King Jamie

If "very entertaining" means being 5-1'd 3 times in 5 outings and failing mechanically in heat 2, then probably best to stop these votes. Hats off for heat 6 but he didn't really have to work overly hard for it. He also almost fenced Lewis Kerr more than once in heat 12. With team mates like that, who needs opponents? Anyway, very pleased with the victory. I didn't expect to win, which makes it all the better. A solid effort throughout the team. Good to see DanT top scoring (despite what the Monarchs website may say) and a big thank you to Darryl Ritchings for turning up with a bike which, unlike the Poole reserves, lasted 4 laps in each race. Excellent professionalism. You can come back any time 👍 A black mark to the Pirates management for their seemingly poor information provided to the programme printers. I had to buy a new pen and was 'writing' William Cairns r/r, Slater Lightcap and Edward Kennett in my sleep afterwards. The latter was very good value for money, which dampened the disappointment of Kyle Newman's unfortunate absence. I was also impressed with Zach Cook. Very fast and very stylish. He's never seemed overly happy on previous visits to sunny Armadale. That's definitely changed this year though. Two top notch performances. Re the Mitchell Cluff 2 minutes incident. Joe (the big screen) always shows the countdown clock before every race. For whatever reason, it wasn't showing prior to the rerun of heat 8. The yellow light came on at some point but no clock. It was also conspicuous by its absence in at least one race later on in the meeting. Can't remember which one(s) though. Finally, well done to Michele Castagna for actually racing for the full 4 laps of heat 14. However, the technical gurus will have to explain his post-match quote to me. Something along the lines of, "my engine almost went on me". Pardon my ignorance but how does that happen? Is it not a case of the engine going (blowing up) or not going (working perfectly)? He didn't appear to lose speed. There was no audible spluttering. So, in what way did the engine "almost" go? Roll on Friday...

Some thoughts on Friday. The racing wasn’t particularly great until the last few heats. Not much happening beyond the back straight of lap 1. This needs to change. You can’t keep charging folk £20+ to watch processions. For the Monarchs: I like Dan Thompson. However, something is really off with him at the moment. In the last 5 meetings, he’s won only 5 races out of 25. Unacceptable for any number 1 in any league. He was 5-1'd 5 times out of 6 at Poole. I can’t recall that happening to any Monarchs no.1, ever? He has also openly admitted to not always giving 100%. Now, this one shouldn’t come as a shock. It’s speedway after all. It also ties in with riders who say, “it’s the play offs, I try that little bit harder”. Here’s a thought – why are you quite obviously happy to cheat the public during the earlier part of the season? Young Thompson has so much talent and ability, he could quite easily score a minimum of 13 from 5 in every meeting. Any chance we can have the real DanT back please? Not-so-super Grahn continues to frustrate with his Flask-like performances. I was looking back at results yesterday. In his 1.5 years with the club, he’s lost to Freddy Hodder around 7 or 8 times. I got bored and lost count in all honesty. And yet, this is the same guy who can quite readily pop out the start and beat Chris Harris! And then there’s the conundrum that is Justin Sedgmen. Dreadfully p1ss poor scoring in both Glasgow meetings. I’d like to see heat 9 again. It was either a skelp from Leon Flint, missed by the ref, or one of the most extraordinary, and potentially dangerous, dives I’ve ever seen. A guy with his vast experience and having ridden countless laps around sunny Armadale, could he not have stayed on? Next up is everyone’s former favourite, Michele Castagna. Heat 14 was completely unacceptable on all levels. Absolutely no chance I’m putting my Benevolent Fund donation in his bucket. Good old Kye Thomson. He may have mucked up heat 15 and the super heat but we like Kye. He can stay. Talking of the super heat, why was the winning time not announced? I presume one was recorded? Surely this was a simple oversight and not another case of the paying punter being treated like second class citizens? Now to the reserves. A big hats off to Mitchell Cluff. His scoring has been way beyond ‘senior reserve’ levels recently, especially given his green sheet figure. More solid scoring in this one. Long may it continue. Again, like heat 9, I’d like to see heat 14 again. I wasn’t sure if there was contact between Mitchell and young Battye? It doesn’t appear to have raised any post-match comment, although that may be due more to the ending of that particular race than anything else! Finally, there is Vinnie Foord. The chap with the thankless task of replacing young Loftus. Poor lad spent that much time on his backside, I almost renamed him Vinnie Floored. For Glasgow: Chris Harris keeps reminding me why I still attend speedway. Heat 15 was something else. Not great from our two but sometimes you just have to doff your cap to superior opposition. Sam Hagon didn’t win heat 8. I seem to recall him winning at least 2 previously at sunny Armadale. I just expected him to grab his hat trick. Seems the tapes got in the way. Nick Morris. Wow. Best visitor this season by a country mile. KJP. I must say, I do like his first 2 initials. There should be more riders with those initials in speedway. Also, well done for catching a sleeping Cornetto in heat 14. Leon Flint looked lively throughout. He’s certainly improved this season. Freddy Hodder grabbed vital third places, as he always seems to do. Is he, perhaps, slightly underappreciated by the Tiggers’ faithful? Reid Battye had a steady sunny Armadale debut for his first 3 rides. Slightly less steady in his last 2 though. Roll on Friday... and, again, no more draws please.

Thank you for highlighting this to people on here. Personally, I'm well aware of the above, having been an accountant since I left school, many, many, many moons ago. However, a lot of folk don't know about this stuff and it's always good to point it out. My post was referencing Workington's former operating company going to the wall after accounts weren't filed since 19canteen. Therefore, I was asking if the reason the present venture isn't in trouble at the moment is because the accounts aren't due yet. Perhaps I'm old fashioned and I just expect company officials to carry out their duties on time. Surely the same mistakes won't be repeated this time. That would be absolutely unforgivable. Good luck to the Comets 🙂

Is that because the accounts aren't due yet?

Hooded? Did he claw back the deficit?

Indeed. I was planning on buying a hot dog when I went in. Turned out to be a really hot dog. Anyway, really enjoyed the meeting. In response to the 'no passing' claim, it's factually incorrect on this occasion. There have been a couple of drab affairs this season (Oxford was beyond dreadful) but tonight was decent. Excellent, solid scoring throughout for the home side. DanT was outstanding and (I think) young Loftus won 3 consecutive races in Monarchs colours for the first time? Happy to be proved wrong on that one. Having highlighted Justin Sedgmen's apparent shortcomings off gate 4 recently, it's only fair I tip my hat to his efforts in heat 3. Well done Sedgy. Also good to see Michele Castagna back on form and SuperGrahn mixing it throughout. It was a night when not a lot went wrong for Monarchs. We also enjoyed the seemingly now customary 5-1 from the Thom(p)son non-twins in heat 13. For the Bears, not too many positives. They did try. Nicolai Klindt even made a pass! Vinnie Foord was good value. And I do like Jody Scott. Such a cool wee style. He looked like he was struggling off the starts all night though and I also think he may have got a tad lucky to be allowed in the rerun of heat 14? Oh well. Roll on next time...

Summer only started two weeks ago (well, two weeks tomorrow to be precise).

There's no such thing as 'confidence'.

Not the warmest of evenings (ed - what do you expect in Scottish spring time?), as Monarchs and Scunny shared the spoils. Firstly, a huge thank you to Nick Morris. One of the best guest performances for a while. Take him out of the equation and we would've been on the wrong end of a doing. The remainder of Team Australia were a mixed bag. Well done again to Kye and absolutely no criticism of young Loftus, who's just a wee laddie and still in his senior speedway nappies. However, the same cannot be said of Justin Sedgmen or Mitchell Cluff. I'm sick and tired of watching Sedgmen start from gate 4 and, instead of cutting across to the inside or riding a natural line around the fence, he goes so wide he looks like he's collecting a cuppa from Mrs Campbell's tea shack before turning. The end result is a shockingly meek concession of position to an ever grateful opponent. No idea what he was doing in heat 5 either. I suspect that one will get blamed on bike problems. And as for Cluff. It was like watching a totally different rider to the one of recent weeks. He seems very uncertain in traffic. Heat 2 was wholly unacceptable. A distinct lack of effort. Again, I suspect that will also be blamed on bike problems. I tell you, I don't recall Jamie Luckhurst encountering too many mechanical issues during his career. Then again, he was different class. Riders nowadays simply couldn't lace his steel shoe. Re heat 6, I reckon I was closer to Dayle Wood than DanT was. And I was standing on the home straight terracing. Some decent races last night. For once, the Thom(p)son non-twins couldn't deliver a 5-1, as they were outpaced by Josh the liar (ed - that's a bit harsh. I hope everyone calls him Joshie from now on, just to annoy you) in heat 13. However, highlight of the night came in the next race as Nick the suave guest pulled off the move of the season as he made a molehill out of a Mountain. Heat 15 wasn't bad either, and the meeting finished with impeccable timing, just ahead of the next deluge from above. Roll on summer speedway. And no more draws please...

Tonight sees the return of Josh 'Edinburgh is the only Championship team I'll ever ride for' Pickering... in Scunthorpe colours 🤔

Green sheet averages cut off at the 23rd of each month. The up-to-date figures for Poole are 'up to 27 May'. However, the home meeting against Glasgow that evening isn't taken into account until July (up to and including 23 June).

With the exception of the meetings they'd previously lost, both teams entered this one unbeaten. Therefore, it was always going to be a tight affair. Good to pick up the win in the end. Watching heat 1, I thought to myself, "Richard Lawson doesn't run too many last places." Just then, he snuck inside Chris Harris to claim the 3rd place. With that in mind, come heat 15, I thought, "Richard Lawson doesn't run... no, I can't finish that sentence". A few seconds later, the clinching 5-1 was confirmed. There was mention on here earlier that Kyle Newman doesn't like sunny Armadale. All I can say is he's got a funny way of showing it. Quite honestly, he must be one of the most enjoyable and stylish visitors to watch. For a number of years, I would've happily welcomed him in a Monarchs team. Granted, it's highly unlikely to ever happen, given he lives down yonder but, hey, I can only but wish. Good to see William Cairns given his full name on the big screen (black mark for the programme though, which failed miserably throughout). Hopefully one day the impressive Mitchell Cluff's name will appear in full. I'm not buying into this Mitch nonsense. Roll on the second leg and another Monarchs victory...

Funnily enough, when I went back to bed, I did think about the need for a minimum number of meetings as a threshold. You're probably looking at 3 in order to give at least a semi reasonable sample balance and avoid freak results. I suspect it's an idea which wouldn't work in practice. Otherwise, it would've been introduced before now.

As Scunthorpe is currently sitting 2.21 under the points limit, I suspect the idea is a non starter. Imagine being able to replace, say, Nathan Ablitt with Nick Morris, Lewis Kerr or Kye Thomson. On the Simon Lambert thread, there was mention of home and away averages. They used that system in the early 2000s. I liked it. It seemed a lot fairer than the likes of Scott Smith being magically absent from his upcoming trip to sunny Armadale, whilst being replaced by someone who could actually score a few. Paul Pickering for James Grieves at sunny Owlerton was another shining example. Another way to be fair could maybe be to use the missing rider's average at the track concerned e.g. say Justin Sedgmen is injured and Monarchs are going to, I dunno, let's say Glasgow. I don't have the stats at hand but, just using memory alone, it doesn't seem like he scores 'big' there? Let's say his Ashfield average is 6.85. That would be the level of guest cover available, not his rolling average of 7.52. Similarly, if there was a track he excelled at, the guest couldn't even be higher than Sedgy's green sheet figure. Either way, it's far too early on a Sunday morning to very drowning in numbers. I'm going back to bed!

All I can say is I'm glad there wasn't 25 heats last night. That must be one of the most boring meetings I've ever attended. Whatever the cause was, Monarchs staff, please get it sorted ASAP because that cannot continue under any circumstances.