Noelinho

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.

I really enjoyed him riding for the Tigers in 2019.

When Tom was first introduced, they said it was for 2022 as well. I’d love to Ulrich back. Will he be the same? No idea, but given how good he was this year, he deserves the chance to find out. He was exceptional, and that was especially useful with Craig being a bit up and down. Of the current team, I’d want to see. Cook, Nicol, Brennan and Bailey back. With Ulrich at 5, I’d be happy with Ricky at 3. No idea if averages would allow all those though. Leaves one reserve spot to fill, depending on the maths.

Overall quality in the Championship is lower than the Premiership, but they’re not miles apart. I hope Poole stay. I certainly wouldn’t be keen on Glasgow going up. It’s nice having more teams to face off against. On Glasgow, a lot of people get fixated on the amount of money the Facennas have spent to “buy the trophy”. I’m sure they would dearly love to win it - why wouldn’t they? - it they aren’t spending money just to win it. They want to invest in the area. They want to expand attract new supporters. And they want a stadium/racetrack that can host meetings outside of the domestic league and individual championships - as having two Test matches and the Speedway GP qualifiers shows. I’m sure that’s a more complex mix of wanting to do a great job, forge a reputation for high standards, wanting to achieve success and have the satisfaction of having a local speedway team to watch. All good things.

Weather might have played a part, but he also struggled once he moved up from reserve. I think pressure played a part. And in fairness to him, he had to move to be a heat leader because of Ullrich’s injury. Ulrich was a big loss. Ricky was inconsistent and that hurt at times too. It wasn’t that he couldn’t pass. He pulled some great moves off. But he always looked a fraction over the limit and it bit him, often.

Well done Poole. Come back next year. Far more interesting than going to Wolverhampton every other week.

OK, well at the end of the meeting it was announced Neil Middleditch had said there will be. Someone somewhere is either making it up, or just hasn't been told there's a change. We'll find out on Thursday!

Yes, announced at the end of the meeting.

Replaced Worrall (tapes) in heat one, and won.

What did he do?