TheWellBehavedWorrall

@Gavan bringing a gun to a knife fight tonight. @bigcatdiary and @glenantony you wasn’t there.

Disappointing, but the footage of the rain shown by BSN renders the decision spot on. That means tonight’s meeting equals the number of passes as Saturday night at Plymouth.

Like I said, I understand and appreciate that every club must be represented equally: I don’t dispute that. I’m just curious as to why BSN are covering six meetings in sixteen days and despite their being sixteen clubs across the top two flights, Oxford and Plymouth are being visited five out of the six times. That’s not variety. What a bizarre thing to say. I’m almost astonished at how defensive people are getting about this topic. It’s as if criticism of Plymouth’s quality of racing is a personal insult.

Are you wearing an earpiece and being told what to say by Ant & Dec who are in a remote studio somewhere in London?

What age are you? ”Get off Plymouth’s back”, Jesus Christ. Perhaps my wording wasn’t accurate. My issue was around the variety during the first two weeks of May; the mention of quality was simply frustration at how poor the racing was at Plymouth. There are sixteen clubs (technically fifteen, given Oxford are represented twice) across the two divisions, so it’s odd for two cities to be visited five out of the six meetings that are being shown. I’m not doubting the fact that across the course of the season, all clubs will be televised equally.

BSN’s decision to return to Plymouth next week is disappointing. Not only because the quality of racing is atrocious, but where’s the variety? There’s six live meetings between the 1st and 16th of May; five of which are at either Oxford or Plymouth.

Just caught-up with this meeting on BSN and first of all, congratulations to Plymouth on a deserved win and the aggregate bonus point. However, that was a horrific advert for the sport. It reminded me of that car ride at theme parks where the vehicles are one behind the other on the one track. Plymouth fans won’t mind, of course, but I’m disappointed BSN are covering a second meeting there this month.

I’m afraid this debate appears to be between defined reality and your deluded utopia.

I think it’s naive to blame the referee here. I too would have preferred to see Harris and Cook going toe-to-toe in the opening heat, but what’s the referee guilty of? Implementing the rule book? In response to your first sentence, I paid to get in and was cheesed-off that Cook withdrew from the tapes as the other three were poised to begin. An entirely correct exclusion.

You could argue it was harsh on Cook, but he withdrew from the tapes and the rules are clear as day.

That was a huge win. Well done, Chris Harris. Unbelievable. The talk was of an on-form Craig Cook and rightly so, but to absolutely smoke him on three occasions was incredible. I said before the meeting that I hope to see Pearson, Flint and Starke make an impact, so I’m delighted to see two of the three do so. I’ve no words for Worrall. That’s outright criminal from a heat leader. It was a disgrace of a performance.

Lots of confidence and optimism from a Workington perspective - understandably so - but Glasgow are the reigning champions and it’s at Ashfield, so I remain confident. The reserve scenario has been a nightmare. Losing one reserve (Complin) before a heat has been raced wasn’t ideal, but to lose the second reserve (Pijper) in only the third meeting of the season was brutal. It’s a big meeting for Pearson, Flint and Starke. I’ve said my piece on all three, so won’t exhaust the point, but hopefully tonight’s the night they make a significant impact on the final score. Also, great to see Cook at the top of his game again. I was critical of his professionalism last season, but British speedway is a better place with an on-form Craig Cook in it. Having said that, I hope he scores zero. Only tonight though.

While I don’t disagree with most of that, I’m at a loss as to how it counter points my post. Out of respect for your employer (Glasgow, in this instance), I don’t believe it’s appropriate to perform celebratory acts (wheelies, for example) having literally seconds before finished last in a heat they needed you to succeed in. Call me old fashioned, but maybe too many years at Berwick where there’s been zero expectation to compete has created somewhat of a loser mentality. I hope he improves, of course.

Performing wheelies at Shielfied Park after heat fifteen, having just come last and subsequently cemented Glasgow‘s defeat, spoke absolute volumes about his mentality.

Boughen was poor last night, but I agree with the last post; the bigger picture shows he’s exceeded expectations this season, especially for a 16 year-old. His heat two win at Ashfield was an outrageous display of technical ability. His track craft was as responsible as his speed for his pass of Pijper.

First of all, congratulations to Oxford. Boughen aside, that was an outstanding team effort. Secondly, I think it’s safe to say Glasgow won’t be putting up much of a title defence. Flint is an odd one. He’s putting points on the board, but said points are flattering him; he’s dropped more points from scoring positions than any other Glasgow rider this season. He doesn’t look comfortable in a Glasgow race suit. Aside from his win in heat fourteen, Starke was a disgrace. As was Pearson. Nowhere near being remotely good enough. Guests at reserve are always a toss of the coin, but I genuinely think Cami Brown might have grabbed two punters off the Cowley streets and put two helmets on them. That wasn’t the same Jack Smith who guested at Ashfield on Friday night and Conor Coles genuinely looked like it was his first encounter with a speedway bike. I suppose that’s the downside with being champions, isn’t it? You have standards to maintain and when you fall so short, it requires addressing.

Just saw that heat fifteen on BSN. Wow. What a ride from Schlein. The two Monarchs seemed to ignore him after the race. Sedgmen definitely did; Schlein had his hand up for an embrace, but Sedgmen looked at him and didn’t offer the same in return. Bizarre. Perhaps a little embarrassed at being absolutely bullied by Schlein on their home circuit? Also, is it normal for the winner of heat fifteen to go straight back to the pits? Schlein did and I assume there are travelling Bandits fans who would have been grateful for a lap of honour in appreciation.

That was a great win, but it felt closer than a twelve points swing. I thought Masters and Nicholls looked untouchable at times. Masters had mechanical issues at Ashfield towards the end of last season too. Nightmare for him. That Flint and Starke pairing is doing exactly what is expected in terms of points, but I don’t know what it is; Flint doesn’t look comfortable around Ashfield and Starke appears to lack pace, rendering neither a threat to the rider ahead of them. Pijper versus Boughen in heat two was outstanding. 17 and 16 years-old respectively and they’re weaving in and out of one another. We’ll be watching them go toe-to-toe at a much higher level in the future, I’m sure. Best wishes to Pijper.

That was a good win against a a decent Berwick side. It’s worth pondering the outcome, had Flint been available. Would he have scored as many as Vissing? Doubtful, but then again, if Complin was available, I’m confident he’d have scored more than Hagon’s four. Starke looked slow, so credit where it’s due; his five, paid eight was an achievement. Borke is a rider. I can’t imagine he’ll be at reserve for long. Berwick have a great talent on their hands there. There was some great racing on show last night. Lots of passing and lots of tussling, so fair play to both sets of riders.

More brain damage speedway from the Premiership on BSN. Belle Vue, last week. Ipswich, this week. If either were my first speedway meetings, I’d never be back. Credit to BSN for more great coverage, but how has a race involving Sayfudtinov, Doyle, Harris and Janowski delivered so little? Jesus, this is a tough watch.

What’s the script with Clouting?

Which referee and what happened?

I’ve just watched the highlights of this meeting on Berwick’s YouTube channel and I have one question… was Stevie Wonder the referee? Etheridge’s exclusion in heat five was beyond harsh; his front wheel was taken away from him by Thomson in what’s surely the perfect definition of first bend bunching. If that was how the referee was governing the entire meeting, then fair enough, but he then went on to allow Castagna back in the re-run of heat fourteen after clipping Borke’s rear wheel, causing a crash. I thought both incidents were the natural risks of bikes hitting a 10M wide corner with no breaks, so all four should have been back for the re-run, but for the referee to discriminate against one - arguably the least offensive, too - and not the other, is outrageous. Are referees held accountable in speedway? If Berwick dropped points on Saturday night, they would have had every right to be furious. Shocking, bizarre and outright poor refereeing.

That was tremendous TV. Greg Blair - an outstanding pundit - on BSN wanted Boughen‘s professional observations while being shown the replay, but what he received was ”got over him… and he’s just f*cking ran straight into me”. In five years time, we’ll hopefully be watching these two compete at an even higher level because what they’re doing as teenagers and the company they’re doing it in is nothing short of incredible. They’re both a credit to themselves, regardless of how many times they fall or come last.

If we didn’t wait for him, he wouldn’t have joined Pearson for a 5-1. Edinburgh would subsequently have entered heat one as the stronger pairing; a positive result might have set the tone for the rest of the meeting. How many ”ifs” are we talking here, Lisa? If my gran had wheels, she’d be a bike. Pijper has received criticism because he rides full-hearted and in doing so, races hard. Andre Compton, Jan Pedersen and Tomasz Gollob used to do it. Pijper’s doing it at 17 years-old though, so he’s getting nothing but credit from me. The way his dad is by his side the second he’s in need is one of the most endearing things I’ve saw at the speedway.