MD

Harkess smelt an away win and the chance to piss all over our event. Not to be. The Monarchs will get plenty practice at the new improved Ashfield being back twice again before the end of May.

He needs to be man managed and put on a tight leash. Im surprised by last night, surely we have said to him we'll bring you back but the tapes issues must stop. He's played victim too often in the past and in reality his career is in the last chance saloon. Only he can want to change. He'll be replaced if he doesnt!

Pretty decent opener, JPB done us a favour, Jack Thomas had one of the best senior debuts' you are likely to see. Pushed Sarjeant into the shadows, who clearly hasnt learned anything from the last 3-4 seasons with another batch of tapes offences. Vissing, Kerr and Starke superb. For the 0131, Wells and Riss E were good, Williamson strong at reserve. Ruml looked steady and Andersson not at the races. Well set up for next Friday.

Rain and 6 degrees. With quite a few blank Fridays over the season did we really have to start in March.

Dont think our owners do second chances. They wont be mucked about and rightly so.

Replacing a 2 pointer who got injured during the season was always going to be a problem but doing it before a wheel is turned adds another level of difficulty. Leaves an opportunity to restructure the team and give it more balance, there are some high averaged reserve pairings out there. The Facenna's arent shy about making hard nosed business decisions and I would have no hesitation in saying thanks but unfortunately .... to CV and using the combined points to have a higher averaged reserve if suitable riders could be found. The Scottish Cup meetings are challenges so we have a bit of time before the first official fixture where we are committed to that team.

No more knee deep tracks would be a good thing.

Didnt mean NCL just used them as an example. Three points should be the minimum entry to our league IMO.

Thats partly a consequence of having 2 point riders on both teams, the gulf from No1 to 7 was ridiculous. Newcastle on one visit had Coles and Hopwood who were adrift after a lap in almost every heat. Thats cost cutting at its worst, i would have preferred six man teams to last season. If the track is 2m wider the fastest line hopefully wont be sitting 6 inches off the fence. Looking forward to it already.

You couldnt make it up!

Anyway watch EDI pull a rabbit out of the hat and end up with a better rider than they were originally signing.

Fair point but the number of meetings between the two clubs has a saturation point. With the now Scottish Cup, League Cup, KO Cup and League meeting, that is more than enough to see Edinburgh in one season. The potential is also there to meet in the playoffs.

More likely a revenue exercise as the meetings are unlikely to be covered by season tickets which is understandable. The proof is the pudding if crowds hold up.

zzzzzzzzz. Never missed it or the Spring Trophy in the two years its been gone. Devalues the league meeting during the season when genuine points are up for grabs and both teams put in full effort. The first match of the season is always very well attended regardless of the visitors.

Dont think he is a promoter. Mouthpiece perhaps but almost certainly not promoter.

Looking at the pictures of how much the track is being taken in on Twitter, are Ashfield Juniors moving out?

Thats the issue, you pay in varying amounts as long as they reach a minimum amount each year and only get a flat rate the same as everyone else back out. IMO the state pension should be a government administered scheme that reflects what you have paid in i.e. if you dont contribute you cant take out.

In many cases it is the pension contributions of those workers that are paying for retirees pensions however this is the fault of neither group. Also pensioners currently can draw their state pension at 65, ive seen some reports that for my age group it could be 71. Times have definitely changed, attitudes take longer to catch up.

Thats the crucial question though i would suspect very few. In reality we are talking about the price of a programme here. All paying punters have to make a value judgment of whether it is worth it or not. Last season Concessions would have paid in to 18 league meetings, this year there are fewer meaning the true cost of the collective season March to October will be less than the previous year. The Concession is a legacy privilege thats continued from yesteryear however nothing stays the same forever. I recall reading in the 2015 programme notes that the Concession rate was being abused and some sort of age verification was being brought in. Perhaps its not changed.

So looks like the Tigeratti arent overly impressed with another season of a 2 pointer and what effectively becomes a six man team.

Makes you think that we had done a deal with said 2 pointer long before the season ended, then the AGM removed the requirement to have one. In that scenario Vissing is the one that makes up the final numbers. The logic otherwise is lost on me.

Other than one match with Edinburgh in 2013 I cant agree. There is a bit of the maniac about him. Whilst he can be covered for in the 1-5, I think our points would have been better spent on a strong reserve and a weaker No2. Looks like we are again fielding an untried 2 pointer, likely to be Bickley. That puts the pressure on Sarjeant who is twitchy at the best of times. should he get injured we are stumped. A strong reserve can take seven rides and replace any of their team mates, a weak reserve can't meaning there are fewer opportunities on the racecard to gain advantages in the heats they are in. Thats a huge part of what stuffed us this season.

Superb middle order rider in Starke, absolutely solid, unless the travelling gets to him!

Remember seeing he couldn't ride Ashfield or most of the small tracks we visited. He will do it in time but is at least a year too early for our league. He is much more comfortable on bigger tracks. The benefits you mention certainly werent in points and i dont see 2018 as his breakthrough year.

Signing Lewis Kerr is where we should have been this year i.e dropping one of the top 3, bringing in a 6 pointer and using those two points at the bottom of the order. We benefitted from signing Worrall in the same way in 2016.