Boro Bare

According to one of the Greyhound forums there’s been a fire at the track today. No info on damage yet.

Yeah he was declared fit and was under 2 minutes. During the 2 minutes it was announced he didn’t have a bike. Once he was excluded he withdrew injured. All within the space of a couple of minutes. Don’t know if the paramedic reassessed him, doubt they had time, maybe it was Danny Ford. Who knows?

First time I’ve seen a rider withdrawn for having an injured bike. Hope it gets better soon.

I suspect we’d have seen a lot better performance from Redcar’s youngsters if things had worked out as planned over the last 14 months. Our team structure relies on a strong top 3 doing most of the heavy lifting and we just haven’t had that. Connor was a late addition to the team last year. We lost Eric early on and he was only a shadow of his former (or current) self when he returned. We were still just about in with a shout of winning something when we lost Charles and the season quickly fizzled out. We’ve started 2024 by losing TJ and then almost straight away lost Danny. Puts a lot of pressure on the bottom end to perform in every heat with no respite. I’m sure Connor, Jason and Jake will put a couple of points on their averages at some point and I wouldn’t want to lose any of them. Just a bit tough being a Redcar fan/rider/promoter in the meantime that’s all. Similar situation at other teams to be fair.

Quite surprised by the dust comments. I genuinely didn’t see any at all. Thought the racing was an improvement on previous weeks as well. I’ve certainly seen less entertaining meetings at other tracks this year that aren’t attracting this level of criticism. As a Redcar fan I’m still disappointed but i think that’s more down to how poor the team has been. Doesn’t matter what the track is like, slow riders aren’t going to pass anyone and admiring your opponents ability to overtake wears a bit thin after a while.

Wonder if Kasper’s absence is significant. Switching him for Starke would be a good move in my opinion.

The fact that Smith has been signed suggests that’s the only change in the pipeline. Even if a top rider becomes available it doesn’t make sense to drop BWD. The team is that far below the points limit that only the weakest rider will need to be replaced ……. which is Smith. So unless George has asked to be dropped why sign Smith just to drop him straight away?

I was thinking something similar myself regarding the Rowe situation. Is Anders definitely serving a 28 day ban now though or are we just assuming that’s the case because Leicester have been granted a facility? Must admit I didn’t think/realise the whole “withholding services” rule was intended for circumstances like this where the rider has left the club permanently and seemingly by mutual agreement. I thought it was to prevent riders picking and choosing which meetings to attend or effectively going on strike to get their own way about something. Even then clubs occasionally do allow riders to be absent riding in un-sanctioned meetings where a facility isn’t granted and they have to use NL guests with no bans handed out. Plus we have riders not returning from meetings abroad when they’re meant to and only getting 14 day bans. I’m not against a temporary facility being granted for Leicester, not their fault after all and they need time to find a solution. I’m just questioning whether a rider ban has to follow and whether it has to be for 28 days? It does seem a very one sided rule if that is the case. I.e, if a club can replace a rider without notice and without consequence why can’t the rider leave the club on exactly the same terms? Assuming Anders is banned and wants to continue riding elsewhere in the UK does anyone know if he can he sign (but not ride) for another club before the ban is up and before his average increases or does the ban include all forms of activity?

I thought the track was excellent. Deep but consistent. With it being deep it took a little maintaining but a huge improvement. On the flip side though any home advantage is now lost but hopefully riders who perhaps wouldn’t have wanted to come to Newcastle in the past will now give it a go.

Must admit I have seen worse meetings at Brough this year and I was surprised to see the extent of track damage in the pictures. It explains the number of first/second bend falls although that end of the track has appeared patchy all year. I don’t know if there were concerns about the track before racing began or not. But when the first call was made from for the clerk of the course to contact the referee Roy Clarke said “I wonder how many times we’ll hear that tonight?” it suggested something might not be right. 2 decent races in my opinion. Ulle going round the outside of Starke on bend 4 (the first outside pass I’ve seen at Brough this year) and heat 10 with Howarth and Basso passing each other before Wethers nipped up the inside to pip them both. Wethers does seem to be the master at getting underneath anyone who moves a millimetre off the white line coming off bend 4. Hope he’s not too bruised after his off. I saw Cook talking to Wright after they got a bit close in heat 5. I was expecting fireworks - there weren’t any. Couldn’t tell if Craig was complaining or asking James if he was alright. All very civilised in the circumstances. Tonight’s updates do seem to have a slight hint of home bias. Hopefully everything gets sorted next week both on and off the track. I suspect speedway needs Newcastle rather more than Newcastle needs speedway.

Very pleased with that. Hugely entertaining rider.

Excellent performance from James Wright this afternoon at Scunny. Far better than I was expecting I have to admit.

I’m all for riders being required to honour their contract/commitments but sometimes that isn’t possible and common sense has to prevail. Let’s not forget there were actually 5 riders missing from that meeting not just the 3 from Redcar that have been highlighted in this thread. 1 of them being Lewis Rose who also had a contract/commitments. Newcastle get a facility for a rider who doesn’t want to ride at the moment whereas Redcar get no such consideration for 2 riders who weren’t able to ride. I’m not criticising Lewis for taking time out after his injuries, nor am I criticising Newcastle for making best use of the facility afforded to them. The rules are the rules and everything that’s happened here is by the book. Just pointing out that sometimes sh*t happens and there isn’t much you can do about it.

That tweet was last month DIAMONDS. Last I heard Carr was still riding unless Schramm has recovered.

I suspect you're right Hulvik, you'd most likely have got sacked in the same circumstances. I also suspect though that if the colleague you kicked had recklessly knocked you off your motorbike in the car park injuring you and writing off your bike in the process he'd have got into trouble as well.

Lots of speculation about Redcar keeping Konopka tonight in place of Hall. Anyone know if or how that's possible? If he was a permanent signing then obviously there's no problem but the general consensus on the Bears forum is that he was only signed as a temporary replacement. If that is the case can Redcar now switch Konopka for Hall given the team is over the points limit and Konopka has a higher average than Hall? Or does the fact that Konopka was replacing Hall mean that a permanent switch can now be made regardless of theirs or the teams average? Or was he permanent all along? Anyone know for sure? Thanks

To be fair to Wolbert he was a lot better value than his 4 point haul suggests. His low score certainly wasn't through lack of effort. He was involved in some close races and was pushing the Lawson/Summers pairing when he crashed heavily in his last ride.

I don't know what restrictions Scunthorpe have with regards to start times, or what impact an earlier start would have had to the crowd size and therefore profitability of the meeting, but it does seem a shame the meeting couldn't have started a little earlier to give Rose and Kerr time to travel. Even a 2pm start and a change in the Newcastle riding order (together with permission to leave the meeting early for the general good of speedway - if permission is required) could have seen both riders on the road in plenty of time for their next engagement and left this looking a far more attractive meeting.

Well said. We don't want the Bears remarkable victory tonight and qualification to the next stage to be overshadowed by any more unpleasantness. Plenty of positive comments on here regarding how smooth the Brough track is as well at the moment (although granted most are written by Tsunami). Sensible choice for Dilger to leave his UK return from a broken leg until tonight rather than risking it at the STMP.

Really annoying thing is that when racing did eventually start it was quite a good meeting with as much passing as I've seen anywhere this year. There was way too much dust right from the start and turns 1 and 2 became too slick towards the end of the meeting but that was down to the lack of grading and watering which wasn't happening because of the delayed start. Could and should have been an excellent night. Good effort from the bears all the same and that was the best I've ever seen Wells ride. Great tussle with Ostergaard and Davey to take the win on the last lap in ht 10. Thought Albin deserved better than his 4 points as well. Let's see what next week brings.

Appreciate the content of your post there Chewbacca and the acknowledgement that this is a 2 way problem thats been going on for years. Sadly the Tyne Tees rivalry brings out the worst in both sets of supporters and I'm a little tired of the "your fans are worse than ours" argument from both sides with some posters clearly more interested in antagonising the situation than finding a solution. Less impressed with Idanthyrsus' attempt to fan the flames further though. At no point has Mr Middlesbrough said the incident was Richie's fault nor has he tried to blame the Newcastle fans. Like I said though, some people are only interested in antagonising the situation. Don't think segregation is necessary either. If there's a will to sort this behaviour out then both promo's currently have an ideal opportunity to do so. With the meeting being recorded, the abuse clearly coming from near where the accident occured, a couple of witnesses plus Richie's own input then surely the culprit can be identified. So obvious you wonder why it isn't happening, who knows, maybe attempts are being made behind the scenes that we just don't know about. Sincerely hope so. Peace out.

The official Redcar website has had the CMAs reset to zero for next year. Skidmore and Dyer are included as you'd expect. More interestingly though Dilger has also been included while Wilko's name is missing. Anyone know if this is just a mistake or is Dilger now in and Wilko out?

I'm not sure whether I'm for or against the play offs but I do find it interesting that those who believe Newcastle are the "true" league champions are happy to discredit the play offs but say nothing at all about the points scoring system used this year. Both the play offs and points scoring are as good/bad as each other depending on your point of view. Newcastle only finished top of the league because frequent narrow defeats are rewarded more than occasional additional victories. Under a more logical scoring system the best team, i.e the team that won the most meetings would have finished top and Newcastle would have finished fourth behind Workington. The teams who won the most meetings were Scunthorpe and Somerset with Scunthorpe having the better points difference of the 2. Justice done IMO. Well done Scunthorpe and Somerset, the best 2 teams in the league.

Wouldn't go for Yogi personally, attitude sucks since he started doubling up, all this "smarter than the av-er-age bear" nonsense, we've had enough of that this season, and let's not forget the pic-a-nic basket incident either, disruptive influence IMO.