MrMungo

Did the ref really put the 2 mins on for the next heat before Kildemand had time to finish?!

Tend to think of Lambert as more of a Bridger than a Lee/Ward, but time will tell.

You used the name Robert 10 times in that paragraph. That's got to be some sort of forum record?

"Passing" in the first 15 metres doesn't count, SF! 8 is a little generous I feel - could agree with 5 or 6. But whilst there was a bit of passing and some intriguing battles, the meeting just lacked a great race. Even so, the closeness and the build up to the wonderful Play-Offs still made it interesting viewing & glad I made the effort to go.

Hope the racing looked better on Bet365 than it did from where I was standing!

I actually said pretty much the same to Gordy tonight. It's the obvious change if any is to be made. I'm fundamentally against team changes. Think it's morally wrong and unjust especially when a rider has increased his average quite substantially, but the King's Lynn side I have seen recently are not going to win the Play-Offs. In fact, if they hadn't had an excellent start to the season, they may have been struggling to even qualify for them! They just don't look like a league winning them, or remotely close to it. Something has to change if they are serious about winning the title, whether it be a change of personnel, new engine for certain rider(s), etc etc. On the plus side, Bjerre seems to be getting back to near his best. Iversen won me some money (thanks!), Bobby Lambert got well and truly stuck in and Kerr is scoring well again. Simon Lambert also did well enough. Schlein has a certain degree of Allottness about him. F*cking quick enough when he's in the mood, but easily bullied into shutting off. Went from basically 1st to third in half a lap just because he shut off when Batchelor got close, which meant he carried little momentum into next couple of bends and Kildemand passed him easily enough out of next bend. A slightly frustrating rider. Hopefully his shoulder injury is not a serious one. For me, he's the key rider for KL. He can get anything between 2 or 12! I'm sure Rosco and co will be most annoyed about the ref, but to grab a point at the league leaders when your #1 scores only a couple of points is quite an achievement. I don't believe that Kildemand was unfit - he seemed to be suffering from clutch problems throughout the meeting, from parade to the end. Personally think that's why he slowed up in the infamous heat 11 to save doing any further damage to his clutch, which clearly backfired. Bit of a inane decision by the ref, but I guess with all of the King's Lynn's bad luck in that heat (did the KL mechanics go on strike during the interval??), the ref took it upon herself to even it up somewhat! Morris and North both immensly impressive, and if they can both carry that sort of form into the Play-Offs, they could be serious contenders. I'm genuinely excited about the Play-Offs this year - assuming Swindon and Coventry make it, I really don't think there's a great deal between the top 4 after all. Exciting times ahead!

Porsing rides for King's Lynn. I know he's been riding pretty poorly lately, but you can't just swap him around for a better rider for the hell of it. It's now how it works. Who do you think you are? Matt Ford? Out of those battles I think it's pretty close. Only really Schlein V Gustafsson (& Lambert V Greaves) I'd say should be safe but even Schlein is prone to the dire meeting every now and again.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!!

A decent score from a number 1, and there'd be little in it. Just got to hope he's managed to get his beauty sleep the night before.

Have no doubt that track conditions played their part, but even so, that is a very, very impressive showing from Coventry. They're coming into form at the exactly right time. Playoffs are looking very interesting!

Ref not falling for it a second time, Mr Tungate!

If it wasn't 9.15pm already, I don't think Tungate would've got away with that start!

Best wishes to Tai - reminded me of the crash Olly Allen had round there years ago. Very nasty.

Broken left arm

Was riding at Eastbourne

Hmmm. I was quite frankly amazed the re-run of heat 9 wasn't called back. One of the most uneven starts I've seen in a while! Referee did keep things moving at a rapid pace (which is to some peoples liking) despite a few crashes.

Newman is gating like a beast at the moment. If you gate that well, you're always going to score well, wherever you ride.

I agree with Baggy. They didn't look like potential champions last week, and didn't look like potential champions this week either. Although a quick analyse at the scores shows it would've been very close with a normal Iversen score, and perhaps there are mitigating circumstances for his low score, eg illness, bike issues, bad hair day, etc. Seemed to perform okay last night though.

Maybe he feels his current average is too high?

Great scrap for third between the 2 Leicester riders

Or Darcy Ward?

Any truth in the rumour that Darcy managed to injure himself over the weekend?

Only just caught this meeting on Youtube - looked a lively affair. Highlights were Harris' riding and Rosco's interviews! The track at Brandon is in dire need of some sort of overhaul. It's been pretty shocking all year. Had various meetings stopped at the start of the year, it improved for a while, but now seems to be going worse again. The sad thing is that it didn't seem to be as bad as it has been. It's a shame for Coventry, as I genuinely feel that on their day Coventry could win the title over 2 legs. They've got a great team spirit, riders who can step up for the big meetings, they've always been strong away from home, but what is missing is a semi-decent home track. That is what I suspect will cost them come October time.

They were queuing in the cars although up to the A47! So I guess not everyone has been put off from going. I wasn't. Glad I did make a rare visit to PE34. Heat 13 was a bit special. Terrific team-riding from Darcy with Iversen all over his and Janowski's tail. Nothing in it. Iversen pulls off a stunning move to go between the pair of them at end of lap 3. You think that's it, but Darcy just stretches his arms coming out of next bend and p*sses past Iversen like he's an ageing granny. At his best, Darcy is just brilliant. Today was one of those days. His awareness and general team-riding abilities are second to none. Even when he first came over as a 16 year-old, his awareness was miles ahead of anyone his age, and it has just got even better. The differences in the 2 teams was, for me, highlighted in heat 11. Bjerre had gated, and you expected Ward to start to chase him down. But he doesn't. He looks around, and selflessly decides to look after his team partner instead. He spends the rest of the race shepherding Grajczonek home. Schlein, on the other hand, seemingly gives up on the final lap and coasts over the line at 3 mph. It wasn't just the Darcy show though. After a slow start when both Janowski and Harris were caught out by riding too defensively, the Poole 1-6 just upped a gear. They were rocketing out of the starts time and time again. When you're convincingly out-gated by Harris, you know it's pretty bad! Janowski was excellent once he figured out kerb-crawling was not the way to go. Harris excellent value after a dreadful opener. Grajczonek very solid after his tough first ride. Milik rode really well, and Newman was equally as impressive - especially in the first half of the meeting, but tried some adventurous moves towards the end of the meeting which didn't really pan out for him, but still did his job. I do think Semion is right. I don't think Poole will see this track again this year. If King's Lynn perform like this again, they may not even get to the Play-Off Final. (And if they do, one suspects Buster may find some more shale to whack on there! Which would be a shame as the track tonight provided some excellent racing. A slicker KL surface often does.) Porsing and Lambert are great talents, but just get the feeling that when push comes to shove, they may vanish when up against the big boys, like they did today, although Lambert didn't do too badly in all fairness. Porsing, on the other hand, was completly unconvincing, despite a cracking race with Rose in heat 7! With just 2 more home meetings to go, just don't feel that King's Lynn are on it at the moment. No matter how great the early season form is, it counts for nothing in October, and looks like Poole are the form team, and carrying the momentum at the right time...

What's the weather like in the area? Come across several heavy showers already today and don't want to get my hair wet!