jbell1995

Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed last night's meeting. Great crowd, beautiful weather and some excellent racing by two committed teams. Plenty of close, good and occasionally hard racing but a good, jovial atmosphere in the pits between both sides. Track was in good shape if not very dusty at the end but it has been a very warm week. A great advert for Championship speedway in my opinion. Ben taking the law into his own hands was a first for me and I'm sure it'll be the last time we see that from him but he contributed to a great meeting with his 3 completed rides. He took some stick on here for Friday, personally thought that was the most comfortable he's looked on a bike all season last night

I’m not sure what your expectations were of the side Garry May could’ve put together? As someone has eloquently explained on the Gladiators Facebook page when someone questioned the choice to go RR at No.1 - Out of the 14 riders available to Garry and Mark, 6 are reserves, 5 are second strong with only Kemp, Cook and Heeps as second string. Realistically the only two who could score as well as rider replacement is probably Zack Cook and Drew Kemp. However stepping up from being in the middle order for their teams to being the team’s leader at No.1, against a side who’ve been excellent all season is a really tough ask. Simply put there’s a lack of riders. There’s also a financial decision to bring into the mix. Plymouth’s chances of the playoffs are about as small as they come. They’d need to win AT LEAST 5 of their last 8 and claim a bonus point win or two in there as well, why waste money on guests when you can give your other riders track time as we try and shape the team for 2025?

Plymouth team for Friday: 1) Rider Replacement 2) Alfie Bowtell 3) Dan Thompson 4) Patrick Baek 5) Ben Barker 6) Joe Thompson 7) Jacob Hook

Real shame for Kyle to have lost his spot. Won't forget that performance late in the meeting against Berwick where he stood up and was counted when the side needed it most having lost Barker early in the fixture. Fingers crossed he can find himself a spot for next season somewhere. As the above post mentioned, with the way the fixture list panned out this year, it didn't help him not racing regularly. Something needs to be done next year with the fixture list across the Championship to stop situations like this. I'd be an advocate for racing against the other teams twice home and away personally

Not heard anything yet for either leg. In the announcement of Baek's signing last night, Mark Phillips did say Garry was still trying to source two guests (Fri and Sat)

Saves making two separate threads. Scunthorpe host Plymouth on Friday and then the reverse fixture in Devon on Saturday. Scunny looking strong this season…

I’ve just seen a duck swim past and he’s complaining about how deep the puddles are. 100% the correct decision to stop unnecessary travelling. People’s cynicism at times is baffling. The rain was consistent throughout the night, as someone who’s been awake since 3am I can vouch for that and it’s become torrential in this city this morning and isn’t relenting. If you want proof, get online later and check the cricket scores for East Cornwall and Devon… if you see a ball bowled west of Taunton today you should go and buy a lottery ticket!

You're right about replacing him, I just can't invisage there's anyone out there who'd be able to replace him this late in the season. I would imagine where possible, Batchelor will be top of the list to guest at home but away it may well have to be R/R. Can't go around just throwing money at guests anymore. Time to look ahead to next season imo

Inevitable unfortunately. Such a weird incident as well for it to happen on the start line. When he came over to the Gladiators fans on Bend 2 on Wednesday you could tell very quickly it was a bad one. Shame that it hasn't worked out.

When it rains it pours for Garry and Mark. If Covatti’s injury is as rough as it seems then Batchelor… send for Batchelor!!

Not a lot to be said about that. Congratulations to the Pirates who took full advantage tonight. Chastening night for the Gladiators. Covatti and Newman both leaving with hand/wrist issues it would seem. Best wishes to them both for their recovery. Huge thanks to Drew Kemp for his efforts tonight. Credit to Garry May and the team for coming over to the Gladiator fans on Bend 2 at the end of the night; hopefully they don’t take the defeat to heart, didn’t give up and actually scored more than some previous Plymouth teams have on other visits to Wimborne Road. Wasn’t much going on during races tonight, passing was at a premium. Atmosphere seemed very subdued and flat which is a shame. Onto the next one for the Gladiators who now just need to finish the season as strongly as they can.

Drew Kemp in for Dan Thompson

Sure it will be fine. Looking forward to it

Poole: Lawson, Thomsen, Cook, Cook, Brennan, Hagon and Foord Plymouth: Covatti, Bowtell, Thompson (or facility), Newman, Barker, Thompson and Hook as per Pirates website. Looking forward to returning to Wimborne Road, it’s been a few years since I was last there so should be a fun evening I’m sure

This is spot on and something I've referenced many times on here before. The sniping doesn't do anything but damage unfortunately. Speedway is a sport that is struggling right now outside the Premiership and having listened to Mark Lemon the other week suggesting Belle Vue need to kick on and make big events (Like the SoN) a success otherwise they're not sure how much longer they can sustain the National Stadium, that should be a big warning to everyone, if we actually needed it just the position of speedway in the UK in general We need everyone working together and on the same page to help the sport out, not constantly running clubs down when they're trying their best, often with little financial reward at the end of it.

I would say anything from 600-750, preferably the top end of that. This is a big meeting in context of the season. We saw a few decent crowds last season, Glasgow at home springs to mind was a particularly big crowd. We'll have to wait and see I guess. Just glad to finally have some racing at home again, feels like an eternity

Here we go then, chance for the Gladiators to get a second aggregate point win of the season as they take a slender lead into tomorrow’s fixture. Nico Covatti is riding at 1 for the Gladiators. Edinburgh will be a tough opponent with Picko and Paco who always go well around the Glads home track. Weather looks decent, it’s on BSN, should be a good crowd getting right behind the team as they always do. Should be good

I really hope so Club will face a decision then and given we are over the points limit, replacing him won't be easy

Fingers crossed we get a good meeting here. Harris and Worrall are a powerhouse top 2, could be a good even fight elsewhere in the line ups however...

Plymouth side announced: 1) Tate Zischke(G) 2) Alfie Bowtell 3) Dan Thompson 4) Kyle Newman 5) Ben Barker 6) Joe Thompson 7) Jacob Hook

I'll scratch him from my equations then, cheers for the heads up Steve. One less for Mark and Garry to think about but I'm sure they will make strong choices

Fresh from Tuesday night's victory over the Berwick Bandits, the Gladiators head north to Workington looking to overturn a 4 point deficit for the aggregate bonus point. Plenty of Plymouth fans travelling up for this one I believe. Looking at the two teams on paper, as with most meetings, Plymouth's reserves are going to be important here, along with the current good form of Dan Thompson and Kyle Newman was back to his best on Tuesday night as well. Workington with an impressive start to the season and with Cook and Batchelor (who's welcome at Plymouth any time after his two efforts guesting these past two weeks, what a professional!) they'll be a tough side to beat. Team wise, we know Connor Bailey is guesting for Worky in place of Tate Zischke. For the Gladiators... well two guests are required? Covatti and Barker need replacing... with no prior knowledge and just going off my own research about past results and who fits average wise, I'd suggest Kyle Howarth might be a good call to replace Covatti if he's around and willing to guest. Jake Allen, Jason Edwards, Michael Palm Toft, Leon Flint or Paco Castagna might also be reasonable shouts to replace Ben Barker.

Challenging night for everyone down at the Coliseum from the team at Gladiators TV right through to the riders on track. As stressed on the stream at the start, that weather right before the meeting caught everybody out. Forecast only changed at 4pm and the showers pre-meeting really did make those early heats tricky. Credit must go to both sets of riders, managers, the referee and the track staff who at no point complained about the situation and instead were all proactive in doing everything possible to get the meeting to reach its conclusion but once we got through heats 7+8, thankfully the weather calmed down. As mentioned in the Plymouth thread, when it rains it pours for the Gladiators in recent times. Covatti not in team colours, Dan with Covid and Ben suffering a nasty clash with the fence on the backstraight after lifting off bend 2. Fingers crossed it’s nothing too serious and he can come back 100% when he’s ready. Spirited effort from the team, Troy Batchelor with a professional guest appearance, Kyle Newman and Alfie Bowtell with good nights too but ultimately Charles Wright was a class above and with the help of Jason Edwards, the Bears proved too strong on the night. Still early days in the Gladiators season but they need to get that aggregate point next week against Berwick to really propel themselves into the mix.

I’m merely paraphrasing from Dan’s social media post earlier today

Dan Thompson suspended for 7 days for failing to attend tonight’s Premiership fixture between Ipswich and Birmingham… despite withdrawing from yesterday’s U21’s final on medical grounds, testing positive this morning for COVID and being able to give evidence of that positive test with a sick note from his doctor… wow