Steve55

Have to say that the only two that I could be 'disappointed' with were Kurtz and Bjerre, but knowing it's not their favourite track I can't be too critical of them. Kurtz was gating better than the Diamonds riders in most of his heats, but just couldn't maintain his position, other than in heat 8, when he made a decent job of beating Lewis Rose who pushed him hard throughout the race. Why he couldn't do that in his other rides only he knows. Bjerre could have scored a couple more points, but wasn't helped when Bates fell in front of him in heat 3 and when he went too wide in heat 10 and fell himself. Howarth scored 6, but how can you level any criticism at him for the effort he put in, his tussle with Rob Lambert in heat 6 was brilliant riding from both of them. All in all Newcastle deserved the win and Sheffield deserved a point, a good meeting for the fans to watch I think you'll agree. Think you're being a little over critical of Ben Hopwood (the 'dirt devil') there aren't you!

Thanks for that, suppose they'll have to wait and see what they've got to play with numbers wise. From what's being said though JPB might come back after his 'break' from racing. He'll just have to stop using his step-dads engines!

Nice one, but no thanks! Enjoyed the meeting up there tonight also enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere and exchanges with the Diamonds fans, will come again! Jake Knight got a mention this evening, believe he's a Sheffield asset, but thought he'd packed up to keep a real job, and he couldn't handle the Sheffield track. Roynon - thought the number 7 had to be a 2 point average, so think that applies to Dan Greenwood also? Think Scunny have signed Liam Carr as we were talking about him a couple of weeks ago.

So what happened to his retirement from speedway, did he try a real job and find it too hard to do!

Things could have been even better tonight but for two or three incidents going for Sheffield. However if JPB had have just persisted for this weekend before making his decision to have a break, again things could've been different (in favour of the Tigers) in my opinion. The Newcastle fans were moaning about Connor Coles this evening, but when questioned about who they'd get to replace him - nobody could come up with a suggestion, so who do Sheffield go for?

Branford and Howarth took his bikes out after Thursdays meeting, they looked ok. Think he struggles with the bigger tracks, been doing alright in the NL, number 1 for the Brummies at present I believe. Could've done with him at Edinburgh and Newcastle over the weekend, but he knows what's best for him I suppose!

It had a good soaking last week and there seemed to be plenty of depth to it. There were some deepish tyre tracks around the outside of the track surface which gave the appearance of plenty of dirt. Still that was last week when they expected rain (and they got plenty of it) this week, well probably back to the same old same old!

Howarth was fast out the gate and attacked the track at every opportunity last week. If he rides with the same commitment this week Scunny have a chance. With Douglas back this will also bolster them and Auty can't ride as bad two weeks on the trot at home - can he? Can just see a really close meeting if all the riders are up for it, would have liked to come across this afternoon, but unfortunately got 'family' commitments. Prepare to be entertained if you can make it!

The forecast for yesterday afternoon and evening was for occasional showers during the afternoon, then nothing between 7pm and 9pm. How wrong they were! However I must say that it did seem to be brightening up at one point, before the leaden skies darkened once more for the rest of the evening. Can't blame the promotion for this one - but the meteorologists can have some, the useless buggers!

Last time I saw Sedgmen ride at Sheffield he came as a guest for Sheffield and scored 0 from 3 rides, think he pulled up in his last outing with mechanical issues (or was it embarrassment!) Anyway I think he's improved somewhat since then and I'm looking forward to heat 3. Don't think the track will need any water on it tonight!

Auty finished at the back in his first ride (heat 1) in the British Semi and looked hopeless! But he upped his game and improved as the evening progressed. On Sunday he didn't look that interested and got worse as the meeting went on. Leicester have dropped him, why would anyone want to sponsor him? Have Hirst Electrical pulled the plug on him? (Excuse the pun!)

Know what you mean, always decent at the EWR, but think Rob Godfrey was a bit OTT in some of his comments, apart from how good Kyle Howarth was today! I take it you mean Bates was 'unbeatable', unless you've been in his company for the remainder of the evening? Taking the fourth bend on the back wheel in his first race was a bit much halfway through the race, celebrating a 5 - 1 at that time eh!

Thought Branford looked ok the other night. He seemed to be riding within himself in heat 2 as if he was holding Hall off JPB, very sensible riding looking for a max result. Believe it was one of Steadys' engines he was using, don't think he had it at Scunny today though, he looked a different rider to the one I saw on Thursday!

Barker took Kurtzs' front wheel as he came inside him and took the bike from under him, should have been excluded, but in the overall way things went it didn't make much difference. Sheffield had all the bad luck early on whilst Redcar were riding poorly and then Sheffield had better luck later when the Bears seemed to improve.

Sheffield website and seen the notification of the teams for this meeting, from that it looks like Sheffield have changed their riding order with Bates at number 4 and Kurtz at number 2. Why? The only thing I can see is to give us a stronger pairing in heat 8, but weaker in heat 14. Are they hoping we will have won the meeting by heat 14!

Thanks Junior fan. Sounds like if it's a long term injury he might eventually require surgery, still if he's riding through the pain he's still doing a good job for the team. One tough b@stard in my view, I certainly couldn't do it!

I'm sure we are! What's Rob Branfords' injury? We noticed he didn't ride as well last Thursday against P'boro as he had before (apart from the first running of heat 14 where he was well away before it was stopped!)

Nice to hear something about the actual meeting!

As I posted 3 or 4 hours before what would have been the start of the meeting I considered this a good call by the promotion. I'm only 5 miles from the stadium, but I appreciate the early call of a postponement. Can remember several Neil Machin weather forecasts in the past where despite poor national or local forecasts, "the meeting was definitely on". Only to arrive at the stadium to either see the track water-logged, or it starting to rain just before or just after the start of the meeting. The promotion will take a bit of a hit financially, but how much have they saved the paying public in travelling costs and time. The rain today has been in showers of varying times and intensity. Yes there have been blue skies and a drying breeze, but some of the rain here was at times biblical and it only needed one of those to hit the track to put the meeting in doubt! So come on guys stop having a go at the people in charge, who in my view have taken the right decision for all concerned.

About 5 miles from stadium and its been bucketing down for the last half hour. The 'Look North' news and weather forecast at 1.45 pm showed showers during the afternoon and continuos heavy rain from 7 pm to 9 pm. In my opinion this was a good call by the promotion.

Well Ipswich put 60 points on them on Saturday and ran them close on Monday so on current form it should be a comfortable win for the Tigers tonight. However I thought Ipswich would give us a good test last week and look what happened after heat three! Peterboro' usually do well at our place, Holder and Ostergaard seem to like our track and if they get infront can't see our lads getting past them. Tigers better have their gating gloves on this evening.

The quality of the racing seems to have diminished at Sheffield since the installation of the air fence. Can't imagine why it might be a factor other than it's taken about two and a half to three feet off the width of the bends. Might just be a coincidence, or is it that I don't particularly like it! Didn't seem to make much of an additional safety measure again on Thursday when Danny King seemed to go under it after his bike hit it first. Seen that happen so many times as when Jason Doyle got badly injured towards the end of last season in the Grand Prix.

This could only happen in British Speedway - a rule book that you fill in as the season progresses, by whoever picks it up! Unbelievable, laughable rubbish!

The confusion over who has first call on Rob Branford seems to continue. There's a reference to it in this weeks SS in which the Rockets team manager says "The rulebook says he should have been with us, but we have been over-ruled by the management committee. As we were in the Premier League last year, we've been told that we have to abide by what happened last year and treat him as if he is a Premier League (Championship) rider." If that's the case why is he riding for Rye House tonight and not Sheffield? I understand he is an asset of Redcar, so shouldn't Sheffield (Championship team) have first call on him? Or have the two decided to take it in turns to get guests when fixture clashes occur. It's all as clear as mud to me. Does anyone have a definitive answer?

Nah, Ipswich are a far better side than Berwick, can see this being close, possibly a last heat decider! Hope so as it keeps it more interesting, pretty boring last week, apart from some decent riding from Todd Kurtz. Having said that his younger brother wasn't bad, but it was tapes up - gone in all his races. No wonder he says it's one of his favourite tracks!