DaveWayne

Yes, Stead confirmed this in a post match interview on twitter.

He was in a f***ing coma ffs. The info about his injuries was coming from medical professionals, not from him over exaggerating.

Was it last season, or the season before, when Sheffield called off a meeting against Ipswich at about 6pm and all the Witches fans were moaning on social media that they had travelled all that way and it should have been called sooner ? Only thing that could be worse than that is if you waited till everyone was in the stadium then had to call it off as you didn't have the correct track equipment available. 😉

Stock cars / Bangers don't run weekly at Northampton. Sometimes they are on consecutive weekends, but usually there are 2 or 3 weeks between meetings. Interestingly, I was watching interviews with F1 stock car drivers last night from the meeting held there last Saturday and they were commenting that there was more material on track than at the previous meeting. One thing that should please everyone is that I am not seeing any complaints on here about the surface being rough last night, despite there being torrential rain mid-meeting on Saturday night. If there were going to be issues I would have expected them to show up after that.

So after Ipswich fans spending the last couple of seasons complaining about how dangerous the Sheffield track is, they are all very quiet about dangerous riding by one of their team. 🤔

Etheridge was a gamble, but one worth taking with such a low average, especially if he could rediscover his form of a few seasons ago. The problem at the moment is that all of the top 5 seem to be struggling to gate consistently so they are having to try and come from behind all the time. Killeen has scored 10+5 from 5 meetings. What more is an RS expected to do ? I think he is worth persevering with as he is always pressuring and looking for a way through. Once he gets settled into the track at Owlerton I think he could surprise a few.

The 'beams' that you refer to are not going to be cut off. They support the top rope for the stock cars and are an essential part of the safety fence. They have the same thing at Kings Lynn so why would they need to be removed at Northampton ?

I stand on turn 3/4 at Owlerton so all the winners come past me and take the applause, it's only the home straight they are missing out. 😉

Tigers lost last night on the gate. None of the 3 heat leaders were getting out of the gate well, and also Flint was struggling compared to last year where his gating was key to his scoring. Not sure what has happened to Jack Holder, but his gating was poor last year for both Sheffield and in the GPs, and it looks to be continuing. Killeen could be a very good RS from what I have seen in the 2 home matches. Once he gets used to the track he could surprise a few. Battled in every race but just couldn't find the pass.

Sheffield won the KO Cup and topped the league table in 2024 with Edwards and Gilkes.

I think Belle Vue are out whatever happens due to their negative points difference. If Sheffield and Leicester each win their home legs and Leicester take the aggregate point, all 3 teams finish on 5 points but one of those 2 will end up with a positive points difference, so it's impossible for Belle Vue to finish top.

The irony of this being that Belle Vue did get the graveyard gate early doors but were only 6 points down. The damage was done in heats 7-11 when Sheffield had gate 3 for 4 consecutive races.

So it's exactly the same then. Tac subs allowed in the league phase, but not in the knockout phase.

Are tactical substitutes allowed in the playoffs ?

You missed all the excitement leaving that early. All the Aces fans suddenly woke up and chanted "Bewley, Bewley, Bewley" when you finally got a heat advantage in heat 12. Pity the match was already over by then. 😉

Belle Vue fans won't need to worry about what it's called soon anyway. By the end of the Easter weekend they will be concentrating on the league. 😉

Just out of interest, how would the two of you suggest that they run a knockout cup with 6 teams ? Assume 2 would be seeded into the semis, so would that be the 2 finalists from last season ? As Northampton would be one of the quarter finalists, that would delay the whole competition as they are not going to be ready to ride at home until the end of the month. Yes, we can all be cynical about it, but I would say the format chosen for this year is probably the best option in the current circumstances.

That's ok - they will be in the same league as at least one Nottinghamshire team next season, possibly two if County come up to join us. 😉

Scunny had stock cars last night and again on Saturday, so maybe logistically it made sense to not have speedway in between if they have to make any infrastructure changes.

Belle Vue to win on Monday, but then lose out on the aggregate point on Thursday.

So Leicester were called the Hunters at the same time as the Brafield Flying Foxes existed. 😉 Far from it being an 'attempted appropriation' or a 'lack of local knowledge', it is historically accurate in returning to the name of the original team that rode at the same stadium. Most 'older' stock car fans still refer to the stadium as Brafield rather than Northampton.

I'm not sure I understand all this stressing about the name. People are talking as if Foxes is synonymous with Leicester. If that is the case then why are the Speedway team called the Lions, and the Rugby team called the Tigers ?

The flaw in that plan is that Stock Car racing isn't a 'local sport' and is very much a 'travelling circus'. There are fans in all areas, but the bulk of the fans at Northampton on Saturday night would have been at Kings Lynn the previous Saturday, and will probably be at Scunthorpe next Saturday. I would hazard a guess that on average, only about 10% of the crowd at a stock car meeting live within 50 miles of the track. I do 35-40 meetings a season, but my nearest track is about 35 miles from my home, and most other tracks I visit are around 60-90 miles away, with others further still, such as Taunton at 220 miles, and St Day (Cornwall) and Cowdenbeath (Scotland) both just over 300 miles. F1 stockcars still have a strong following in the North West due to past history, despite there no longer being any tracks up that way, so many fans at their meetings are travelling from North and West Yorkshire, Manchester and Lancashire.