Steve Shovlar

That must have been one hell of a nasty crash. Did the bike hit him? Going to be a few months on the sidelines by the sound of it. Get well soon. He impressed me at Plymouth recently. Harris guesting was the obvious choice. Who is at reserve?

Got quite badly injured against Poole when metal plates came through skin on arm.

Rotten luck Plymouth losing Gilkes with a suspected broken arm. He has been excellent this season and I for one wish him a speedy recovery. Plymouth will certainly miss him on Tuesday and he will be irreplaceable. Get well soon.

As a point they are interviewing Kolodziej and Walasek. 20 years ago these would have both been in the history books but with todays diets and fitness, they are still competitive,

Probably but some of them currently are. It’s getting the opportunity really. Imagine if the Worrall bros has been given the chance 5 years ago. But instead we see run of the mill Poles getting chance after chance in league one. Very difficult to break through. Oldies currently dominating, which is a shame.

Chris Holder and Walasek v Leszno. Amazes me in a way that Walasek is battling so well in the Polish Extraleague at his age. Seems like a likeable uncle with a secret. Experience mixed with fast bikes and keeping himself in shape. CH battling but the rest of Ostrow a waste of space. Surely better options out there than some of this team. Berntzon no more than a lower division heat leader. The Ostrow fans can enjoy this season like STFC enjoyed a year in the top flight but better planning required.

Well a couple of them Are. Destined to return to league one. Two decent riders short. I watch this and think some of the decent Brits would do a better job.

See my thread. Too much predictability. Not enough variation. Too few new talent coming through to beat the oldies. Some decent racing though.

Its getting to the stage where there are only going to be a few outliers with the majority Polish. I mean, seriously, Jack Smith in the Polish u24 league? We have better than that!

True but in all my years I have never seen such a lack of fresh blood and top talent in the sport. Zmarzlik has a free run for WC this season. Where’s his challenge going to come from? Swedes, Danes, Brits, Aussies, yanks, zip, nothing. Just watched heat 7 of Torun v Ostrow. Koldoziej, Holder battling past Doyle. Young unknown pole tailed off no chance of scoring a point. Now I spoke to CH at Oxford last week and there’s no doubt he looks after himself physically. In good shape to stay at the top as long as he can.

Watching the Polish league. Meant to be the best in the world but seems to me to be a far cry from where it was ten years ago. Where are the superstars? Most of the top guys are aged stars who have been around for what seems forever. Swedes? Nothing. Danes? Very little. Aussies? Nothing. Not sold on Lidsey. Both Fricke and Kurtz failed. Continental riders? Just oldies past their prime. Poles have Zmarzlik and Janowski and a few youngsters coming through, and so they should. Perhaps GB is not so far in a bad place compared to others with Bewley and Lambert. But it seems the top Polish league is getting cluttered with old Poles like KK, Walasek, Kolodziej, Gapinski. Etc who do a job but don’t set the sport alight. When top riders get to a certain high standard, they are currently able to maintain their position in the sport with fitness training, diet and because they are in the top bracket, continue to score and therefore pickup the best sponsorship and have the best equipment. It stifles youngsters and the sport gets bogged down with oldies.

Spoke to Trackerman who confirms that a load of red shale from Scotland, the same shale that Belle Vue use, is due for delivery and will be on the track by our next home meeting. Trackerman also said it was his fault he messed up the track prep and he was gutted it was not as he wanted it to be. He has so far improved the track no end so we can forgive a blip. It’s been very good so far this season until last night.

Not sure it will be a similar result to a few weeks ago. Eddie Kennett wasn’t any good and luck did go our way in heat 14 with Gilkes exclusion for tapes infringement. Think a point is on the cards but to win we need to come out guns blazing from the start not give an inch. Looking forward to coming down though. Can we Pay on the gate or advanced tickets?

Thought Atkins was at the start of his career. Surprising to hear this.

He certainly caught my eye last year at Poole with his racing. Was hoping he could be heading our way but think next season will be Poland league one and Premier.

Was the track still giving a big advantage to 1 and 3? How was the crowd?

Pretty awful track conditions tonight led to a dull gate and go meeting. Far too slick and underwatered. They were watering the track before the meeting but it needed more by heat 8 and nothing. Just grading. Got quite dusty at the end and some riders were far from happy. Get the water down. Sod it if riders moan. The paying public come first.

Good weather down here today. Looking forward to seeing some racing. Hopefully Brum will put up a better fight than Oxford and gate. Pointless seeing our boys gate and clear off.

It was a couple of seasons of less than perfect though early last year it got very bad and the reason Terry was called in. It’s now the smoothest and best prepared track in the country with all riders praising it.

I have been to Leicester about ten times now. I have to say it was so bad that I swore I would never go back. It was gate, hold your position out of bend two and that was that. The promotion first of all denied there was anything wrong with the track. Totally in denial. But finally they brought the bends in and racing did fractionally improve. It took a while but last season I saw a very good meeting there, and the playoff semi had lots of passing. This season there was again passing, but the track was rough on the first and second bends. Need Terry, our track guy, to be employed to get it like he has got Wimborne Road. And to think. They could have put in a Belle Vue or Bydgoszcz, but instead got it so wrong it’s impossible to actually believe.

Pirates welcome Birmingham to Wimborne Road on Wednesday for this Championship encounter. Pirates will welcome the return of Stefan Neilsen, who in my opinion did enough to earn himself a place in the team this season, but such is the way of the sport. Looking at the Brummies, I can’t see anything other than Pirates handing out a bit of a pasting. The loss of Auty doesn’t help, but he has never really done anything of note at Poole. R/R will give Adam Ellis an extra ride, but sorry to say other than that, where’s his support? Vissing might score a few but it will be difficult for the others. Could well be six ride Ellis v Poole here. 62-28ish. Thoughts?

Yes we will get close. I doubt any team will win there but we will be battling for a bonus point. Pirates are way stronger than Berwick.

Depends of which Worrall. Found SW nothing but approachable, friendly and part of the TEAM. Walked around last night to the third bend to clap and celebrate the win with the Poole fans. Never spoken and don’t know RW to make a comment.

It is a shame that the new promotion didn’t advertise for a younger, new to the game but full of enthusiasm presenter. Peter York did his best, but times have moved on and the club has the opportunity for a fresher approach. It doesn’t matter if a new announcer is new to the sport as long as he is enthusiastic and gets the crowd roaring, something Peter York failed to do. No disrespect meant in his direction but his time has gone. Announcing Batchelor and Nicholls as the Coventry pairing was shameful. Not realising Stoneman was in heat 11 was another failure. The ref clearly was not informed from the pits that a reserve swap had been made but I could see it when he came out. Just led to confusion and a delay in heat 14 as the ref thought Stoneman had only taken two rides. Perhaps a good solution would bring in a support for York. One who handles changes, deals with times and results, plus uses the mic to whip the crowd into life. There were probably 1000 there last night who went for the first time, got covered in dust, didn’t have much of a clue what was going on and saw their team defeated. Will they be back? It would have been good for York to explain the rules of the sport before the meeting started so the newbie understands what is going on. I hope Oxford can maintain crowd levels.