JamesB

It's always difficult to estimate the size of the crowd at Foxhall because the capacity is in excess of 10000. Having said that, I thought the crowd was about average for the season and definitely below the first Kings Lynn meeting but tv coverage is always going to reduce the attendance. If you look over the two legs, it effectively proves that the Pirates 'better riders' can only actually ride a slick dryish track. They couldn't handle the conditions in the first half of the home meeting and it was obvious that Kurtz and Holder didn't fancy it from the start last night. They only performed when the track started to dry in the second half of the home meeting and after the suspiciously long track grading opportunity provided by the air fence fiasco. Holder has a history of spitting the dummy at Foxhall when presented with anything other than a slick gaters paradise. If you have a team of riders who prefer a more challenging track then what is wrong with producing one that suits them? Why is that any different to Poole preparing a slick track to suit their boys strengths? As others have said, Louis has spent a lot of time, effort and money over the past few years trying to create a better racing track at Foxhall. I hope it rains heavily the week of 7th October as I am in Paris all week and would really appreciate events being delayed by a week. The best team over two legs in the conditions won.

It’s certainly not a slick track. Looks like we have finally prepared something that suits our guys.

I don't get the stick that Hawkins is getting. A clear and sensible decision to give all the riders as much track time as possible in case we are back at Poole next Monday. The track was really poor.

I am going for a narrow home win. NKI has had his home sighting meeting and I am hopeful (I know Baldy will say without foundation) that we get a track with some outside grip which will help those in the Witches line up who are often tardy out of the gate. if it’s a slick gater’s paradise then I fear for us.

The top three are looking very closely matched, so if they stay injury free the play offs could be good.

Another point away from home, what's there not to like? Don't get sucked in by Shovlar's taunting.

Another great two points on the road. Whatever else happens over the rest of the season my expectations have been well and truly exceeded. A good bunch of honest riders who really seem to have gelled as a team.

Thanks Dave. Great to see the home winning run continued.

Massif and anybody else out there - I am on on holiday and so cannot perform the normal text updates. Could somebody please step in so I can keep abreast of the evenings events. Cheers

I will probably be proved wrong a month or so into the season but I really don't get this 'look how strong all the other teams are' comments. In my opinion the only world class number 1 that has been announced so far is Doyle and I am sure he will be joined by Lambert shortly. I just don't put Cook, Fricke, Masters, Kurtz, Harris, etc, etc. in that out and out number 1 category, they are just good solid riders. I think that Louis is potentially trying to build a team whose strength will be based on home performances and then see what you can pick up away. As has already been said on here, there are not many that will beat King around Foxhall and the same will go for Nicholls if he ends up being another one of the seven. Opinions, opinions......

I have really enjoyed the Championship but with what looks like a watered down proposition for 2019 then now feels like the right time to move to the top tier again. Will be interesting to see what the team looks like and whether attendances improve.

Who knows what 2019 is going to look like but if we work on 'as is' Louis has some hard decisions ahead: King - season destroyed by injury. It would be harsh to not give the skipper another year. Schlein - if the the track is good, probably one of the top three in the league, but....... Alternatively, Nicholls is still a class act at this level and Lawson is always very good at Foxhall. Depending on their availability and Louis' appetite to be revolutionary, you can make a case for one or even both of them. Covatti - I know we all love his all action style but the harsh reality is that he generally struggles to gate and is just too inconsistent to be a third heat leader. Heeps - another one who really struggles to gate. Seems to always struggle in the first half of the season, then picks up. Clearly has ability and as a second string maybe but absolutely marginal. Riss - apart from a couple of decent early meetings has been a disappointment. Based on the last month or so, i don't see how you can bring him back. Garcia - I was really sceptical but the lad has been great. Bizarrely, and speedway is the only sport I can think of where you would say this but has he done too well. My guess is he will end up about 5.5 Kemp - a no brainer, the lad is special.

Not much you can say about that other than beaten by a better team. When you have a combined score of 15 from 2,3,4 and 5 then there's only going to be one result.

That was pretty much as I expected. Credit to Garcia for his best performance so far, Newman was on par and Kemp will only get better. Based on the season so far I always thought it unlikely that Covatti, Heeps and Riss would all perform to the top of their game on the same night and so it proved. Covatti was a particular disappointment. I know he is popular with most but I've always thought he is too inconsistent. Both him and Heeps miss the gate three times out of four and so the track needs to be set up to suit their round the boards efforts. If it isn't then there isn't a great deal of point in having them in the team. I thought Bacon was very good and the lad seems to be developing very well.

I am very grateful to Kyle for stepping in at such short notice and no disrespect to him but his Foxhall record is not great. For the Witches to win this, Covatti, Heeps and Riss need to score well north of 30 between them with Newman, Garcia and Kemp pitching in with circa 15 between them. Personally, I think that’s a tough ask but I hope I am wrong.

Oh dear. A six man team without a number one and a reserve who is competing in his first home league meeting in the Championship. It’s very hard to see a Witches win tonight now.

Thanks Mini - looks like Updates has a texter now.

Cheers, that's great.

Baldy - looks like we need you texting updates!!

That comment is not fair. Having never ridden a speedway bike I admit that I have no idea about what makes a track acceptable to race on. My comments and I am sure most others were based on Chris Louis immediate comments in his interview which to paraphrase were ‘the track is raceable and today’s riders are soft’. The inexcusable part of last nights debacle was to not make an effort to try the track out. I only travelled 6 miles but was damn annoyed. If I had travelled any distance and particularly from Glasgow, I would have been incandescent.

I thought that was really poor from the captains to refuse to ride without turning a wheel. The weather was set fair and the track looked as if it had a chance of being OK. I've never ridden a speedway bike but Louis, an ex rider clearly stated that he thought the track was raceable and was clearly very annoyed at the decision. Schlein was never going to fancy it but Glasgow never got changed and at no point looked to have any interest in entertaining the paying public. To at least not try was poor.

I hope it works out that way, we get to see some speedway and you don't have a wasted journey. BBC weather app still mirror's Ms Kirkwood's forecast with heavy rain in the afternoon and light rain until about 8. Fingers crossed.

BBC national weather bulletins.

Having just listened to Ms Kirkwood, I can't see this happening. Her prediction is heavy rain all afternoon.

So, that''s a meeting every three days for Workington and every three and a half for Edinburgh and that's without rain off's. Challenging!