SteelShoe

Antti not easy to replace, his scores at Northside excluding the Scunny meeting when he suffered concussion after a fall in his second ride have been 11,10, 6 and 11.

Last seasons No1 for me.

She had a new clutch in yesterday in an effort to improve her gating. She was noticeably quicker from the gate in heat 2 , not as noticeable in her other 3 rides from memory.

Yeah Cookie has been going along nicely apart from a poor night at Poole. Our reserves have generally had a hard time against most opposition raced against to date and your two reserves appear to be the same at the moment. We are hoping for consistent improvement in the gating of Sam and Celina because this is very important when racing against guys of similar ability. Comets had to play catch up with regards to team building due to the late decision to go Championship but we are more than happy with how Tate and Antti have adapted to British Speedway. Both seem very level headed, have very good bike skills and appear intelligent riders , in fact it's fair to say we are more than happy with them . Batch has also been impressive his bike skills on numerous occasions in winning races have been top notch. I can understand your desire for fresh faces on the back of last season.

No doubt we didn't see the real Monarch's with Josh Pickering and Lasse Fredriksen missing. Rider replacement and guest didn't score what the two missing riders would have while Josh is an out and out racer who would have lifted the entertainment level further, shame he wasn't riding. Paco Castagna improved and finished with 2 of the Monarchs 3 heat victories and was decent value for his 11 points , Sedgy chipped in with 9 but no one else really caught the eye. Key Thomson started with a nice win but surprisingly made little impression after that when he looked like he was going to have a good afternoon. Young Sam Hagon looked a different rider in the No 2 position than the one who scored double figures against us as reserve for Poole on Wednesday. Rider of the meeting for the Comets was young Tate Zischke, protected by some good defensive riding from Cookie who looked a little down on his normal pace the Grandchester Flyer was imperious and it was great to see him go over to Andrew and Steve following his win in heat 15 and take their congratulations along with the skipper. All the Comets chipped in with points today and that can only help with confidence especially for Sam and Celina. a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon at Costa del Northside. Message to all the Comets riders more donuts, wheelies, burnouts and coming round following heat wins please, the crowd appreciate it and like Batch said in a previous interview with Roy albeit in the context of tracks ' It's about entertainment' Thank you to the Monarchs fans who made the journey it was good to see you guys. After watching Comets ship 61 points at Poole Wednesday I know how you guys will have been feeling. Up The Comets.

Good question ?

That's a shame I was really looking forward to seeing Josh race at the GT Tyres Arena he has moved on a level this season.

Good to see riders passing on their knowledge to the younger guys. We seen Max Perry at Northside a few times last season and he never failed to impress, smashing little rider growing up fast, sure he will soon be scoring more points.

Agree regular home losses are one of the variables having a detrimental affect on attendances which suggests some people are only prepared to support a winning team. Personally I wish we could have made better starts and the real Craig Cook was on show as I'm sure the racing would have been better with the Pirates having to come from behind. It's no fun travelling 400 miles to see your team ship 61 points but eh that's Speedway and clubs have to try and support each other for obvious reasons. I suspect it may well be another big score against the Gladiators if you guys gate like that.

Craig has been the captain of more teams than this seasons Comets so I assume he has qualities that suit the role such as speaking out in the interests of rider safety when the track isn't right which feeds back into rider confidence resulting in better racing . Depends what the reward centres in your brain value most winning or entertainment. The two can be compatible but less likely if your winning too easily for whatever reason.

With the reduction in the total number of teams in the British Speedway if anyone could run teams in both leagues then it is surely Poole with their fan base. With the Wimborne Road Stadium only staging speedway is there not a case that running two teams may help ensure the future through having more regular meetings. Just a thought ?

think they call him Max

We expected to get beaten last night but not by that margin. As a pairing our reserves are probably the weakest in the Championship which puts increased pressure on our top 5 two of whom are having their first season in British Speedway. It only takes a couple to have a poor night. Last night at least 3 of the top 5 had a poor night which wasn't expected. Poole will give many teams a good hiding at Wimborne Road Oxford being an example such is the excellent present form of their 1 to 6 who were also obviously well dialled in set up wise. However, such domination may well provide poor entertainment. With regard Cookie why don't people just give him a break, you all know him by now and that he can be a complex character . Everyone deals with pre race nerves and pressure in a different way while not everyone is extrovert and chatty. He got a hard time at Plymouth but as the skipper he was justified in his concerns about the track. No work had been done before 6pm and it looked dry, soon as they starting working on it the softer areas of concern could clearly be seen. If Plymouth had done the track prep sooner the concerns may not have arisen because it could have been sorted, fail to plan plan to fail. Allegedly the Comets riders were also subject to what was described as quite unpleasant abuse in the pits. I look forward to our return fixture at the GT Tyres Arena when team dynamics may well have changed and you won't have your big home advantage.

Well done to the Pirates much too good for the Comets tonight. Can't believe how far young Sam Hagon has come on would love it if that was Sam McGurk. The biggest disappointment was how poor the racing was up to about heat 12 but this was down to how well the Pirates were gating and they're on track speed. Unfortunately Craig had his poorest meeting of the season by a country mile, he is so much better than that. Claus got it together for his last couple of races but really only Batch and Tate took the fight to the Pirates tonight . Personally I thought Tom Brennan was the most impressive Poole rider. Glasgow must surely be rueing letting him go, so impressive his form at the moment. Interesting to here Sam Hagon in his interview saying that he thought the announced pre season Comets line up was weak, hope the team can use this as one of their motivators when the pirates visit The GT Tyres Arena and I look forward to a hopefully cracking meeting. Not great hearing the Poole fans giving Craig a hard time.

First trip to the Coliseum, the experience wasn't what it could have been due mainly to track dynamics, very narrow straights and entrance into bends can't really be conducive to good racing . We entered the stadium at around 5-30pm and it seemed that no track prep had been undertaken and there was no white line. Whatever track widening had taken place during the winter can't have included widening the straights and entrance to corners, hard to explain this one really. The delay to the start of the meeting due to what appeared to be 2 areas of concern namely entrance to turn 3 and mid bend turn 3 and 4 was lamentable as was the time taken to run the meeting. I also fail to see the logic of riders not having early practice laps to test the theory that tracks are not raceable before loads of discussions and subsequent track work is carried out. Can anyone explain to me why after having an interval following heat 11 we had one more heat then a grading and drenching of the track break yet no work was carried out during the interval ?. Well done the Comets on getting the win a resolute determined performance from the top 5, it was good to see Antti and Tate adapt well to another new track . Overall this cannot have been a good advert for speedway which I find quite sad considering the ambition to raise the profile of the sport and attract investment. BSN should consider this carefully. UTC !

I reckon you guys will make it a very uncomfortable afternoon for the Comets team and fans. Hope there is some great racing. Be good to see the Tigers fans at Northside.

Probably didn't water the track with the weather like it was and forecast to get a bit worse which indeed it did. The visibility can't have been great with the drizzle and the track top surface definitely got wetter. I personally witnessed many tear offs being pulled off. It was a difficult situation for the promotion to be in and maybe in retrospect from a financial and entertainment point of view one couldn't have argued if they had called it off early. Worky had about 13mm of rain yesterday afternoon/overnight and the practice day had to be cancelled this morning due to the state of the track.

Bit like VAR

Well done the Bears whom I believe got their first ever victory at Worky. Best of luck for the next round and thanks to the fans who travelled over and were well rewarded with a convincing victory. The Bears gated better and found speed where the home Comets weren't able to. I had a feeling it was going to be one of those days when Cookie made a rare mistake in heat 1 which allowed Charles through for the win, then Claus nearly wiped out an obviously faster Tate in heat 3 which put him out of the race before Cookie lifted while under pressure from Erk Riss in heat 6 and had to bin it. It was without doubt from a Comets fan perspective the most disappointing performance of the season, a bad day at the office and definitely one to forget about. The weather was quite miserable with constant drizzle and misty low cloud not great for speedway, track prep re watering must have been a nightmare . The weather adversely affected the attendance something all promotions can do without. Thanks to Glasgow pair James Pearson and Paul Stark for guesting . Young James in particular caught the eye. For the Bears Jason Edwards was unrecognisable from the rider who scored 2 on his previous visit with 14 points, conversely Jonas Knudsen who scored 12 on his previous visit only managed 2 today . Erik Riss was impressive and confirmed he is definitely over his health issues with 13 points. Like Cookie at Glasgow Charles Wright fell foul of the new rule around starts in heat 13 and went off 15 metres. Connor Bailey was also good value for his 8 points.

Well done the Tigers, thought you might nick it being at home. Got to say I felt aggrieved at the disqualification of Cookie in heat 1 especially has he had been at the gate in good time and far sooner than Bomber, poor decision by the ref for me . Just to compound the decision Tate had a mechanical (looked like another chain failure for him) coming off turn 4 lap 4 while in the lead turning a 3-3 into a 1-5. Bomber untouchable following his good fortune in heat 1 was ably supported by Leon Flint, James Pearson and Jack Smith who was a different rider from the one who raced at Northside for Scunny on Sunday. Solid performance from Comets top 5, but probably expected Claus to be a bit more dominant. The home reserves outscored Sam and Celina 11 to 2 which proved crucial , two or three points more between them would have gone a long way . Can't help thinking this was a missed opportunity . Thank you Dan Thompson for guesting and putting in a strong performance, much appreciated. Hope we can produce a stronger team performance tomorrow and overturn the 13 point deficit against Redcar and make it to the next round of the KO Cup. Enjoyed the trip as usual, the Facennas have done a great job with the stadium which is improving all the time, so well done them.

Tigers at home still favourites for me but it could be very close. Much depends on how the Comets reserves go as well as Dan T guesting for Antti.

Speedway is not a cheap sport, I admit to being surprised when Oxford entered teams in 3 leagues drawing on the same fan base. Hope it works out for them in the best interests of speedway.

Will still need a strong confident performance from Sam and Celina regardless of who the Tigers have at reserve.

Announced by Cami tonight apparently that the Tigers have signed Jack Smith on 28day contract.

It is a shame, he is a miss to speedway in general. Would love to see him and his partner back spectating at Worky.