4thbender

Absolutely correct. I toyed with the idea of making a formal complaint to the SCB about the referee's slowness to act, but figured I'd be wasting my time. Why did it take him 35 minutes to realize the normal starting equipment was shot? After 10 minutes of the electrician fiddling about unsuccessfully he should have advised the team managers that the green light starting procedure would be adopted (according to the announcer this is the FIM rule) and got on with it. It took him a further twenty minutes to advise the riders of the change in procedure and, even after Ryan announced that the riders had been duly advised, it still took the referee another ten minutes to get back in his box and get racing underway. An utter shambolic example of the referee making a bad situation ten times worse. Apparently Steady puts this latest Owlerton disaster down to 'bad luck.' He should remember the 16th century proverb: "Diligence is the mother of good luck."

I wonder if Bates treats his customers the same way at The Old Post Office. I wouldn't fancy waiting an hour for my chicken and chips so I don't think I'll be visiting.

After the embarrassing debacle of the Ipswich match in the full glare of live television, they've had three weeks - THREE WEEKS! - to make sure that everything is in tip-top condition to avert even the remotest chance of a repeat of the needless embarrassing delays; and what happens? before a wheel has turned there comes the wearisome announcement of "track electrician to the referee's box" and there's a thirty-five minute delay because of the perennial problems with the starting gate. And even after it has been decided that the gate is never going to work, it takes the referee another twenty minutes to explain to the riders that they have to start on the green light. Throughout all this, poor old Ryan Guest has the thankless task of "entertaining" the increasingly-restless crowd by staging inane interviews with Steady (who repeats ad nauseum all the 'news' he's already written in the programme notes) and Adam Ellis, who tells us how interesting it is to be riding at number three rather than number five. I can't believe I paid good money to be treated - along with a thousand others - with such casual offhandedness. Maybe Damian Bates will now realize what he should have done years ago, that it makes sense to pay an electrician a day's wage to come in and re-wire the endlessly-failing starting gate system and replace all the ageing components that have let us down with monotonous regularity, meeting after meeting, for years. It's a small price to pay to ensure that the paying customers are not frustrated and disgruntled at having to wait an hour on their feet before they get to see the racing they've paid for. I wonder if the truth will dawn on the promotion that they've got another three weeks to fix the problems, rather than waiting till 7.30 on race-night. What utter plonkers! Damian Bates had the gall to write in the programme notes of his "disappointment" with people who write on here to express their well-justified displeasure at having been treated like fools, having paid good money to be left standing around for endless minutes at the Ipswich fiasco waiting for something to happen. He slags us off in the programme notes and then DOES IT AGAIN AT THE VERY NEXT MATCH! Has the man no shame? He thanks us for our "patience and understanding" but clearly this is just empty rhetoric to cover over the cracks. Well, Batesy old boy, I for one DON'T understand and my patience is wearing thin. There are other things to do on a Thursday night and like many others I now regard speedway as being in the last chance saloon. Frank Varey must be spinning in his grave. Best get your finger out.

The stats tend to disprove your assertion. The role of the heat leader (a bit like an opening batsman in cricket) is to get points on the board early on, to get the match off to a good start and ensure the team is not playing catch-up later on. Sheffield’s heat leaders clearly aren’t taking full advantage of their first races to give the team a head’s start. In the 11 league and cup matches this season the three heat leaders of Holder, Musielak and Ellis have, in their respective first races, finished in the following placings: HOLDER: 1st places: 2 at home, 0 away, total 2 2nd places: 2 at home, 0 away, total 2 3rd places: 2 at home, 2 away, total 4 4th places: 0 at home, 2away (inc. 1 disqualification), total 2 (NB Holder did not race at Ipswich) Home record: 12 points out of a potential 18 (66.7%) Away record: 2 points out of a potential 12 (16.7%) Overall record: 14 points out of a potential 30 (46.7%) MUSIELAK: 1st places: 1 at home, 2away, total 3 2nd places: 0 at home, 1 away, total 1 3rd places: 2 at home, 2 away, total 4 4th places: 3 at home, 0 away, total 3 Home Record: 5 points out of a potential 18 (27.8%) Away record: 10 points out of a potential 15 (66.7%) Overall record: 15 points out of a potential 33 (45.5%) ELLIS: 1st places: 2 at home, 3 away, total 5 2nd places: 2 at home, 1 away, total 3 3rd places: 0 at home, 0 away, total 0 4th places: 2 at home, 1 away, total 3 Home Record: 10 points out of a potential 18 (55.6%) Away record: 11 points out of a potential 15 (73.3%) Overall record: 15 points out of a potential 33 (45.5%) Holder has a very good home record (scoring 66.7% of his heat 1 points), but this drops to only 16.7% away from home. Musielak tends to do badly in heat 3 at home (scoring only 27.8%), but does far better away, improving that figure to 66.7%. Ellis has only a very average heat 4 success rate of 55.6% at home, but away from home is the best of all three, scoring 73.3% of his possible points in heat 4. This explains why Sheffield are slow to score early on at home (e.g. scores even after heat 6 in the Ipswich match) and are prone to tight finishes away from home. If the three heat leaders could cut out the fourth places in heats 1, 3 and 4, the team would find itself much less on the back foot. The data to support these conclusions is as follows: HOLDER Wolverhampton v Sheffield 4/4 3rd Sheffield v Belle Vue 14/4 3rd Sheffield v Peterborough 5/5 1st Ipswich v Tigers 16/5 N/A Sheffield v Wolverhampton 19/5 2nd Sheffield v Belle Vue 26/5 1st Wolverhampton v Sheffield 30/5 4th Sheffield v Wolverhampton 9/6 3rd Peterborough v Sheffield 13/6 3rd Kings Lynn v Sheffield 23/6 Disqualified Sheffield v Ipswich 27/6 2nd MUSIELAK Wolverhampton v Sheffield 4/4 1st Sheffield v Belle Vue 14/4 3rd Sheffield v Peterborough 5/5 1st Ipswich v Tigers 16/5 3rd Sheffield v Wolverhampton 19/5 3rd Sheffield v Belle Vue 26/5 4th Wolverhampton v Sheffield 30/5 2nd Sheffield v Wolverhampton 9/6 4th Peterborough v Sheffield 13/6 1st Kings Lynn v Sheffield 23/6 3rd Sheffield v Ipswich 27/6 4th ELLIS Wolverhampton v Sheffield 4/4 1st Sheffield v Belle Vue 14/4 4th Sheffield v Peterborough 5/5 2nd Ipswich v Sheffield 16/5 1st Sheffield v Wolverhampton 19/5 2nd Sheffield v Belle Vue 26/5 1st Wolverhampton v Sheffield 30/5 4th Sheffield v Wolverhampton 9/6 1st Peterborough v Sheffield 13/6 2nd Kings Lynn v Sheffield 23/6 1st Sheffield v Ipswich 27/6 4th

Something painfully clear this season is that the Tigers' heat leader trio of Holder, Musielak and Ellis never score points in their first races, but come back fighting after about heat 5 or 6. It makes me wonder whether the track needs a few races to sort itself out.

Something else which didn't escape my attention last night was the amount of shale on the track - probably more than I've ever seen in 57 years. It was also noted that there were three quite serious pile-ups which, if memory serves, is more than we've had in the entire season up to now. Can the two facts be related?

The problem of riders taking consecutive heats was a major factor throughout the meeting: Sedgman (heats 1 & 2); Mountain (heats 7 & 8); Howarth (heats 8 & 9); Musielak (heats 9 & 10); Riss (heats 9 & 10); Sedgman ( heats 11 & 12); Hume (heats 11 & 12) and Doyle (heats 13 & 14 - the one that never happened) all conspired to drag out the meeting and spoil what should have been a showpiece spectacle. As for the air fence, the number of times they take it down and put it up again after stock car meetings, one would have hoped they'd be fairly good at it by now.

Just put a post on Gettr trailing last night's win at Kings Lynn and six people "liked" it and one reposted it.... all of them from China!

Absolutely awful news. The speedway family is weaker for its loss. I have great memories from my early days as a shale fan when the Diamonds were a team to be feared, with the likes of Ivan Mauger and Brian Brett. I'd like to express my sincere condolences to all supporters in the north-east.

I absolutely agree. Waiting 3 weeks between matches is a ridiculous state of affairs, but I'm afraid until some of the ghost tracks like Swindon, Coventry, Workington, etc can be coaxed back into existence, there's no workable solution in sight. What happens in British speedway seems to be controlled in Poland and, that places a straitjacket on British promoters. There is just so much that needs to change.

One has to wonder if JH is burning himself out with endless travel and foreign commitments. He certainly doesn't look like the same rider who started the season.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jake the rider who copped a load of criticism when he scored a duck for Belle Vue at Owlerton in the League cup?

On current form I fancy Sheffield to win, but it's never over till the fat lady sings.

You can't please some people! When a bloke top-scores against a much-fancied team you have to give him his due. Their top three might have been less than impressive, but Cook can only beat the riders that come to the tapes alongside him, and that's what he did.

Despite Sheffield's flying start (ignoring the Wolves hiccup) I still think this is the closest it's been for years and anyone really could win it. We're not making any assumptions in Sheffield as to how the season will pan out. A dip in form here, the odd injury there, anything can happen before October.... and then there's monkeypox!

In your critique of the Tigers' performance you completely omitted to mention the performance of Cook. This was by far and away his best performance in blue and yellow and his 8 +3 after 4 heats made him top scorer. He was fully deserving of his extra ride in heat 15. He seems to actually be enjoying his stint at Sheffield and even acknowledged the crowd's cheers on the 4th bend after his win in heat 8. Top points for sheer guts go - as usual - to Kyle. I reckon he's the best captain in the league. He may lack the finesse of a Holder and the panache of a Musielak, but for 150% commitment to the team cause he can't be faulted. He's the engine room of the team and Damien should give him a contract for life.

Do they still look like the real deal? looks more like a dud deal to me.

Sheffield were out-gated in ten of the 15 races. The only saving grace was that the Tigers only finished last in six races, as opposed to their opponents nine. If Wolves had managed to cut down on some of the 4th places it would have been a total rout. Sheffield should think themselves lucky and get in some gating practice before next week's visit of super-fast gating Zagar, Fricke and Kurtz. Somehow I can't envisage Blodorn and Brennan gifting the Tigers with seven 4th places like the Wolves reserves did last night.

We can all make that silly argument. Equally, when Jack gets the winter out of his bones, his 7 + 1 will increase to a 15 max, and that will cancel out any contribution Zagar might make.

Just as well really, 'cos YOU'RE OUT!!!

Pussy cats running scared? Whatever their state of anxiety. they're running WAY AHEAD OF YOU!

Good to see Connor Mountain doing well in his first outing of 2022 in Auty's testimonial at Scunny, scoring 8 points (with no 4th places) and inflicting one of only two defeats on Danny King. Reckon he'll be a very useful asset at reserve.

WizzAir out of Doncaster seem to be unaffected.

Why is it a damning indictment on British speedway when British speedway will have the delight of seeing all four of them compete? I presume you mean it is a damning indictment of the quality of British riders, which is a completely different issue.