NJC71

I think the promotion will be very reluctant to drop Steve. Got to remember this is our number 1 rider's brother. I feel for the lad, must be soul destroying when you're struggling like that and your brother is banging in double figures everywhere. He has had some decent home matches so got to hope he can tough it out and come good soon. We all know what he is capable of.

What a win. 8 points down after 3 heats. This team never fails to amaze me. Just an awesome win from the lads. Brilliant from "two-track" Tully. Make that three!

A little unfair on Robbo to label him a roller after 3 dodgy starts. He has been riding for nearly 20 years... Personally I think the rule on rolling needs reviewing. You could argue that if a rider can be excluded when he hasn't touched the tapes then what is the point of the tapes? Might as well just start on the red/green light. Anyway good to see Tully back tonight. Need to remember this is his first match of the season so it would be unfair to expect him to be winning races from the off. Because of that we may be a little weaker until he gets up to speed, but certainly at home he should be a very strong number 2. Still think this will be a home win but the Diamonds are well capable of pushing Ipswich hard and maybe pick up a point.

Don't think the Diamonds are the strongest team in the League. I think Edinburgh look the team to beat to me although they may be tested a little more now with Tabaka out of a reserve birth. As for this match much will depend on how Lewis rides. He's been fantastic so far but Ipswich look strong at reserve and Steve is struggling and might find this a hard place to regain form. Also a bit concerned about Lindgren's recent meetings, he seems to have gone off the boil. Tough one for the Diamonds. After that amazing display at Berwick I will never again write them off but I'd be well happy with a point here.

Nicholls has been very good value just as Chris Louis is. Shame what should have been a great meeting has been ruined by a disgraceful track which has been quite frankly dangerous and resulted in 2 injuries and could have been a lot more. The racing was only exciting because riders were all over the place. Kasprzak was very unlucky in the final but glad Emil won as he is a class act on and off the track. As for Tai...just hope this injury doesn't set him back too much. Real shame.

Wouldn't say it was awful. Not a classic but plenty of incident and some good races heat 15 being the pick. One of those nights where the Diamonds had problems and with Howe on his normal Brough form we struggled to shake Scunny off but never looked in any real danger, although had Jorgensen been riding it might have been very close as he is normally good value here. Referee was very frustrating tonight. Ok there were instances of rolling but if a rider moves and then misses the start why stop the race? He did that twice tonight and was generally very fussy. Ludo seems to be a little off form at the moment. Poor match against Redcar and looked down on speed again tonight.

What has Ludo done wrong? The Berwick match was re-scheduled for a day when he was already contracted to ride in Sweden. Hardly his fault and he has not reneged on any of his commitments. If he refused to ride in Sweden he would presumably have been banned by the FIM or whoever anyway. There is an argument about whether Newcastle were right to accept the fixture (although obviosuly not now) but I fail to see how there can be any argument around Ludo's position.

No doubters with the team, we have a great side this year and we haven't actually seen the full side ride yet. If we can get Steve going away from home and avoid the kind of serious injury we suffered last year we are good enough to win the title. I think the comments about the decision to commit without Ludvig tonight (mine included) were fair. As it turns out we got an astonishing performance with a weak looking side one of the best I've ever seen from a Diamonds side in 30 years watching them.

Yep he was awesome tonight but to be fair he has been excellent since he came back last season both home and away. Very underrated rider.

Well I made my feelings known before the meeting. I stand by that to an extent because on paper it was a poor call. But in the end I am so glad it went ahead That was an absolutely incredible performance from the Diamonds tonight. I loved every minute of it and was proud to be a Diamonds fan watching the riders give 100% in every race. It might not have been a classic for the neutral but for someone emotionally involved it was gripping stuff which had me on the edge of my seat. We didn’t have much luck with that quite honestly awful decision by Starke to slide off and stay down in heat 11. Paul did a great job for us last year but made a poor decision in the heat of the moment which I’m sure he’ll regret and hopefully learn from. But we bounced back in style and thoroughly deserved all 4 points. Amazing night, first time I’ve seen the Diamonds ride on Sky and it will live long in the memory. Must apologise to the neighbours....never shouted so much in years.

Absolute disgrace.

Sensible actions for Newcastle. Approached by sky/BSPA/whoever to run this meeting on TV on a Tuesday. 1. Check rider availability 2. Realise Ludvig might be unavailable 3. Ask BSPA if we can use a second facility if necessary 4. Answer = no, then turn down request on the basis that they can't put out a strong enough side. I'm sure another northern side could have stepped in and I don't see how that would in any way penalise Newcastle in the future. Getting thumped tonight certainly won't help them. What they've seemingly done is commit to the fixture without following those basic steps. Yes they'd be wrong to pull out now but the above checks are surely the process you'd follow before committing to any fixture change regardless of whether its on TV. I'm afraid Newcastle have cocked-up here. Hope the 5 Diamonds can rally around and pull something out of the hat but given two of them are not 100% fit I fear the worst.

Read all of the posts and quite honestly I don't care who is to blame but its just unbelievable that this match has been allowed to be arranged. My understanding is that Ludvig is a squad rider in Sweden so there was always a chance he'd be unavailable. We're already using r/r so this was clearly a risk not worth taking. God help us if we lose a rider during the meeting.

The BSPA must be involved in the process. They and the clubs involved would surely have to agree to the fixture. If nothing else they could advise sky that there would be issues with rider availablity and advise them to pick alternative teams.

You would think given the general state of speedway in this country, not to mention TV contracts up for renewal that the BSPA would show some common sense when it comes to picking matches for TV. What on earth are they doing selecting a match between two teams (one of which is already using r/r) on a Tuesday when they know there is a clash with the Swedish league and one or both sides could be hit with absences? I naively assumed they had considered this and there weren't clashes. And why the hell did Newcastle in particular accept the match? For god's sake it's not rocket science it's called planning. Surely when selecting a match for TV and basically advertising PL speedway to the sporting public the BSPA have a duty to ensure they pick a match against two evenly matched sides who they can be reasonably sure will be at full strength. You can't ensure any match will be entertaining but at least do your best to reduce the risk of it not being. To have two sides using NL riders to replace a good second-string and a rider who is basically a heat leader is not selling the PL in a good light at all and in my opinion is just not good enough. Without trying to be disrespectful I have no interest in watching a NL rider riding in the top 5 against Edward Kennett. It might still be a good match but it might not be. The frustrating thing here is that the BSPA have created this situation themselves, this is not down to external forces that they have no control over it's just awful planning.

Oh dear he we go. Ignore the fact that it rained non stop most of the day. Track was never going to be good tonight.

Strange meeting with the Diamonds winning by 17 points without every really firing. Track looked difficult particularly early on and with both Kus and Wilko throwing away points with falls when under no real pressure. Kerr and Robbo also came off later, both when perhaps pushing too hard in the conditions. Robbo’s fall was a bad looking one and it was a relief to see him walking in the pits so he’ll hopefully be ok for tomorrow. Ostergaard and Summers were the only real threat for the visitors with Summers having one of his good Brough nights involved in some lively first bends with Richie.... Unfortunately with Wilko again struggling and Kus having a wild night there was no real back-up. Dyer had a couple of good rides but is not the threat here that he is on the bigger tracks. Dilger not surprisingly looked rusty and off the pace but he has no prior form here either. The Diamonds, Richie and Henry apart didn’t have their gating boots on with Ludvig having by his standards a poor night and his paid 12 being flattering aided by the Redcar falls. Strange night for Steve who looked ill at ease on the bike in some of his rides but found some extraordinary speed coming off bend 2 and ended up with a fine paid 10 looking much steadier in his last couple of rides. He’s certainly doing the job though at home now.

Hope the track is ok and we won't be waiting an hour while its sorted. Its not exactly glorious out there.

Ha, ha. I wouldn't have taken much catching

Been out running near Brough and its been raining pretty steadily for the last hour or so. Doesn't look good but hopefully it will brighten up.

Some decent racing despite the scoreline. Track was good early on but after it was wattered it seemed to cause problems to the riders around truns 3 and 4 which spoilt it a bit. As mentioned Glasgow's TR decisions were odd. Grieves had a very poor first ride and was then given a TR against Robson and Lindgren which always looked a nailed on 5-1. And then Ringwood who had struggled was given a TR in heat 8, again against Robson resulting in another 5-1. The TR's were never going to impact the result but better use could have made the score more respectable. Good to see Steve Worrall riding with a lot more speed and confidence. That was more like it. Seems to be going ok again at home now and just needs to transfer that to the away matches. Lewis again rode well, what a signing he has been. This was always going to be a big home win. Glasgow are clearly trying to build up assets for the future and although none of the new lads really stood out it's an understandable approach from a new promotion in difficult financial times. Worth perservering with.

Slightly disappointed with just a point but pleased to hear it was such a good meeting and pleased for the Glasgow fans and promotion who seem to be doing a good job. Nice to see another young Brit in Joe Jacobs getting a proper chance at PL level and doing well. As our own Lewis Kerr has proved if these lads are prepared to put the miles in and promoters are prepared to give them a chance there is some hope for British speedway.

Aye although if Ned had been chosen I doubt he would have dropped a point yet to be fair

Special mention for Christian Henry. Another good score. He's been superb so far this season. Always scores well around Brough but scoring well on the road as well.

Good win. Kyle did ok at number 5. As usual George was right and I was wrong!