Craig Cook, great scoring. Big decision for ht15 and cookie finally came to the party after missing the gate again. Tremendous pass over rusty Harrison, the best Glasgow rider today, which ensured the win. Great to see rusty up and OK after his fall, on this form he is a pleasure to watch. Kevin looked back to good form so Glasgow should be OK. Cookie with a rare off night but still managed 2 passes including ensuring the win Sedgy had 3 great wins and probably should have been in ht15 Max looked fast all day and a little unlucky to be behind Stevie a couple of times when he may have had a better chance of passing the tiger in the lead. Brilliant pass in ht12 Stevie worralls gating was first class, looked a little slow at times but for gating alone was a contender for ht15 Sam had no luck, after a hard pass in ht5 he would have won if campton had been able to clear the track and then a fantastic cut back in the first running of ht13 was ruled out by an unsatisfactory start. If he hits form there will be no stopping us. Aaron struggled after getting shoved out the way in ht2, was expecting better after his guest score but still good learning for him. Deek scored important points beating his opposite reserve 3 times out of 5. Would take that in all away matches.

Problem I have is that he was out of control in all of his races and baulked 3 or 4 others including his team mate that it is incredibly hypocritical to then have a go at someone when you get it back. According to monarchs website the video evidence also suggests he turned left on deek so it was actually his own fault. Looked good on Monday but he has a lot of learning to do.

Why was Eddie Kennett left out of ht15, very disappointing as it would have been a good race. Poor form to put Nathan Greaves in, no disrespect to the lad who was worth the paid 4 he got tonight. Ended up being an entertaining meeting due to the 1-8s and a couple of squabbles. Garrity needs to get a grip, fair enough to be annoyed and have a few words but to attack another rider 3 times is unacceptable. I heard he was still trying to get to deek in the pits after it was all calmed down. Slightly hypocritical of him to have a go at another rider after how out of control he was in his first 2 races.

It has to be said that no chances should be taken on rider health and safety, no one can seriously argue that fact. Kyle was in agony on Saturday and all care should have been taken with him even if his injuries were not as bad as first thought. Best place for him was the hospital, so as soon as the county ambulance wasn't available the track ambulance should have gone. It might not have been able to make it back in time but instead of giving it a chance they sat about and discussed it and decided to call it off. I state again if worky were 10 points up and there was no football on more effort would have been made to get it on, no one will dissuade me of that fact. As someone who spent over 3 hours getting there, paid for a hotel and 3 hours getting home I don't think it was good enough. I have been to Derwent park 5 or 6 times now but I will think twice before going back.

Aah so he was wanting to get home for the fitba' I was a conspiracy theorist when I suggested that earlier.

Rolling at the start = cheating = booing, give yourself a shake every rider wants to get a flier and making the gate is one of the most important parts of speedway racing. If another rider makes a poor gate at the same time it looks like a rider jumped. It seems these days if a rival rider makes a good gate it is because he rolled, poor sportsmanship and sour grapes. If it was as bad as you say the ref would have stopped it, looked to me like the monarchs made a great gate. Booing for banter and a bit of rivalry is all good for the sport but that was just poor. I still assert that Workington could have tried harder to keep the meeting running, they may have tried and failed but to me that is better than not bothering. If the ambulance had left the track as soon as they got the news that the county one wasn't coming it could have been at the hospital a lot earlier. They would then have a better eta of how long it would take and could call back and tell the promotion who could make an informed decision. Crowd can be kept informed which would allow anyone who didn't want to wait to leave. Instead imo they took an easy decision. They were in a difficult position and I know I am being harsh but I expect an effort to be made. Not really emphasising the conspiracy theory but I bet they would have tried harder if worky were 10 up and looking certs for 3 points.

You didn't hear the booing when Sam and Aaron did a victory lap, seriously? I was on the back straight amongst the monarchs fans, it was clearly audible and large numbers on the home straight. There was a cheer when kyle hit bike problems, it looked like a bog standard bike failure which caused him to impede his team mate and virtually guarantee the 5-1. He didn't actually fall off as a result of the incident. He managed to keep control of the bike and get it onto the infield, there may have been a slight cheer when he made it to the grass so the race could continue as it looked like he might cause the race to stop. There certainly wasn't a cheer when he collapsed off the bike the first real indication that he was in major pain. Kyle is a former monarch held in great respect and no Edinburgh supporter would want to see him injured. In fact I wouldn't want to see anyone hurt no matter what colours they race in, unlike others it seems. Not one person on this thread suggested that any chances should be taken with the care kyle received. Complaint is that Workington didn't have a plan b and they seemed to not really be bothered about trying to find one. The fact that we only needed one more race for a result made the decision not to try even stranger. The fact that the curfew was 10pm even suggests to me they could have waited the hour and still got a result. I do appreciate that it was an unusual situation and have some sympathies with their promotion but they didn't try hard enough. What I want to see is 15 really good competitive races and no one hurt, that is the 2nd time this season that it has been denied and I feel let down by the home promotion.

What time is the curfew at Workington? I understand all of the chat about ambulances and doctors and unfortunately I think we are stuck with the situation where tracks only have 1 of each. Situations like that are rare and as long as it is only exceptions then it is difficult to justify the extra cost. The most important thing is the safety of the riders and I hope Kyle makes a quick recovery he looked in a lot of pain. Having said all that I am extremely disappointed with the complete lack of urgency and will to get on with the meeting. This was demonstrated better by the amount of time it took them to repair the air fence after heat 4, they were wandering around like tomorrow will do. Then after kyle was put in the ambulance it sat on the track for over 15 mins. As soon as they found out the county ambulance was going to be over an hour it should have been heading for the hospital. If it got to the hospital and found out there would be a significant wait to hand over kyle then call it off. At least make an effort, as mentioned on the monarchs website it appeared the track staff were already blading off turns 3/4 before the decision was made. There was a lot of chat over the pa before the incident about getting everyone home in time for the football, also the fact that monarchs were starting to look strong (Stevie in 4 of the last 6 races and cookie in 3) and with Stevie not at reserve for the restaging. I really hope that these were not factors in the lack of effort to get the meeting on. The (so called) fans booing Sam and Aaron after heat 9 was pathetic.

Brilliant performance from the monarchs! I would say that 28 flattered Sheffield, it's a shame that it effectively makes the 2nd leg a dead rubber. If you make a semi you deserve a decent crowd, I was intending to go but will keep my powder dry for the final now. Amazed that Sheffield did not use the tr in ht11, I know we would have put Stevie in but still looked the best shout to me by far. Sedgmen was excellent especially against stead on a tr, brilliant to see him get a 6 ride paid maximum especially after missing out last week. Nice touch by cookie to let him through to win ht15.

Exactly my point mitchy both teams had a bit of adversity, these things happen in speedway, but when it came to the crunch it was the monarchs riders who stoud up strongest. That is the difference between a good team (and newcastle are a decent team with some cracjing riders) and a great team. No medals are handed out in June and there is a long way to go but it is a pleasure watching this team.

I think cookie has been struggling with set up at times this year, especially in the el. No 5 position is unforgiving and can make him look average at times but when he gets it right he can be phenomenal. Fastest time of the season in ht15 with the meeting on the line! I think he will crack the el heat leader properly soon and I hope for his sake someone in Poland takes him on (not this season though). 10.70, how many believed him when he said he would raise his pl average? As for the Newcastle fans whining about mistakes and bad luck you should accept you were beaten by a brilliant team. Monarchs had a missing rider, (IMO at least) 2 poor refereeing decisions, threw away points and some under performing riders. but 5 points behind with 4 races to go all 6 of them stood up and were counted. on paper diamonds had the strongest rider in all 4 races but we won 3 of them including a fantastic 5-1 over danny king. Thanks also to Danny Phillips for a decent effort, especially keeping king behind when he came off 15m for 3/4s of a lap although greenwood did a good job blocking as well ;-) Hope both mills and greenwood are both OK after nasty looking crashes.

Cookie is top drawer and expects nothing but the best from himself. When he loses he is mad at himself, I think he felt his performance probably cost monarchs the win and is not happy with 2nd best. I have seen him shake hands with riders after losing on many occasions (well he doesn't lose that many). He's going through a bad patch at the moment and has still upped his average from the end of last season to 10.70. At the dale tonight he said he has had problems with his clutch but tried something different tonight which worked much better. He got the track record in ht1 and was only 0.1 off the old track record in heat 15. Hopefully that will be the turn around he requires. I wouldn't swap him for any other rider racing in Britain.

Sun off did involve the monarchs, I actually made it all the way to ashfield. Weather was that nice I didn't even check for a cancellation. I also made it all the way to Peterborough the other week. Happy with that draw, hopefully get dates sorted soon I hate it when they make these competitions drag out all year

Within 30 minutes of being tohld it was cancelled the monarchs promotion had updated Facebook, Twitter and the website. They were also contacting supporters who had travelled directly to let them know. It wasn't even on the panthers website for another half an hour at least. We were already on our 2nd train of the day. Now I am no health and safety expert but if it was something this serious I would have had photos on the website and a full reason by now. It would stop any rumours because without that h&s doesn't wash with me. Very disappointing.

Just been advised that the meeting is off due to a disagreement between stadium and Peterborough speedway. On train, gutted

Any news on the scunny no 1?

nice one, sounds good to me. Thanks mate, hopefully sort this out. Not booked it yet but likely to be the holiday inn beside the airport. Hopefully the meeting will be as good as tonight, quality racing.

Doh, sorry about the date folks will change it when I get home. Cannot work out how to do it on mobile. Thanks for feedback folks much appreciated. Scotsman there will be 3 of us, would you have room?