pointsmeanplayoffs

Need a big performance tomorrow night against the table topping Coventry Bees. A team that goes through adversity, and comes through the other side, will be stronger than one that gets off to a flyer and then has a wobble. Stick together, we'll be fine.

I agree it wasn't just gate and go, the Aces riders seemed to adapt to the different track conditions much faster than the Stars. The Aces were my tip at the start of the season actually, think I said so on the BV page when they announced their top 5. My only concern was believe or not was Scott Nicholls struggling as 2nd ht leader but he has been consistently very good so far. Yes, losing Steady is a huge blow but strong guest bookings like North last night should mean BV can cover Steady. Not many teams will beat BV at home once the season is up and running properly. Good times to be an Aces fan and after the last few seasons who can begrudge them? Not me for one.

Stars didn't lose a heat after heat 8, let's not get too hysterical about a bad start to a meeting shall we? Well done Belle Vue, great display of gating to start the meeting. No coming back from that.

Aces so far have fallen well short of my expectations so far, therefore I fully expect them to up their game tonight though seeing as they're against my Stars : ( Do well to take a point away from home. Hopefully the rain stays away and I can win lots of cash gambling on heat winners from gate 4 : )

This time last year Stars were a million points clear already (OK a slight exaggeration but you get my point!) and look what happened. It's still early. We've had 2 away meeting at places we have not done well at for quite a while and have had two heavy losses. BUT we have had 3 50pts plus wins at home, we have a rider in Robert Lambert who has come on loads since last season, Lewis Kerr is as good as any reserve, a Number 1 who I wouldn't swap for anyone and even Rory is winning races. Yes Bjerre is a worry, as is Ash and Nicklas will improve with track time. Let's not push the panic button just yet eh?!? Can't see any changes until/if we start losing points at home..... Well done Swindon last night, a solid home performance and Nick Morris should be applauded for a stellar couple of evenings work.

I'd be delighted for an away point tonight. Shame Swindon have so many injuries, always an entertaining match with 2 full teams. The fact that Newman has a lower draft ranking than Charles Wright shows what kind of Poole manipulated joke the whole rider seeding was. Before anyone goes on about "Yeah it was based on his PL average" well anyone can find a criteria which suits them. Fact is, Newman won Poole the EL last year and his seeding should have reflected the advantage he was for Poole. Anyway, back on topic, I predict a strong Robins showing, winning by 10.

I was unable to make it last night, sounds like I missed a decent meeting though from the updates I was getting. Very happy that Lewis Kerr had a good night, and a pretty solid showing from the rest exc. Ash. I know he blew an engine after the last Stars home meeting, did he seem that slow or was he always in contention? I see he set a Plymouth track record the other night though?!? Apparently the track was safe and there were working tapes?!? Sounds a lot better than the last meeting I was at : ) Onto Swindon, then onto the World Championship we roll!!!

As one of the 50,000 or so paying punters in Warsaw the other night, I can honestly say I am glad if there was some kind of 'riders revolution' and that they refused to ride on that track Why should they go flat out into the corners not knowing what's gonna happen? They are not performing seals, they are professional sportsman who are aware and accept a certain level of risk inherent in Speedway. They cannot be expected to just put EVERYTHING at risk. This sport is dangerous enough. The track was dangerous, but the starting tapes were embarrassing. On the biggest stage of all, the very foundations of what's needed for a speedway meeting were not in place which is completely unacceptable. Who is ultimately responsible for this? Ole Olsen and his gang? What they created was not 'fit for purpose'. It was just completely unacceptable. Why was there no back up start tapes?!? FFS come on you have 50,000 people coming, a pretty big TV audience and you don't think of this?!? There was about 5 different replacement set of tapes laid out ready on the centre green just in case of riders breaking the tapes but no back up posts/magnets? Yes I'm angry, but my over-riding feeling is dejection. This Warsaw GP should have been an opportunity to showcase our sport, but instead all it did was highlight problems symptomatic of 'a mickey mouse sport' which is heart breaking as I love speedway and stand up for it all the time against constant mockery from fans of other sports. I'm not sure I can defend my sport anymore after such events : (

Pretty excited about Warsaw now, cannot believe how cheap the weekend is going to be compared to Cardiff.

Big crowd too, biggest for some time. Does Lynn publish attendance figures? Must have been at least a 2000 there, biggest I've seen at Speedway for a while.

It will probably be Rory, he guests so much he probably has a race jacket for each of the EL teams in his van : ) Get's him track time on 'away' tracks so should benefit Lynn when we visit there.

Regarding the programme, it is much better than the fold up effort of 2014. Credit where it's due for listening to feedback. The scorecard also changed slightly this week with the lines made darker so it's easier to fill in. Also like Rory's weekly column and the update on how the riders are doing elsewhere which will be awesome once the Polish and Scandi seasons kick in. Wouldn't mind seeing a few more stats in there as the season progresses, perhaps some of those fancy infographics you see nowadays. Then again, I love stats perhaps some others don't care so much. Did you know for example that up until last night, 50% of the heats ridden by Lewis Kerr this season for Lynn has ended in a shared heat?!?!

Just wondering whether anyone knows when the first '20 match based' rolling averages are going to be issued out, and what the cut off points for including meetings are?

Well that was more straightforward than I thought it was going to be! Big difference was the return to form of Kenneth Bjerre, apparently he has reverted back to his old engines after the new ones for this season haven't been working out that well (putting it mildly!). Say what you like about Bjerre but I think we can rely on him to WIN races when we're at home against fellow heat leaders which takes the pressure of Niels and Rory. Speaking of Rory, I thought he was rider of the night for Stars, superb. He looks a different rider this year. One point of concern was our reserves being outscored, at home, again. Nice to see Porsing back on form too after a disrupted start to the season.

I think that Kerr and Morris could be the key tonight as the main bodies look pretty even. Morris has impressed me and should outscore Nielsen who looked uncomfortable on a big fast track at Pbo the other night. Kerr will match Worrall. It's gonna be a tight one.

I spotted the bump into turn 1 also, that looked pretty hairy with riders bouncing into the turn at full whack trying to turn bike.

Weather looks good, Buster should have plenty of time to perfect the track : ) How solid is that Belle Vue side?!? No weak links in that top 5. Hopefully Kenneth will sort his form out otherwise I fear that we may lose here. Cannot keep relying on Niels to win the big heats and I recall Zagar was decent last year when he tried. A home win, by 1 point, would do me.

After Lakeside on Friday, it made a nice change to see a track with some material on it and it certainly made for a much more entertaining meeting (also helped by the lack of idiots shouting abuse at opposing riders which never helps). Some really good racing, particularly pre-interval. Did look a little heavy on turn 3 though which was catching a lot of people out when they went in deep. Anyone who didn't enjoy watching King, Lambert and Ostergaard pin it around turns 1 and 2 doesn't like speedway, it was glorious. A good night's entertainment from a neutral perspective, I didn't care that the home team had massive home track advantage as the racing was good.

Great debate although there are some pretty sensationalist statements. I guess it depends on peoples interpretation of what makes a 'good track'. Buster was asked at a team presentation evening a few years back about the track. It was suggested that Lynn don't dominate their home meetings as much as other teams do because we don't have much of a track advantage. Most teams are full of riders who are openly fans of the track and therefore over perform there compared to other 'away tracks'. It was even suggested by a fan that Buster should dig a few holes in it which only the Lynn riders know about to give us more of an unfair advantage! Buster to his credit dismissed this ludicrous idea and explained the great pride he takes in preparing a quality race track. Yes, he owns the place so has unlimited access, and yes he own loads of machinery so can do whatever preparation he likes but the fact remains the track at Norfolk Arena has won the best prepared track in the Elite League for a few seasons on the trot now and it still remains popular with riders like Chris Holder and Troy Batchelor. Good enough for me. No track is perfect all the time though, no one is saying that. At Lynn we feel that our track is better prepared than most. Sometimes this is to our disadvantage like in the play-offs semis last year when somehow Buster got the track ready so that the meeting could go on despite knowing that the conditions would level out any home advantage we might have against a mighty strong Poole team. And so it turned out, we took no real advantage to Wimbourne Road and just fell short of making the final. This season is still so early, the conditions for speedway are frankly still a little ludicrous with rain and freezing's conditions prevalent which cannot help track conditions. Some of the racing seen at Lynn this year has been a bit processional but to start rubbishing the track is pathetic. I'm not going to throw stones at other peoples tracks, my opinion is only my opinion after all. It might be worth considering that maybe the riders are still not fully up to speed and are making a few mistakes which isn't helping the racing. Hopefully this is coming across as a balanced and reasoned opinion from someone who visits all tracks in the EL each season.

Bet we see a different Lakeside to the one we saw last night! Would take a battling away point right now. 1pm start is better for travelling fans too, so bravo Lakeside. Bees v Leicester isn't until 7.30pm so surely we could use one of their EDR's? Buster loves Jason Garrity after his play off escapades standing in for Kerr and he did well at Lakeside last season I think so that might not be a bad shout? R/R for Nicklas seems sensible if he's carrying a groin injury.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh

Regarding the track, I'd rather listen to the opinions of riders as opposed to a load of keyboard warriors with agendas. They all seem to enjoy riding it which is good enough for me. Just happy that the meeting was on, which after the crazy weather we had yesterday was no mean feat. Racing was 'poor' last night as only one team turned up.

Is Porsing actually fit to ride tonight? The picture he put on instagram of his knee the other day didn't look promising. It was the size of a football. A lot of pressure is on our second strings this season, now our reserves aren't sooooo much better than their counterparts. It's going to be freezing later but f*** it I'm going to cheer on the boys.

There is an important difference between preparing a track and REPAIRING a track. Everyone knows about the holes in Poole's track, yet no work is done to repair them.

Poole use their track as a significant home advantage. It's rubbish yes, even their own riders acknowledge it could be better prepared (nothing to do with the shape like Lakeside and Eastbourne). They choose not to improve it as the Pirates can ride it better than anyone else. This means they win. Which means fans keeps coming through the gates.