Steve Shovlar

Forecast not looking great now with rain crossing the country and due early evening. A pain as all the travelling fans have either arrived or are on their way. Let’s hope the rain arrives early to avoid travel or late so the meeting can be run at a quick pace.

Got our tickets. Weather is set fair no risk of rain so it’s going to be a big crowd with loads travelling up from Dorset. Really looking forward to it after a long winter.

No point listing best ever Swindon riders. Got to just be a competitive lineup.

Excellent fixture. Just imagine if this was the Swindon team in their prime. Place would be heaving. Doyle Batchelor Gjedde Morris Nilsson Karger Ashby But whatever team represents Swindon I am sure it will be a very competitive fixture.

Anyway I am sure when this meeting is rerun it’s going to be a sellout and very enjoyable for both sets of fans, whether Oxford or Swindon. It’s a travesty that Swindon are not currently running and have the fan base to easily be run at a profit. The MP for Swindon Tomlinson was next to useless and offered no more than thoughts and prayers. Swindon Council should step up to the plate and allocate a slice of land. What the point of living in a conurbation with 200,000 others if all they have is restaurant chains, a few multiplexes and STFC (who I support). The citizens of Swindon deserve a speedway team.

So with both meetings rained off tonight, next Wednesday brings about the first meeting of the season for both sides. Oxford clearly have a huge advantage having had a practice on their track, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the meeting came down to the final couple of heats. Clearly Oxford have a big advantage in heat 15, but if Pirates can go into the ladt heat 2 points up, it’s all to play for. A meeting not to be missed. Going to be an absolute classic. Don’t miss out.

It takes about 8 mins to walk from the Unipart car park to the stadium. To be honest it’s not worth the shuttle bus unless you are weak and feeble. Easy walk both ways. For some unfathomable reason the old car park right next to the stadium is sealed off and not used.

Likely to get a bigger crowd on that date.

Is this meeting being streamed? Wouldn’t mind watching it.

A shame but the right call. There are free days in the summer.

Never parked in the stadium car park. Plenty of side street parking available if you get there early enough. £22 inc prog at Poole. But they do have concessions. £16 for OAPs and benefits, £10 for students, u16 £6, u11, free.

Interesting that it’s almost the exact opposite to Poole where the promotion like cash on the gate. You can buy advance tickets at Poole or pay by card at one entrance. (you couldn’t for years) I believe one of the main issues promotions had is the ageing crowds who were not the sharpest when it came to buying tickets online. But those days have gone and Online ticketing is expected in everything from concerts to any sporting event. Struggling to think where I would pay cash on the gate in any other sport. But I can’t fathom out why Oxford would want to charge an extra £2 for buying an online ticket on the day of the meeting itself. Sure, they want to get money into the coffers as early as possible but £20 is more expensive than every other club and the extra £2 plus program boosts it up to £25. For the gains of getting the money in early, they lose by likely customers balking at the increase.

Parked there on two sellout meetings and never once asked to produce a parking ticket.

Hope the place is sold out.

Not long now until the first Pirates meeting of the season against the Oxford Cheetahs in the new comp titled BSN series. Different lineups so it will be interesting how the two sides match up. Oxford have gone for a strong heat leader trio while Poole are more strength in depth. Should be a really interesting meeting. Tickets are now on sale. https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/booking/select/hfcCkVbmEvyr Do Oxford fans recommend we buy our tickets in advance? I think I will buy mine before travelling up. Thoughts of a sellout? Fancy Poole to start the season as they ended the last. Oxford. 1 Sam Masters 10.58 2 Cameron Heeps 4.33 3 Lewis Kerr 7.72 4 Jordan Jenkins 4.72 5 Scott Nicholls 8.24 6 Henry Atkins 2.00 7 Luke Killeen 2.00 Poole. 1 Steve Worrall 8.05 2 Anders Rowe 5.08 3 Ben Cook 6.09 4 Zach Cook 4.92 5 Richard Lawson 7.97 6 Kyle Newman 4.29 7 Adam Roynon 3.47

Do you know what Polish tv channel ?

Better than Steve W though who has scored a big fat ziltch in the Ben Fund.

Well done to David Adams, long time Poole sponsor, for stepping up to the plate and becoming main team sponsor.

Dry tomorrow. Rain overnight to leave a dry day with strong wind. https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/forecast/gcn8db1mu#?date=2023-03-22

Wednesday is dry.

Looking good for P&P this week. Give the boys a good opportunity to give it a blast.

Er er, just my opinion though.

Bit of a like for like replacement. Was one of the touted so it is no surprise. Doesn’t make us stronger or weaker to be honest.

Because Batchelor is way better than Thomas and we would always have one decent scoring reserve.

If there’s a double change, I hope the rider who loses out is properly compensated, considering there’s no spaces available elsewhere at the moment. Batchelor and Ablitt would no doubt strengthen us.