Noelinho

To be honest, the club have been very quiet all year, more so than usual. Not much on the website, social media very sporadic too. No mention of the Plymouth match at all, in fact, on Twitter at least. The did post this on the website: Which is a nicer way of saying "we had to go, but none of us really had our hearts in it". Which I fully understand, and especially for someone like Tom who was focused on Belle Vue's playoff final. The Glasgow promotion do a lot of stuff really well, but external facing comms/PR isn't their strong point. They don't come out with anything bad, it's just there's not a lot said. I think it's a reflection of the owners to some extent - they keep themselves to themselves. I think they'd benefit from having someone to push the club's profile and output a bit more.

How’s the weather looking? Miserable here in Glasgow.

Holder was naive there.

All four!

Very harsh, that.

Anyone else got no sound on Eurosport?

If Glasgow have pulled out, it is disappointing, but I understand it too. We’ve had nothing to watch since pretty much the start of August, who would bother to come out now for one last match on a cold, damp October night? Glasgow’s season has been effectively over for two months. I can’t even remember the last home fixture before the playoff semi final, it’s that long ago. Was it Birmingham, maybe?

The others I understand the reasoning - although I’d ask what you think Craig would do, given I reckon Glasgow would like him back based on his average - but why wouldn’t Hume be back? No one seemed disappointed in him?

That's the 16:20 at Ayr Racecourse, I think.

On Thursday on Eurosport we were staring at someone pondering a pie when the starting tapes went up - and that's a regular occurrence! There was also the time the cameraman stood over the tapes... I do think the combo of Kelvin Tatum and Chris Louis works quite well, but Kelvin's not a natural at filler and it's just really odd they have a good presenter on site, who isn't a speedway novice, and they just don't seem to want to use her for much. When BT showed speedway, and you had Nigel and Kelvin doing the commentary, with good filler from Abi/Charlie/Natalie/Kiri and usually Scott Nicholls, and that was much more natural. BSN definitely manage that better, even if the acoustics arent always fantastic. The weirdest thing about the Eurosport coverage is they provide a subscriber stream with no ads, but half the time they just leave it panning the track, so they may as well just show the ads instead! The production just looks really barebones and under resourced - and maybe it is.

They “failed to ride” at Plymouth because it was rained off? And does anyone actually know anything about the Jubilee Cup, or is everyone just pointing fingers? I don’t see why Glasgow wouldn’t want to win a trophy. I thought the Facennas were desperate to buy anything at all costs? That’s the usual insinuation.

It’s not 47-31! They still haven’t noticed! It’s 50-34! The score’s been wrong since before heat 14

Eurosport have got the intern again tonight. The score’s wrong.

Vaculik missed a whole round and only finished 2 points behind Tai, whilst taking 2 wins and a 2nd. More wins and more finals, although Tai did make more semi finals.

They’ve been at Monmore Green so much I’m convinced Sam’s been given a free season ticket. Nice to see another track on display even if they tie is as close to a done deal as you can imagine.

Why would Danyon not return? Also, said it many times: the Premiership is crap. No one in their right mind would join it as it is now, unless is was with a handful of other teams. Six clubs, one of which is homeless after next year? That's not sustainable. No one at Ashfield is saying "you know what'd be really appealing? Six matches against the Peterborough Panthers." And not just because they have two of our riders!

As I thought. Thanks for the confirmation. It is a silly rule - it would be different if you couldn’t put them in at all, although that would be silly too!

Yeah, I would keep him if he wants to come back. He’s not a ten pointer any more, but he’s better than the average he’s on.

I think it’s more than that. It was also an off night, and rearranged again at short notice after the original rerun for Saturday.

The only thing I can think of is that Starke didn’t qualify under the heat 15 rules and that was the only way to get him in the heat? Because you can put a reserve in heat 15 if the originally nominated rider is excluded I think - I’m sure that happened once last year?

Fair play to Poole. Much the better team over the two legs. Hope they win the final. The match itself was a bit rubbish. Not a lot of racing - probably more in heat 15 than the rest of the meeting. Personally, I think it’s just too late in the year and getting too cold. I live in hope things will be settled earlier next season.

So Cami declared Starke to BSN but another rider to the ref?

Yep, that’s what happens when you want to ride the fence and you get it wrong. I think some of the southerners don’t realise how different the ground is in Glasgow in early October compared to August. It changes sharply up here.

The main issue has been that Craig’s struggled at times and knocked quite a bit off his average, and Ulle hasn’t been the same returning. The former wasn’t expected but the latter was. That said, Ulle deserved to come back because he was phenomenal in 2021 before his injury. Basso and Hume coming in for Sam Jensen and Ricky Wells has been a net positive. Broc has underperformed, but his average is still higher than at the start of the season, I think. Connor’s been very solid and as quick as anyone at home, but I think he needs regular riding somewhere else to progress.

Ben Fund collection.