MD

Gating seems to be the defining factor at Sheffield these days with little or no passing. Glasgow can trap themselves but need to get off to a good start to keep the pressure on the home team. An edgy affair in prospect!

Glasgow havent ridden since 13 May and certainly not last weekend. We've had a very frustrating fixture calendar so far with too many free weekends.

Classic Dishington! Pulls some heats back but not others, gives out warnings sometimes but doesnt follow through on them for any other tapes offences. Worst ref by far. He disappeared off the scene for a bit last year and thought he had been given his jotters.

Why would Redcar not just tell Hall after Thursdays meeting is out of the way, meaning Hall would be riding and not an NL guest? All sounds very amateurish to tell him today.

Flicked the back wheel at him on turn 1. Lawson is a pretty sedate character but he was furious afterwards.

Pretty lacklustre affair until the last few heats when a bit of needle crept in. Garrity had a wild lunge wide without looking over his shoulder off the second bend in ht11 almost wiping out Perry who he never looked to see was there. Its easy to see his absolute disregard for other riders has rightly earned him the rep of a pr1ck. Summers took care of Garrity in ht13 though things warmed up in ht14. Jonas B Andersens move to run wide off gate 1 and block Lawsons run round the outside was mis-timed rather malicious IMO. It sent RL into a wobble off the fence and forced him to the back though he worked his way through the pack in a bit of a rage and almost got Andersen. In the ensuing words in the pits Barker was in amongst it for no apparent reason and this seemed to fire him up for ht15 when he went under Summers off the second bend and firmly shut the door to win in a great heat. If only he'd shown the same desire last year!

We also have two blank Saturdays in June. We seem to suffer from this every year though and run out of available dates at the business end!

Liam Carr would be a better shout once Riss M moves up.

Definitely not a good forecast for this one, irritating in that last Saturday was glorious and we couldn't get anyone to fulfil the fixture. Be interesting to see the how the resurgent Garrity goes, he usually finds an injury in the few days before an Ashfield fixture.

Definitely not good for momentum, we also have two blank home fixtures in June which doesnt help.

And thats a surprise to you? There will be a raft of team changes over the next fortnight as the new averages come into effect so riders will be available. The challenge is finding someone on his average who would be better.

Would have definitely taken a point before the meeting. Seems a decent result especially as we needed a 5-1 in ht15.

Glasgow are at Ipswich on Thursday so it wont be Richie Worrall.

Bewley was the difference. Scored 2 against Workington, narrow home win but scored 13+2 against the 0131, resounding home win.

Broken thumb for Lunna which im sure he also did last season at Redcar and is facing a spell out.

His average must be down around 3. If KOC matches count towards averages, Edinburgh will have completed 4 home and away when they go to PB a week on Sunday.

What were we worried about! Total anti-climax as Glasgow ran riot other than the impressive Riss M at reserve taking both of Edinburghs two race wins. Pickering looks a decent find despite his score and could really come on with a spell at reserve if EDI could get Clegg out the way. Masters was very poor, Wells was just as he always is at Ashfield. Bewley finally came to life with a paid max and was well backed up by the top 3. Hopefully Lunna has got away with severe bruising after a difficult ht3. MacGregor was desperate to catch out either Wells or Worrall in ht15 which made it a bit of a farce. The riders didnt help matters during the meeting by refusing to come to the tapes until long after the 2 mins had expired which dragged out an already long meeting. However all in all I'll never tire pumping this lot regardless of how.

Summers/Worrall against Masters/Wells should be superb. Thats what we pay the money for. Outwith the top end we need to batter them in the middle order. Erik Riss doesnt seem to like close quarter racing and Max Clegg is last years underperforming reserve nobody thought would be back. We'll have to take points here as Mark Riss is a trump card at reserve. He impressed me last season and not just cos he refused to yield to Masters in one heat. My only prediction is Clegg wont be in ht14.

Numbers definitely arent her thing.

Thats exactly the point im trying to make that the apologists want to gloss over. The warning signs are there. Edinburgh are the form team right now and we had to take a mid table side to a last heat decider at home.

Its a discussion forum and its not off limits. Because Worky are a mid table team.

No offence intended. Campton or Roynon.

Winging it is exactly right, although it was only our third home meeting we are fragile and the 0131 will more than turn us over on Saturday if we ride the same. No way should Workington, Cook apart be running us close at home. I lost count of the number of last places we picked up against average riders. Perry had umpteen unsuccesful goes at passing Campton on the outside when the answer was to go hard under him. Its frustrating to watch when you see Bewley and Smith score decent points for Belle Vue from the same positions. Im astonished to read Stewart Dickson say in the after match report he couldnt quite put his hand on what happened. Eh, the bottom four cant gate other than Lunna borrowing Summers bike in ht14. I know we are still in April and the younger riders need time to settle but they also need to convert their effort into points sooner rather than later.

Two hour borefest.