Lord Lucan

I wasn't at this meeting either, can I have an opinion on it?

Why Thank You Comet49, I do try my best to give a balanced judgement based on what I've seen, with the "odd" opinion thrown in!!

Thought we were good for my prediction there for a while, certainly looked on but again we let ourselves down when it mattered, too much inconsistency that we can now barely rely on us even getting a win at home? Full marks to Scunny tho for making a match of it, too much of a match really for my liking as it's cost us another home pt!! Got some very good racing again this week with some great battles between lots of riders!! Very impressive show from young Ryan Douglas, great talent and well worth the Ht 15 run out, good performances from Klindt/Bellego/Auty and Jorgensen with Blackbird chipping in some vital points. The Comets, Bach looked back to his best great show tonight and deserved the paid max, Lawson again rides well but cant do it when he misses the gate, Rusty battled hard just cant seem to win thesedays, Tero in and out same with Mills, tho he certainly looked quicker and tried hard, young Crang had his moment in the sun and looks a talent for the future and Kyle gave it his all and didn't get the points he deserved. Still, were in there and at the right end of the table so we have a chance, but unless the Comets "are" sucking everyone in and waiting for the play offs to hit top form, (which is fine by me of course) our rivals don't really have too much to fear from us at this point in time, our inconsistency will beat us more than the opposition, the team is plenty good enough to win against anyone, but "not" in the fits and starts mode we're in at the moment? . Not to leave anyone out, again, thumbs up to the track staff lovely smooth strip, just needs a bit more dirt on it now!!!

Agree, going to be much tougher than I thought, Bellego is in pretty good nick right now and the 28 day ban for Howe allows R/R for just about the entire side, could give us a real problem "if" our top five don't do the business? Will stick to my prediction tho of 50-40 as the team knows how vital home points are now so I'm confident we'll shape up OK!!

Having slipped back to third now in the league, definitely need the three from this!! Shame Ash is out at reserve, seriously weakens us there so will have to hope the main body of the team will do the necessary and secure a 50-40 home win!!

Could probably have something to do with the fact that several Rebels fans have posted that the Comets "were" really bad!! You can only beat what's put in front of you and last night that wasn't much by all accounts? It's easy to rack up a big personal score when your opponents show little willing to fight you for it and unfortunately, from your point of view, that means the Rebels probably wont get the kudos you feel they deserve, sad but that's generally how it is? . Mind you, there could be times when you ride really well and "lose", that's even worse!!

When we were only 2pts down after 4 races I thought things were looking good, went to work and have just got back and saw the calamity that had unfolded in the meantime? What a total shambles this is, I have read as many posts, both here and on updates, to try and glean some semblance of how this has happened and from what I can gather it just seems that Worky simply weren't at the races and didn't ever look likely to be from Ht 5? Only Kyle with any credit, Ht leaders disinterested, reserves nowhere after Ht 2, what the hell is wrong with this team away from home against top sides? These guy's come to our's and race well yet we go to their's and!!!!!! . Yes it's only one match, and we are still top and we will "probably" qualify for the play off's, but so probably will Somerset, and probably so will Edinburgh and very probably Ipswich and Newcastle, doesn't look good does it, cant ride any of those track's lately yet they can race ours? Something serious needs to happen soon to get our form back away from DP, to be the best you have to beat the best and we are not very likely to be doing that any time soon based on this fiasco.. . Just wondering whether a bit of "average manipulation" is at work here with a view to next season, get the pts down now, blitz the play offs, not do too much damage and be ready to go nxt year on a tidy mark, would like to think so but possibility is that some could just be looking to move on, bit stale now, fresh challenge needed etc, some certainly seem to be riding like it!! It's not looking good for us at the moment but, we have to remain positive and hope that we are just hiding our light under a bushel, fooling the opposition, sucking them in or... are we just fooling ourselves, we'll see, wont be long now!!!

Disappointing news about Ash, hope this injury isn't that serious? U21 Champion cant be a bad replacement so I hope young Branford can show some good form and get us a few points, gonna be tough now but you never know, we can still get that point!!!

If we can ride as we did in the KO Cup match it wont take much improvement to nick a point from this tho we will need to be on our game right from the start, cant afford to give the Rebels a cheap lead your heat leaders are too good for that!! Hope for 48-42.

Much better performance tonight than last week but I felt we took our foot off the gas a bit once the 3pts were wrapped up? Very impressed by young Aspgren at reserve, unlike a lot of overused riders at DP, he kept going right to the end and well worth the 9pts total he got looked fast and very capable, yep, I liked him!! Mellgren was good once he got his finger out, Bunyan scored well initially then, "didn't", Grajczonek did what he always does here, solid single figure score, Hopwood, out of his depth and this kid Lykke, well, I didn't recognize the rider that was quoted in earlier posts as being a bit of a racer, looked smooth enough but I think he left some enthusiasm somewhere else tonight, not that dangerous!! Good to see the Comets back to some sort of form although Rene didn't look happy after his two opening race wins, dunno what happened there, Rich back to winning ways even passed someone "during" the race, get in there, confidence back!!! good efforts from Rusty (bread on the table this week) Tero won well against the t/r of Bunyan and looked a bit quicker than usual, Ash had a good go tonight as did Millsy, got some good gates and Kyle again looking more like his old self. :t:Some very good racing from both teams aided by a much improved surface, very smooth, bit slick but so what, much prefer to see riders being able to race quickly without being thrown around by ruts and grippy patches so a big well done to the track staff, good job!! Overall a not too bad meeting which, with a full side out, could have seen Rye nick a point or two, they were competitive for the most part so I don't think they let anyone down too much tonight tho I still think we had "rather more" in the tank if it really was needed to get the 3!! Why do you say that, I would think winning the league carries more kudos when "you" have beaten the "best teams" and not relied on someone else to do it for you, don't you?

Bit late in the day but any views on this match? Bit of an injury ravaged Rye in town tonight which is a shame as I was quite looking forward to seeing them at full strength!! They have been putting in some good performances away from home lately so here's hoping they will give us a test, Grazcjonek is a solid rider who should serve Rye well as should Mellgren/Bunyan, young reserves are a bit unknown to me so they will prove interesting to watch. After a couple of slip up's lately I'm looking for what should be a comfortable home win and get those pts ticking over again, slight change in team order could help so, let's see what happen's, go for 52-38!!

Could also be that Lawson himself is looking for a change, some good performances for other clubs could be his way of putting himself in the shop window? Would have thought that Glasgow would have been favourite with them losing their two top men at season's end and Rich would be a pretty good start point for a new side!! As said tho, how many tracks will afford the new safety fences "and" be able to pay for top riders will be the big questions off season so speculation should be left til we know who is actually going to be around come 2014?

It's usually down to rider availability OT, some of our guys have European commitments so any meeting that goes off schedule will be subject to what they have lined up abroad, with Tuesday being your off race night, it was probably the only time we could get our full side there?

As has already been asked workyboy, you don't criticize anyone at any time then do you? Rusty "WAS" rubbish on Saturday but did I say that I could do better, did I say Rusty was "ALWAYS" rubbish, NO, try reading the post properly!! My comments on the meeting as a whole are quite fair and reasonable from what I saw on Saturday, nothing dressed up nothing hidden if you don't like that well, tough, it's the opinion I'm entitled to and the opinion I wrote? Next week is a different story should the Comets ride well that's what I'll post that's how I operate, unlike you I don't pretend everything is always right even when it isn't, and for your information, a couple of weeks back in a post match interview, Rene clearly stated that some things needed to be sorted out to make us more efficient than we currently are, try staying behind once in a while you never know you might learn something!! Do you include yourself in that comment Jenga?

See, it's started already!!

Phew, that's saved Richard Lawson a bit of a quandary, after the pretty moderate effort of last night riding "against" Plymouth he'd have got some stick if he'd then gone out and banged in a BIG score "for" them at Glasgow?

Could certainly think of a couple of riders not too enamoured with the current track set up, but to be fair to the track staff, it was an awful lot smoother this week than the ploughed field they provided for the Somerset match? My own opinion "FWIW" would be for the track to be dug up and re-laid during the off season, problems on bend 4 now last night caused delays with constant grading needed to smooth out the uneven areas and its that unevenness that's causing the problems!! I would also like to see the removal of all that banking around the track, no need for it now with the wider straight's and just does absolutely nothing for the quality of racing at all, would love to see it back the way it was when we first opened and get those racing lines back around the outside!! From a riders perspective, with the introduction of new fencing for next year, I would hate to be going upwards towards an air fence, much rather hit it flat least way's you've got a lesser chance of catapulting over it hence the idea of levelling the track... I know someone will come up with some form of statistic to counter my opinion but that's what I "personally" would like to see, (not testing my theory for real you understand) but at least take all reasonable precautions from the outset to minimize the chance!!

Wasn't disappointed at all by the performance of Mikkel Bech, hoped he would be entertaining and certainly proved a worthy visitor, very much reminded me of a certain Peter Kildemand!! Richie Worrall, a more than able deputy for Ty Proctor, certainly showed our guys the fast way round here tonight, alarmingly so in fact that it proved our vulnerability to a side with potent Ht leaders in it? Very poor show from us tonight just far too inconsistent for our own good? Dunno what's happened to Rusty lately, absolute rubbish tonight, Tero not much better and again, gets a win when needed but poor in the others, "why"!! Ash tried hard but doesn't look sharp enough from the gate, Millsy gets into good positions but cant sustain them, Rene looked quick and was a bit unlucky tonight, an engine problem gifting a 1-5 to Plymouth when leading easily while Lawson is becoming an increasingly frustrating rider with too many one or the other rides, gate and win, miss the gate and trails in no good for a No1 and well trounced by Worrall too often tonight for my liking!! Kyle looks more like the rider he was only really eclipsed in Ht15 by two quick starting Devil's and never able to get in a blow, it's a shame for the Comets that as soon as one rider gets some form back someone else decides to lose their's, no good? This team now needs to sit down and thrash out the problem's as there are clearly some issues that need resolving, this form will not see us win the league or the play off's as there are far too many capable sides out there with quite frankly, some better riders than we have at the moment? Plymouth will be ecstatic with this win and so they should be, certainly wanted the win and more than kept themselves in the contest with several heat advantages won with determined riding!! As I said before, Worrall was outstanding, Bech more than capable and very entertaining, Lemon not the rider he was but steady enough, Gathercole did what he usually does here, start well then falls apart, Nielsen tried hard and had some good races as did Jake Anderson, once he got his eye in and looked very comfortable round here and plenty quick enough, Kurtz didn't do much but his two points made the difference so, fair play to him!! All in all, another bad day at the office for the Comets and not doing ourselves any favours at all, this result wont go unnoticed by our rivals and will make very pleasant reading for them, still think we will finish in the top six but if our guys don't pull their collective socks up we wont be arguing the title for too long at play off time, must do better!!!!

Thank's for that Mike and yes I agree, Stu is prone to bad injuries a bit like Adam Roynon and his all action style could be a contributory factor in that!! As I said, DP is the best place for his flat out racing style not the tight turns of Brough, but as your co respondents have stated, what do you do if he doesn't try "as" hard to get the points? Maybe once you get a full house back and the averages allow it, a drop to No3 or 5 would yield more consistency with a little less pressure to do well all of the time, he is getting on a bit so perhaps time for the young guns to step up to the plate and allow him to enjoy himself a bit!! I could have clicked that "like this" icon but I'm assuming it's a Facebook thing and for obvious reasons, I'm not on that!!!

What is this new points limit then if you don't mind me asking? Cant understand the logic of offering watered down product to save money, if your dwindling bunch of supporters don't like what they see now they wont turn up to watch, which is what many are doing, how would three top men and four, "technically" reserves entice anyone back?

Judging by your opinion Mike I would suggest that the only team out of this weekends matches whom are happiest would be Somerset!! If Kyle Newman had not packed up at our place Saturday the Reb's would have had two off us as well? Wasn't expecting Robbo to turn in such a low score, normally one of your most reliable scorers tho if he was carrying an injury then that wouldn't have helped matter's, for what it's worth I like to see Robbo trying too hard, but only at our place, really flies round it, plenty of room!! Anyway it could have been worse, you could have lost as well!! All the Best.

Agreed, I saw that incident as well, don't think it has much to do with whom partners Rusty it's down to the fact that all the Comets want to ride the same lines at the same time!! Obviously I didn't see the Rene clash with Ashley but again, and you are right, a sort out of tactics is definitely needed here, we certainly wont win any prizes for team riding round DP?? Cant afford to have hero's, they cant all win and it needs correcting, I would have thought some common sense would prevail and the best result for the team would be the optimum outcome no matter how it was achieved or by whom, maybe this non payment of bonus point money for third place could be at the heart of it, no idea if our promotion is still paying it, nor if anyone else is for that matter, and it was introduced for this year to cut costs?

Although, 1pt is even better!!!

Exactly Mike, which is why "2pts" is all I can allow at this juncture!!!

And therein lies the answer, "GET DAD BACK"!! Never heard the booing myself but at least it proves that Comets fans are very even handed, we boo anyone who doesn't do what is expected!! Up the Comets....