dantodan

I take it Rohan Tungate is injured, will be missing tonight and Ipswich will use R/R for him. Presumably this makes the witches weaker as Mr. Tungate scored 8+1 (from 5) on his last visit to planet Brough! So both sides are weakened and using R/R. Maybe 12 points will be enough for Ipswich but the Diamonds will be highly motivated on their home track to overcome the deficit. A lot depends upon the riding of Andrew Tully and Ludvig Lindgren

Gurgle..... that's the sound of the plug being pulled on Newcastle 2013

Referees must hate meetings being video'd as we can all see their mistakes over and over again. I would say that in modern times most starts are fair. Harking back to the 1960s I have memories of Ivan Mauger rolling at the starts he was a great rider and often got blatant flyers as referees tried so hard to catch him out, they usually failed to catch Ivan out. My biggest gripe this season is when the red lights come on following a rider who has anticipated the start well and made a perfect start and the ref says "unsatisfactory". Starting will always be an issue and some refs get it wrong as they are only human. If money was "no problem" we could install start line equipment like tennis and now football but as speedway needs to operate at as low a cost as possible we are stuck with refs and their human frailties. Maybe our start marshalls should be linked to the ref via headsets and between then decide on unsatisfactory starts

I totally agree with you Bash. If Ipswich cannot protect the 12 point lead there is something wrong as they are a good side. I cannot see us beating you by more than twelve points as each time we are likely to get 10/12 points up (wishful thinking), you will hit us with TR's. Well 2013 was a fairly good year for the Diamonds with the bright spot being the riding of Lewis Kerr who has been scoring points that some of his team mates couldn't match despite them having much more experience than Lewis.

Fizzle, phut! phut! Newcastle's season ends like the proverbial damp squib as I cannot see us beating Somerset in the play offs or Ipswich in the league cup 2nd leg. But I will turn up for the remaining home matches even if there proves to be "nothing at stake". Good luck to Redcar, why not do the same to Somerset!

Yes I noticed that too. Hope he is ok and can take his place in tonight's match

Weather in the north east today has been dismal, let us hope bad weather doesn't get in the way of this match

This is what the season is all about, the playoffs. The best teams fight it out at the end of the season. Redcar need to win their home matches so this match will be about Newcastle coming down the A19 looking to pick up a win in the opening match of this group of 3 teams.

The result of the first leg at Ipswich was 51-39 so Newcastle now know the size of the task facing them. I noticed on Sunday that Morten Risager withdrew from the PLRC. Must be a worry for Ipswich whether he will be able to ride at Newcastle. Does anyone know if he is ok?

I have no problem fuel taps I cannot understand why the Ipswich fans are worrying, you finished higher up than we did. The matches should be class

The Witches and the Diamonds clash in this final over two legs. The second leg is programmed for Sunday 29th of September at Newcastle Brough Park. So two strong PL teams go toe to toe. A hard one to forecast as it could go either way, the teams are likely to be Ipswich 1. Ben Barker 2. Cameron Heeps 3. Rohan Tungate 4. Leigh Lanham 5. Morten Risager 6. Adam Ellis 7. Ritchie Hawkins Newcastle 1. Richie Worrall 2. R/R for Stuart Robson 3. Andrew Tully 4. Ludvig Lindgren 5. Anton Rosen 6. Chris Schramm 7. Lewis Kerr Ben Barker is in my opinion the Best rider on show with Richie Worrall snapping at Bens heels. The other Ipswich riders are pretty solid as are Newcastles riders, we are missing our captain Stuart Robson and we have to go into these two matches using R/R for Robbo. The Diamonds have Anton Rosen new to the side whom will be seeing the Ipswich track for the first time, so a question mark against Anton down in Suffolk. Newcastle need good scores from our main 4 in the team and we hope our high scoring reserve the "kerminator" Lewis Kerr can score like he has been doing at home. Can someone from Ipswich tell us how their team have been going leading up to the final Also can a local to the track say what the weather has been like. Is the meeting in doubt?

The Witches and the Diamonds clash in this final over two legs. The second leg is programmed for Sunday 29th of September. So two strong PL teams go toe to toe. A hard one to forecast as it could go either way, the teams are likely to be Ipswich 1. Ben Barker 2. Cameron Heeps 3. Rohan Tungate 4. Leigh Lanham 5. Morten Risager 6. Adam Ellis 7. Ritchie Hawkins Newcastle 1. Richie Worrall 2. R/R for Stuart Robson 3. Andrew Tully 4. Ludvig Lindgren 5. Anton Rosen 6. Chris Schramm 7. Lewis Kerr Ben Barker is in my opinion the Best rider on show with Richie Worrall snapping at Bens heels. The other Ipswich riders are pretty solid as are Newcastles riders, we are missing our captain Stuart Robson and we have to go into these two matches using R/R for Robbo. The Diamonds have Anton Rosen new to the side whom will be seeing the Ipswich track for the first time, so a question mark against Anton down in Suffolk. Newcastle need good scores from our main 4 in the team and we hope our high scoring reserve the "kerminator" Lewis Kerr can score like he has been doing at home. Can someone from Ipswich tell us how their team have been going leading up to the final

Newcastle finished 3rd in the league and find ourselves in Somerset's Group: Somerset Newcastle Redcar Somerset obviously fancy their chances against the Diamonds, well it might just be a bad decision to pick us? or will the unfancied Redcar Bears cause the other two problems? What do you think?

The Edinburgh match (Yesterday) is over with the diamonds taking maximum points from the Monarchs, so look out Plymouth on your journey to the north east. Mark Lemon will have told the Plymouth team the set up to use for our track. We hope to see an entertaining match for our money. I would enjoy a good display from the Devils instead of a massive home win so come on Plymouth give us an entertaining match

A very good match. Edinburgh after the first couple of heats looked likely winners. It took the Diamonds a few heats to get back on level terms and from then on it was anybody's match. Heat 14 had Ludvig and Lewis and the lads did it with a 5-1 leaving an easier Heat 15 job for Richie and Ludvig whom only had to fill the minor places to get us the victory and all three league points. Craig Cook was a class above the whole Newcastle side, Richie Worrall has still a little way to go before he joins the likes of the Cookie Monster as a member of England's elite. Good match and today Newcastle welcome Plymouth Devils. Be good to see Mark Lemon again and the highly rated Michael Bech The local weather report is much better than Sundays so come up Devils and get beaten by the rampant Diamonds

yeah the weather forecast is bad, but often the forecasts get changed so fingers crossed eh?

As a Newcastle fan I would like to praise Deek for his days at Newcastle. He was infuriating at times when he run a third or last for no noticeable reason! and fell off a lot, but the little guy gave Newcastle his all. Best wishes Derek and I am sure I speak for hundreds of diamonds fans in wishing you well BUT please don't come down to Brough Park and clock up a match winning score

Hello Lulu, I think you are gorgeous (hic) must put more water in me whisky! Yeah Deeks meeting is more important to his Edinburgh/Newcastle fans than the Newcastle match at Plymouth whenever it will be. We turned down a possible date so what, it happens all the time

yes I agree our promoters do not want to cause hardship for fans and families by helping with a few pounds off. Personally I would urge fans that come most weeks to buy season tickets. Then situations like the coming two matches would not be a problem

The long range weather forecast is not good for this match on Sunday. Weather forecasts often get changed so fingers crossed for a dry track on Sunday and Monday. I believe Newcastle's place in the play offs is now secure but we still want maximum league points from these two matches otherwise what is the point of staging them. If the Monarchs beat us on Sunday we will still be in the play offs and if drawn against them later, that will be a different kettle of fish. We were top of the league in 2012 and lost out in the play offs so this time the lads will bust guts (whatever that means!)to win the title

Please note the 7.30 start time for this match. Our last home league match. After that we will be involved in the play offs (hopes) I cannot see how the devils can threaten us but you never know, be good to see Lemo again. As this is the second match in two days some fans will probably attend the Edinburgh match at the expense of this match but hopefully Newcastle will at least break even over the two days. How the season has flown by, it seems like yesterday that we were watching the opening match in March

I have been more impressed by Cook than with any other rider this season, I wish we had him! Brough Parks tight turns do not bother him at all but yes I agree, Newcastle have riders that can scorch to victory against anyone, so Cook will have to overcome challenges from practically anyone in the diamonds side.I expect this match to be a classic so come on guys go out there and entertain. My mate "Jack of Diamonds" and I write the History Column in Newcastle's match day magazine (It's our Programme if you haven't seen it).The Mag I believe will have an extra 4 pages and will be used for both the Edinburgh and Plymouth matches. Our History Column will be featured twice in the Mag so you should have a good read and save a couple of quid. Let's hope the diamonds can beat the monarchs to set Newcastle up to trounce Plymouth on Monday The Edinburgh match will pull in a decent crowd and I hope sufficient fans turn up on the Monday, Plymouth not as attractive as Edinburgh and not many Plymouth fans will fancy the long drive oop north

Brough stages 2 meetings in 2 days. All true speedway fans will want to witness this one. The monarchs and the diamonds seem to be evenly matched but in Craig Cook the visitors have a rider that seems to love Brough Park, he is the fastest around the track in 2013. He clocked 61.4 on 16th June 2013. Kenni Larsen's track record is just 0.4 of a second faster. I find it hard to forecast the outcome of this one apart from saying I think it will go to another last heat decider. The diamonds riders that trounced Berwick and then Leicester can do the job against Edinburgh, but I have pencilled in 15 points for Craig Cook in my imaginary programme meaning the remaining riders have to get 31 between them. That is the task for the diamonds stop the rest from scoring 31 or more points

The battle for league points goes on. Will the Diamonds take all 3 points or will they come unstuck against a useful Leicester side?

Yeah Baldyman I think in finals over two legs the promoters should get their heads together could help the travelling fans by reducing entrance costs we all are paying way to much for petrol etc so a bit of a sweetener would be for the home promotion to discount entry for the travelling away fans and for the return match if the promotion could math the other promotion. It is so expensive to follow your team isn't it. The witches look a very solid side but who knows we might get classic last heat deciders at both legs. I think the diamonds can do it over two legs but such is the strength of Ipswich we might get well beaten down in Suffolk. If the witches take the honours well good luck to them, come on the diamonds