GregoryM

Rollers aided by the fact he was often a mile behind the tapes - which the starting marshal completely ignored. And, obviously, the referee wasn't bothered either.

As a friend of mine once remarked 'Wonder if he smiled on his wedding photos?'

Mark Lemon actually alluded to this scenario in the post-match press conference after yesterday's match at the NSS.

6 of the 7 Redcar Bears race in the top tier. Are you interested in watching them this season in the second tier? If so, and Redcar moved up and used these 6 riders in the top tier, why would you not be interested in watching them? And, with the addition of one heat leader, those 6 would pretty much be a top tier team anyway. Certainly, my having seen Charles Wright for example at both Redcar and Belle Vue this season, I'd hardly describe watching him at the NSS as a rubbish show.

Probably Norick hadn't been injured at the time the Facebook preview was posted?

The website is often very slow to be updated. Usually, the social media sites get updated quickly, but nothing on Twitter yet either re: Blodorn's injury / Lambert guesting. Without Phil The Ace, we'd be in the dark about a lot of the news.

Indeed!! I suppose it is still the situation, but Poland doesn't award bonus points in '3 rider 3 alls' and '2 rider 5-0s'. Certainly that seems to motivate riders to finish a race, rather than simply pull-up and retire from the race when well at the back. I remember talking to a rider on one particular visit to Poland a few years ago, he remarked 'They wouldn't dare not to finish otherwise they'd be robbing a fellow professional of income.'

Let's hope Brady's ankle injury wasn't aggravated again whilst scoring a 15 point maximum yesterday.

Indeed, not riding for the Aces on Thursday night at King's Lynn, obviously did wonders!! Seems he's scored a 15 point maximum for Rybnik today. So was he injured, or did Rybnik use their 'Polish influence' and prevented him from riding at Saddlebow Road?? Certainly has a whiff of fish or a rat.

Add this, and with Blodorn's absence as was mentioned earlier, then you could say that Belle Vue had quite a bit of 'bad luck' with today's match.

Yep, see what you mean about your calculation.

Aces were on 5-1s in heat 2 and 6 that eventually ended as 3-3s due to the rerun and engine failure respectively. So Aces 'lost ' 4 points and Wolves 'gained ' 4 points in those heats. As it was 26-34 when Bewley came in as tac sub, the scores would have been level at 30-30.

Think that might be referring to heats 2 and 6 when the Aces looked to be heading for comfortable 5-1s, but ended up as 3-3s. After Cook's fall and exclusion in heat 2 (whilst third) with Flint at the back, the rerun was won by Flint. Heat 6 saw Bewley pull up whilst leading by a considerable distance with Brennan second. Think anyone would think that was 'bad luck' on their team, but it is all part and parcel of speedway.

The Colts are going to be without Paul Bowen tomorrow night, but is this a first for a rider's absence? "There is one change to the home heroes’ line-up, with Paul Bowen absent because of being summoned for jury service. Royton racer Jack Shimelt will guest for him at No.6."

Indeed, you can't argue with what actually happened out on track and, as I said, Sheffield deserved their win. Isn't that the point of a fans' forum though, discussion about what went on and conjecture of what might happen in the future? And you make a fair comment about Ellis, but he's more likely to score nearer 2 in Sheffield's next visit to the NSS than Bewley is to score anywhere near as low as 4.

Exactly. I'm thinking, in particular, of heats 11 and 14 when the Aces seemed set for 5-1s. Not sure Holder would have passed Brennan in heat 11, or Bellego pass Wright in heat 14, if the Aces' riders hadn't taken such 'strange' lines through turns 1 and 2 mid-race. Those two heats stayed as 5-1s and it would have been 45-45 with a superheat to follow. Mind you, not convinced that any Aces pair could have kept either Holder or Musielak at the back had a super-heat been required!!

Just that. And whilst several around me seemed to be full of 'doom and gloom', I felt a little more optimistic. Whilst Sheffield deserved their win, just how often at the NSS will:- 1. Dan Bewley only score 4? 2. The Aces have 10 last places? 3. Every Ace effectively score 0 in one of their rides? I say effectively as 6 of the 7 got at least one 0 - whilst Norick Blodorn didn’t he was 5-1’d by the Tigers’ pair in heat 1. All these factors added together and any team would find it hard to win a match - and yet it was still only 43-47.

I wonder if the Aces will ask for an away fixture to be scheduled for Monday 19th June 2023 to avoid clashing with an International Football match being played in Manchester on the same night? It's at Old Trafford, one of England's Euros24 qualifiers: England v. North Macedonia. Haven't seen why this isn't at Wembley,

So you're not counting Max's 11+1 paid maximum v. Peterborough on 25th July then?

Must be two Patryk Dudeks then. The one I've seen on my visits to Poland over the last 7 or 8 years certainly isn't a 'gating tart'.

Yes, he is. Indeed, he has been 5-1'd at the NSS this season. Mike is right though. There's really no need to beat him, and no need to risk 'getting involved' with Doyley as Dudek did last night. Coventry said something similar about Jason Crump in the 2005 Grand Final when R/R was used for injured Kenneth Bjerre. They were saying 'let's 3-3 his heats and beat the other Aces' . The Bees brought a healthy lead back to Kirky Lane for the 2nd leg even though Crumpy got a 21 point maximum at Brandon.

Some friends and I were discussing the possibility of Cookie guesting. He has had so many very ‘ordinary’ performances back at the NSS since leaving, though, I’m not sure whether we’d even be thinking about him had it not been for his British Final showing. He obviously was in the right mindset last Sunday and looked very good. I reckon ‘that Craig Cook’ would probably have the beating of all the Ipswich riders at the NSS other than Doyley. How would he go at Foxhall Heath though from the No.1 position? It may be a few seasons ago now, but would Cookie be ‘up’ for riding for the Aces if there is still any animosity remaining between him and Lemo?

4 in 8 home Premiership matches, with Wolverhampton and Sheffield to come in last 2 matches. Their first visits saw Aces score 51 and 58 against them respectively. Might have been 60 v. Sheffield too had Max Fricke not had engine failure in heat 15.

Indeed .... the Aces hit 64 v. the Panthers. Would surely have been 60 last week had Max Fricke not started to slow with the Aces on a 5-1 in heat 15, and then came to a halt.

Thursday is a UK protected night too. Can Belle Vue use the stadium on a Thursday?