vog

You say on the grapevine, he posted it himself on facebook and it has already been mentioned on the Stoke forum I'm not quite sure the 2 events are related though, given that Chris informed people of this about 3 days before Rambo was released from Leicester...post hoc ergo propter hoc and all that

Doubtful, not sure how he is doing after his back injury last season.

So, Stoke have re-signed Simon Lambert in place of the unfortunate Richie Worrall. Due to averages, we have also had to let Jaimie Pickard go, with a replacement to be named soon Looks like we will probably line up: 1) Rambo 2) New Signing (Up to 5.42) 3) Atkin 4) Walter 5) Birks 6) Carr 7) Reade Even more top heavy, but glad changes were made before Ben's new average. Will make for some interesting meetings, and some very interesting heat 13's and 15's!

I think, given the fact he will probably move up soon, his average will dip slightly at the end of the season from what it is now, mainly because he won't be having 6 or 7 rides a meeting. I'm just happy at the massive leap that he seems to have made. He looks much smoother as a rider and much quicker than last season. I'm just glad we stuck with him and he chose to come back to us!

With Ben, these last 2 meetings have been interesting, because he has ridden on a track where people have turned up without the will to ride, but by the same token, let's look at his scores this season: IoW (H): 5 Dudley (A): 10+1 Dudley (H): 14+3 Scunthorpe (A): 15 IoW (A): 13 Scunthorpe (H): 15+1 IoW (A): 11+2 Buxton (H): 14+1 Buxton (A): 11+1 Scunthorpe (H): 15+3 IoW (H): 17+4 He has been fantastic this season. If he a 9 pointer? Nope. Is he a 7 pointer? Quite possibly.

Not the best meeting, but thankful for any speedway given the British summer. IoW were awful. Looked beaten from the moment they turned up. Slow from the gate, over-riding in the early heats and falling, and generally looking like they wanted to be anywhere but Stoke (Which is perfectly understandable!) Lots of EF's and falls cost them any chance of doing anything. For Stoke, Birks showed what the track was capable of in the later heats, and Reade was pretty much untroubled to a paid 21 pointer. Everyone else chipped in well barring Jaimie, who took a hefty fall in his second ride and looked uncomfortable in his other 2.

Weather has been surprisingly good thus far, with the sun peeking out! Hopefully the track will be good, and having Birks back will really help us! I think Stoke have enough to get all 3 points, but it will be close.

Ben's average is closer to 8 than 5 at the moment! I think, based on NL meetings only, he is around 7.8.

Updates site has it as 56-35. Would imagine that the 2 point difference is down to a TR being used? Maybe one has missed it/included it when it didnt happen?

No idea. There aren't many riders about on a 7.75, and no-one who could do the job Richie would do. It becomes a question of who can do a better job than R/R! Personally, I'd be tempted to search out a couple of 5 pointers, replace Richie and Ross (Who tries, but needs to gain more experience) and go that way. Ben will be going into the main body when the new averages come out, so it would give us a more solid look.

Mildenhall by about 10. Stoke are weakened ridiculously by having R/R for Richie. The battles between Birks and Heeps should be fun though.

Was good enough over the 2 legs to beat you I must admit, so long as both teams are at full strength, I'm looking forward to the Dudley meetings. Roynon v Worrall/Birks could be some fantastic races.

Stoke came closer in a pre-season challenge

Let's not forget, Adam started in 2003 in the CL...9 years ago. I have no problem with Adam riding in the NL. Gives younger riders something to aspire to, and gives them a notable scalp if they manage to beat him, but surely there should be some limit on how long you can ride in the NL for? Maybe changing the ruling of over 30's to saying that you can ride in the NL for the first 5 seasons from your first NL race, with 1 exception per team? Give riders an incentive to move up? Maybe even do it like the American College sports systems, where you have so many years of eligibility?

Don't forget it's the fours, not the NL meeting.

If he did have to ride at number 2, that could make heat 1 very interesting! Birks, Worrall and Heeps? Fantastic!

I hope Richie can ride! More importantly, I hope we get a meeting. The weather isn't looking too great unfortunately. However, if there is a meeting, and Richie does ride, Stoke by about 5.

Probably because it's only Richie's second full season racing league speedway

Providing Reade rides in every league meeting,he will move up for the IoW home meeting in July =]

R/R for Mildenhall will work better than R/R for Stoke, that's pretty obvious. As for the meeting, if Stoke's top 3 + Reade turn up and do well, we could keep it close. Will be interesting to see how Carr goes. Gutsy rider who has some potential. Moving R/R to 2 for us makes sense, as Birks has been on fire recently. Still allows us to put Pickard in heat 1, Atkin in heat 8 and then the weaker riders ride with Birks as opposed to having two reserves out. Mildenhall by 8

Try Berwick in 05: Scott Smith on 6.92 Also that year, Rye House had Tommy Allen on 6.26

The dirt one is an interesting one, as I remember hearing Crabby saying that there was no less dirt on the track last year at Stoke than when he was riding!

Am I gutted Stoke lost? Of course. But to say it was a good meeting, in my opinion, is a stretch. For me, a good meeting should be one where riders use their skills to overtake each other on a pretty regular basis. If I see that, I'm not fussed if my team wins or loses. Yesterday I saw: 12 fallers Numerous riders almost coming to grief on bend 2 (The two that stick in my mind are McKinna and Branford) Experienced riders unable to slide the bike going into bend 3 (Atkin always seems to struggle at Buxton, but McKinna in the early heats was two wheeling in then sliding after the apex) Passes due to rides not being able to control their bikes. Watering of a single line on the inside, which seemed to do more harm than good (And at the time, I commented to a friend that the track was finally settling down when the water was put on and falls happened again) From where I was stood, there was an obvious patch, on bend 2, which was about 10 shades darker than anywhere else. When riders hit this, they were flung towards the fence (See Adam McKinna in heat 7) For me, that was ridiculous, and I took no pleasure in watching experienced and talented riders struggle for 4 laps. But hey, if that's what you enjoy, good luck to you.

Didn't mention the track in my first post, but I did in the updates. The meeting was pretty bad, irrespective of track. Buxton stayed on their bikes better than Stoke did, and neither team seemed to want to win the meeting. Stoke threw away a 5-1 in heat 1, Buxton threw away a 9 point lead, then Stoke should have grasped the meeting and didn't.

From a spectator point of view, I watched as every rider hit the same bit of dirt on bend 2 that caused McKinna, Birks, Reade, Neale, Pickard, Blacklock all to fall. For me, that's not fine. Add to that, heat 13, after Branford and McKinna both almost binned it in the same place, all 3 riders took it easy. The track, from where I was, looked inconsistent.