Fortythirtyeight

Slightly surprised with the Bears win as Edwards was disappointing and Jenkins isnt contributing yet but the youngsters at reserve made up for that. When will Mulford and Jenkins drop down ? Klindt came good….this match. Comets weakness at reserve meant few heat wins and cost them the match. Not sure how they resolve that one. Good match , good crowd.

Well as no one else has bothered with a summary and I’m sat on the beach at Workington here’s my effort. Tigers on paper appeared strengthened with guests Hodder and Norman ( he’s one to watch ) replacing Ablitt ( at Scunny ) and Ward ( retired ) whilst the Chargers look good on paper the shock home defeat should just have been an early season blip. Poor crowd ( for Friday night at Redcar ) but warm night and track looked better than previous weeks. Tight score early doors with Chargers Watson never finishing a race and Broadhurst not upto speed whereas Tigers were solid but lacking race winners and S.Pijper withdrawing with an old injury meaning extra rides for the promising Southwick and decent Sadler. Heat 9 changed everything. Veteran Mudgeway infront leading Oxford pair when on bend 3-4 Mudgeway takes a wobbler due to his grasstrack style ( he did this on this bend in each of his races ) , Ritchings appears surprised and falls meaning his team mate , either Fletcher or Broadhurst ? ( the announcer was very poor and inaccurate all evening ) lays it down whilst at the same time Mudgeway is catapulted into the air fence , all his own doing in my opinion. Takes a while but the the ref ( Mr. Hunter ) excludes both Oxford riders ?!? Gobsmacked! Tigers add a 5-1 to this 5-0 and now look good for a comfortable win. Charges fight back helped by Tigers Southwick fall-exclusion and impressive Scott & Ritchings to be 3 points behind going into heat 14. Here’s where the match is decided . With Southwich leading but clearly got a machine issue and slowing on lap 3 he coasts into bend 1 shaking his head as Vale goes inside him to avoid him. Southwick ends up in the fence, kicks his bike in frustration as the red lights come on. Everyone but the ref marks their programmes as a Oxford 5-1, even Roy Clarke starts telling the crowd how unlucky Southwick was when it’s then announced that the ref has awarded the race 4-2 to the Tigers as he says Vale knocked Southwick off ( he wasn’t even under power ! ) even more gobsmacked ! Chargers deserved their last heat 5-1 and to their credit didn’t appear to make a big fuss about being robbed of the match by two of the worst decisions I’ve ever witnessed in 50+ years of speedway. otherwse….a good meeting for NDL. Young Norman ( a former Redcar junior ) impressed at no.2, Southwick is fast and a bit wild but great to watch. Chargers Ritchings was class, expectantly backed by Bears rider Scott and young Fletcher was impressive. Tigers now looking for 2 or even 3 riders to replace Ward, Trigger and possibly Mudgeway?

Wow! Possibly the worst refereeing decisions I’ve seen in 50 plus years of watching speedway costing Oxford the match, take a bow Mr. Hunter !

Only in speedway could a Bears rider help the Comet's win away so that his own Bears now have to beat the comets at their place to go through.

If you knew the lad and had watched him from the start then you would know he didn’t always have that , infact the opposite was true, he was always bumping into others in the first corner. The lad has talent and can ride any bike but he lost the plot in speedway through many factors. Money was thrown at him and he was thrown in the deep end too early …..Too much too young !

You might want to think again as he is already upto speed as he finished 2nd in the Italian championship meeting and it was the very first meeting he’d competed in !

38 ish

Well done the Bears , my prediction was wrong with the Monarchs suffering with Paco’s withdrawal. Only have to look at the bottom end to see the reason for the overall result. Klindt still frustrates me but Pijper and Scott are really coming good. Monarchs need to find a scoring reserve.

Think Monarch's are capable of pulling this back just depends on which Klindt turns up and if the Bears youngsters can contribute more than the ‘popular’ Cluff and co.

That’s the way to encourage the few youngsters we have left in the sport.

Disappointing meeting on a rain affected track which the trackman doesn't seem to be able to cope with , driving around with a grader that hardly touches the track ? First half of the meeting was dire , Klindt showing his dark side where as Kye Thomsen attacked it and got his rewards, best Ive seen him ride. Once the track dried it improved and Pijper and Scott were very impressive for such young lads. Edinburgh were solid enough to keep it respectable and I think will go through overhaul.

End of 2024 .

From what I have been told that is NOT going to happen. He is very happy in his new role and no longer wishes to spend days on end doing track prep and he’s not the only one who’s had enough of the cantankerous owners and walked away from the club. A shame as he has always been highly regarded on his work and it’s such a shame that what was one of the very best race tracks is being reduced to its current state. A good track man is about as rare as a British Premiership Football Manager!

A game of two halfs , to use an analogy…. First half is the reason the sport is dying, track issues due to incompetent track preparation and having to be told how to fix it by the previous track curator who left the role because of the owners ! Took an hour on a freezing evening to sort it without a-decent explanation to the crowd. We were viewing on the back straight, normally great viewing point, but dust was just too much after two races so had to move to the home straight instead. After the tractor racing fiasco the second half of the meeting was much better with the close score and Comets getting in the groove and could have won the meeting if not for Vinnies loop when on a 5-1. Cook back to his best, Jeppesen very good. Bears relied on Klindt and Allen saving the day with the rest inconsistent but did enough to win the meeting but probably not the bonus point. overhall the diehards would have enjoyed it but went home feeling the cold and needing a hot shower whilst any newbies wont be coming back anytime soon. Redcar need better more consistent track preparation. P.S. Parked on the public road this time, much safer for the car.

Ditto 🛎️ end.