Noelinho

Sorry to hear that. Just trying to inject a bit of humour.

Jacob Marley’s coffin nails have more enthusiasm than Steve tonight.

Berwick in the Scottish league, where it belongs.

So was Craig under the weather on Saturday as well? Didn’t see him walking around at all, but he was nowhere near the pace, even compared to Tom and Connor. Anyway, I don’t believe for a second Poole are going to lose by ten at home. That’s fairy dust. I think it will be very close, and it probably does come down to how well Craig Cook does. Just waiting for the endless “is there a stream?” questions now!

Ah, OK. I just didn’t see him on the tractors or walking on the green at any point, so it just made me wonder if race day prep had been a bit different to normal. But I should reiterate, the track produced great racing, and they prepare the track fantastically week in, week out. I think it was just a combination of being relatively dry this week, sunny all day, hottest day of the year in Glasgow, and the 3pm start. The only other time this year when it’s been quite dusty was during the British Youth Championship, which was a similar day and a 3pm start again. That also got incredibly dusty with the faster bikes, especially at the end, but that meeting also had 30 heats to be fair.

Fantastic meeting today. Doyle, Lambert and Jensen were all brilliant to watch, as expected. Charles Wright provided some great entertainment too. Very impressed by Blodorn, especially as I don’t recall him racing at Ashfield before. Crowd was lower than I expected, to be honest. Very, very dusty, partly because of the time, I guess. But I also didn’t see Paul (one of the track curators) there tonight. The entry to turn three was particularly bad, dust howling around the place particularly once we got up to heat 9. I had to move to the turn 4 covered grandstand after that. It’s never been that dusty before. It wasn’t a problem for me, but it would be quite off putting for some. Then again, we usually race in the evenings and it’s not that often we have days like today… and the racing itself was top notch. The referee was terribly slow though. We only had one heat with a stoppage, but it still took over two hours. Far too much waiting around. Fine for me, but I brought three people with me who aren’t speedway fans, and Derek’s chat only entertains them for so long. Hoping we are treated just as well at the GP Challenge in August. Hope Craig is faster when the Bandits are in town on Friday. Can’t have Bomber doing him round the outside like earlier in the season. And perhaps we’ll get a few more riders doing a victory lap than we saw today!

Horrible crash. Maybe Tai will come in?

The match was. The Bears were worse though!

Broc’s form is still a concern. The rest are all performing fairly well. It did make me wonder how this team would look if we had a return from Marcin Nowak… it’d be entertaining if nothing else!

Basso is an absolute madman.

Yes, my point wasn't to defend the Bears. Simply to say it's nice to see (almost) the the Tigers riding well. But they've hardly been put under any serious pressure tonight.

Of course you use your T/S in heat 12, having already lost the meeting in heat 10. All it does is mean Charles Wright rides in three straight heats and draws the meeting out!

I think you've got one extra home match compared to Scunthorpe/Edinburgh, so that's in your favour. Against you is if your reliance on heat leaders that have been terrible tonight.

All three heat leaders have better averages, but no wins in 9 heats. They've brought nothing. Good riding from the Tigers though. Nice pass by Craig in heat 1, fantastic pass by Ulle in heat 3. Connor very strong too.

I certainly don't see an upside for Glasgow going up. Need a ten team league to make it interesting for me.

Great news. I’m guessing the realistic date is going to be 2024, but this announcement came remarkably quickly in truth. Probably a good thing the new track will clearly be closer to Edinburgh than Glasgow too!

As mentioned before, the crowd at Glasgow is close to the track - more like two metres on the straights.

Sorry if this should be obvious, but with multiple leagues and riders riding in multiple countries (and guests!), what's the point of assets? How does it benefit the sport? Obviously it makes sense in many sports, like football, but speedway isn't set up the same way I always used to think riders were essentially self-employed and could ride for whoever they liked, within normal limits, like not signing for two teams in the same league. Can anyone briefly explain?

I can't make it, so rain dance works for me.

Isn't Harris's average too high anyway?

Never more than 6 feet at Ashfield, certainly!

Ah, OK. Figured it would be something like that, just hadn't ever seen anything spoken about it.

So does Connor Bailey race under a British licence then? Or have I got the wrong end of the stick somewhere? And if he does, how does he qualify? I'm a bit confused.

I'm inclined to agree. Heat 15 decider is a lot of pressure. We have put reserves in heat 15 before and it's not worked out.

I've never had trouble parking on the road. I do sometimes use the Allied Vehicles staff car park, but Maryhill Tesco is far riskier than Ashfield Street.