bellevueace

Some good racing after the track dried out a bit, Fricke looked like he had not been away, Andersen rode superbly, Auty was very good and his race with Fricke is what speedway is all about shame the coming together resulting in Fricke being rightly excluded brought a premature end to a great tussle. Cook was involved in some good races but what happened Thursday? However thanks for coming.

After Newman and the goggles incident we always seem to be on the wrong end of these things, hopefully what goes round comes round eventually because at the moment we are going to need some divine intervention come the semi,s the way things are going.

Because if your not going to finish top that's out of reach but you have qualified for a play off place the rest of the matches are academic, you are right they would still be meaningless without the play offs too but the play offs were supposed to eradicate meaningless meetings, which they never will for the struggling clubs ie Leicester who were never in contention. With only 8 clubs half the league qualify, if we had say an 18 team league like we used to have half the teams would be riding the latter half of the season with nothing to ride for anyway.

Got to give you renewed confidence for your second leg surely?

Well our season is collapsing around our ears at just the wrong time.

Im of the opinion that the team that finishes top of the league at the end of the season are the real champions as they have had that consistency over the whole year not just four matches. Having said that we now use that system so we have to go with it. The thing is it was supposed to be a system that would give clubs some incentive if they were not going to finish top of the pile and also give the qualifying clubs a couple of good paydays. Now at Belle Vue we qualified for the play offs a while back so the remaining matches were in effect meaningless as we were not going to finish top. Thus we have seen crowds drop over the tail end of the season, question is will a good crowd on Monday and also for the final if we get through compensate for the lost revenue in the regular league matches that saw people stay away waiting for the play offs to begin?

Etheridge for Bewley = game over for us, if Dan does ride Monday cant see him being fully match fit along with frickes recent injury I think both the Robins and Wolves will cash in, it would have been hard enough anyway without the injuries. Should be a good run out for BWD though.

Whilst we can go well at Monmore we make things harder than they should be at home, Lindgren, Thorssell, Masters, and Schlein can all go well at the NSS and can do a lot of damage. We need Dan and Max back to their very best if we are to go through over the two legs. Max as we know struggles on the smaller tracks so he needs to overcome that in the second leg. We might have come out on top aggregate wise over the league matches but that counted for nothing last season when we capitulated at Monmore big style with our worst away performance of the season when it mattered most. Add to that the fact Jack will find points very hard to come by as he has done all season and I think Wolves will edge it over the two legs. Lets not forget these are the play offs and BV just don't do play offs do we?

Whilst the track was patchy and as the riders stated unpredictable it made for a very good meeting, I really enjoyed that with both teams going for it and a bit of needle thrown into the mix. Poole had a bit of bad luck early doors when they could easily have been eight points up but came back well in the last two heats. I don't think the second leg is as cut and dried and some seem to think, Poole have gone well at Blunsdon in the past and I think they will give it a good go.

Yes it certainly has a dodgy ring to it bringing in Newman after BWD performed so well at Peterborough, the irony is some Poole fans blowing a gasket accusing Swindon of cheating when they themselves have defended their own club pulling many stunts in the past, then it was down to Matt being ahead of the game, now its Roscoe cheating. Some of Poole,s behaviour in the past pushing the rules have led to this win at all cost attitude which in turn leads to bending the rules, epitomises the sport at the moment. As Newman is a Poole lad through and through he could aid them with a poor showing for the Robins or want to stuff it up Matt for his earlier sacking. Either way the outrage has more than a tint of irony about it.

The irony of Holder having his best night on a wet track in difficult conditions! Terrible GP looked like a bigger version of Buxton without the views. This was taking the series back to the days of Norden. Hope Doyle goes on to win the title now after his bad luck last season, if its not to be for Jason Id like Lindgren to come through, hes not always brought his league form to the GP,s but this season has seen him step up, he was very unlucky to be excluded, why does a rider have to be thrown out if its on the back straight if its a racing incident and no one is to blame?

Well the rain came just before the start time and we had a torrential downpour with water standing on the track, start time was put back to 8pm to give the track a chance. Once the rain had stopped the track did start to drain fairly quickly and the riders came out to give it a go, predictably the Colts got into their stride from the word go but the Heathens riders started to find their way as the track dried out, there were a few heavy showers during the meeting and conditions were difficult. Smith, Shuttleworth, and Bickley all rode well ably backed by the lower end. For the Heathens Hall was involved in a couple of good races and rode well but I was very impressed with Carr, he rode superbly all night and was more than a match for the home riders. Overall some good racing in very tricky conditions, wonder what some of the seniors would have made of those conditions? You wouldn't have seen the likes of Holder for dust, just a pity both sides were not at full strength.

Dan Bewley still out with his injury problem Ben Hopwood guests, the Colts still running r/r for Lee Payne, Tom Perry out for the Heathens with r/r being utilised. There has been a lot of heavy overnight rain and some heavy showers this afternoon with bright periods. Forecast is showing a heavy band of rain moving in due to hit Gorton between 1900-2000 and lasting until late. The track can take a good soaking but if the outlook is correct it does not bode well for just after tapes up.

I bet the riders would prefer to ride in one league than join the rest of us doing mundane jobs putting in 10 or 12 hour days day after day.

Ive thought for a while Lambert would move on next season, it could be only riders threatened of being left out when teams are completing their line ups would ride for Chapman. Last port in a storm and all that. I hope the club gets sorted along with the track Lynn was always one of my favourite away days. Not been for a few seasons now though.

Will Newman put in an appearance? Will Starke come down with a mystery illness? . Seriously a lot depends on how BWD comes back and if Bellego has overcome his recent dip. Its possible Swindon could have peaked too soon and struggle. Im going for a comfy Poole win and to go through on aggregate.

Swindons dominant run had to end sometime they just have to hope that they didnt peak too early, with doubts over the fitness of Fricke and Bewley and most probably carrying Smith I don't see us getting past Wolves, I'm taking them to win the title beating Poole in the final.

That Poole lost five on the bounce including a 30-60 highlights the weakness of the league nowadays rather than any resilience.

That's true but last season especially with our away form you could have said the same thing, I also think Wolves will be a completely different proposition at the NSS where we generally make things harder than they should be, Lindgren, Thorrsell, and Masters if hes fully recovered can do some serious damage at our place. Just have a feeling you could come through again, we have a habit of losing these play off things.

The doubts i have about Belle Vue are how Fricke will return after his injury and more than likely only having one scoring reserve, Wolves will also need Masters to overcome his recent injury but i see them as the team most likely not to give as much away on their own track wheras we can make hard work of it at the NSS, Wolves for me will do enough on home shale to carry them through two legged meetings, we do tend to go well round there but capitulated last season when it mattered the most. Wolves for me I'm afraid.

I can see Wolves doing enough damage at Monmore to see them through the two legged play off matches.

Was disappointed with the Stars as i thought at least four of their riders would have gone really well on this track, Huckenbeck was a big disappointment, but Palm Toft was his usual value for money self and Auty put in a good effort.

As the play offs were supposed to eradicate meaningless meetings weve had quite a few over the past month having already qualified for the end of season ko stage, and yet again we see a meeting riddled with r/r and guests. I wonder how many meetings this season have been run with teams fielding their original 1-7 line ups? Injuries are unavoidable but this season with all the doubling up its been a total farce.

If PC had not suffered that horrendous accident at Hyde Road just before the 1977 world final there is no doubt he would have retained his title at Gothenburg, in fact only a re-run heat when Muller I think it was came off stopped him and he eventually finished second, I was at that meeting and he had to be lifted on and off his bike, that with a broken leg and over 300 stirches. At the time Peter was at his peak and nigh on unbeatable and I think only for that accident he could have gone on to equal Maugers three in a row. You cant just measure who was the greatest ever by titles alone as good/bad luck often plays a major part. Woofinden in no way comes close to PC,s outstanding ability on a bike and I would also put Lee, Craven, and depending how far you want to go back Parker way above, Jessup could have had a couple of titles only for ef,s for example. And lets not forget these riders had to navigate many difficult qualifying rounds to get to a world final where one bad ride e/f or exclusion meant you were finished for another year. If the GP had existed then PC for example would definitely have had more than one title and Mauger with his tremendous consistency would have had many more than the six he won he would have been in double figures. Titles don't actually tell the whole story, especially not today when riders have 12 meetings to be able to overcome injury problems, engine problems, exclusions, etc.

Rye appeared to enjoy Wimborne Road though.