Noelinho

Cutoff is 3pm on the day.

It was a really nice pass he'd just made too. He definitely had the space to come back down from the fence. I think he just misjudged it and thought he was clear. I didn't see him get up as I was up on the third bend (cracking view!) and the ambulance was blocking my view but it did appear he got up on his feet after a few minutes.

56 - 34 to Berwick

Should say it was closed because they were past curfew, and George Rothery took a nasty fall on the exit on turn four. Ambulance on track.

Meeting closed after 14 heats. 55-29 according to the scoreboard. 56-28 according to the centre green announcer. I was busy keeping warm by eating chips, and had stopped recording the score. Easy home win either way.

Referee is Graeme Hunter. Hopefully he's been to Specsavers since Redcar.

Can't say I've ever noticed anyone else struggle with that. It's only a 20 second run at most and the top is in easy hollering distance. They just weren't interested.

Decent day for it, so decided to make the trip. Decent smattering of Edinburgh fans have made the trip too.

Ulle looked good in his first couple of rides. I felt perhaps he was missing a little in his other rides and maybe better opposition would have found him out. But it’s the first fixture and it I’m sure he’ll be more polished with a few more rides - and perhaps it was his bike more than him. He made a nice pass around the outside for one heat win. Connor and Craig were brilliant too. Craig helpfully missed the start in one ride to practice his passing, got round all three riders in less than two laps. Looked as good as he ever has. This is a very, very strong team at Ashfield.

Also, they said that last year too.

Twice they've not bothered to send out two riders. It's one thing to struggle on the track, but they're embarrassing themselves tonight.

Yeah, that did seem a bit odd.

Very healthy crowd. Hope we see some good racing.

Forecast is dry and reasonably warm for April. Might make the trip from Glasgow given it’s a double header. If we see three passes over the 30 heats it’ll be a record!

In the Berwick meeting, he openly asked if heat 8 was a protected heat. I was a bit surprised he wouldn’t know for sure.

First bend and the ref chooses to exclude. What’s he got against Plymouth?

Are the Redcar fans really so bad the ref has to make it up to appease them?

From my distance of 155 miles, it looked like Riss took out Gilkes’ wheel there.

Sound was a problem, then they restarted the stream and it was sorted, but the stream did freeze a few times. It does seem to be better now. Hopefully it stays that way.

Stream was good, overall. Need to work on the camerawork a little, and a bit more attention to who’s riding, but the main change I’d like to see is bigger text on the graphics, particularly on the team presentation. Eurosport had the same issue last season. It looks good but it’s too small for a lot of people on a TV at a distance. But a good base package if they can make those improvements.

You eliminate the hassle of buying a ticket for each match, and it makes it easier to get a seat, but if neither of those bother you, then individual match tickets are the better option. That’s what I’ll do. I’m bound to miss at least one home match over the season.

It seems to have all the league fixtures. Plus summer tourney. I guess there’s still at least one cup match to add? But that’s probably it. Very compressed. it’ll still go on until Christmas though!

Really pleased to see Ulrich back. I don’t really care how he performs at this point. He was so good this year he deserves the chance to find out. He was such a joy to watch. Couldn’t be having him just walk off somewhere else.

Looking forward to having another track within a sub three hour drive.

I can't get excited about Jason Crump. Not really on my list of riders I'd like to see in the team next year.