Paulco

Not the best meeting you'll ever see , but the result was the most important thing . Nice to see Josh back in the stripes , once you've had the privilege to don the stripes in your career , you're always a Tiger - unless you're French or Kevin Wolbert of course . Lawson and Summers are in a rich vein of form at the moment , which is just as well , and are a joy to watch . Wee Sarjeant is finding things tougher now he's in the main body of the team , but I'm confident he'll complete the transition . Berwick were poor , they are going through a rocky patch just now , but their new rider looks as he could be a good signing for them . He took most of the afternoon to figure out how to get round the second bend , but once he had conquered that , he looked impressive winning his final race .

Of course the real reason for any negativity is down to the Edinburgh Monarchs . Every year they manage to fluke out a good side , some years annoyingly good . Until they become a diddy team the sport will always have a nasty taste in it's mouth

But you get to perv at the hen parties after the GP finishes in Cardiff . Could believe my eyes on Saturday night , I've never seen so many legs and boobs , was brilliant Me and Dietbowers were shocked

Panthers fans getting all paranoid a bit . Looking forward to seeing young Lambert again though . Not the easiest place to pass is Berwick , but he's such a hard charger , it should be interesting

The booing of poor Nikki was more entertaining than the actual racing itself . And the look of resignation when Kildemand slid off and Nikki got excluded said it all . He might be the pantomime villain , but the sport will be a less interesting place when he finally gives it all up

Well the flag , actually more than one , flew proudly over the Oak Tree Arena on Friday night and the only thing that happened was some spectacular speedway took place

Another wee point about Saturday . I'm not Welsh , but I love their national anthem , but it's far better sung . When it's getting belted out it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up , Saturday's musical version didn't have the same impact .

He was on Saturday

Passing for the lead maybe

True , but at least when the track had ruts you got a bit of excitement . There wasn't much to get you out your seat on Saturday night . Apart from letting annoying Poles in and out of course

Back home this morning and that's it over for another year . We hype ourselves for this every year and nearly every year it never fails to disappoint . Yes the whole day is brilliant , meeting friends old and new , the atmosphere of the occasion , the wonderful stadium and the way they present the whole thing and we had brilliant seats this year . But the racing was mediocre at best . You were getting to the stage that you could fill "3" next to the rider in red , ok maybe not Harris , in your programme before the race even started . And the poor bloke in yellow would have been better served nipping across the road to the Prince of Wales for a pint , than hauling his bike round for four laps in the hope of getting a point . Even the blessed Tai couldn't do nothing from gate 4 . The relentless booing of poor Nikki obviously had something to do with what happened with Saint Greg the other week , but his exclusion was harsh as Kildemand went down very easily . But it was really mundane fare , the only thing that kept me awake was having to get up every two minutes to allow two annoying Poles in and out of the row we were in . But no doubt i'll be back next year as the whole day is brilliant , but here's hoping for a fairer track

Would be interesting to hear a couple of rider's views on tonight's track , certainly there were far too many falls tonight . Looked a very healthy crowd tonight for a Tuesday night meeting , hope our promotion don't get any daft ideas though as it was a bugger getting home from work and then getting to the meeting in time

True Berge would had needed new underwear after being right behind Bates when he locked up in heat 2

How Bates never came down in any of his races was a miracle , he seemed to be fighting the bike all night , but he was great to watch

Hope all the injured riders are not too badly hurt , it did seem that the third bend especially caused most of the havoc . Track was fine to start with as Morris broke the track record , but it seemed to go downhill from the first grading after heat 4 . Morris tried to team ride Sarjeant and got too close to him on that bend and came down , so cant really put that down to the track unless Nick picked up too much grip . Birks just entered bend 1 with too much speed after passing Sarjeant on the home straight and went too wide into the fence . As for Garrity , he entered the third bend too narrow in passing Lawson , Lawson then cut back and retook him and Garrity went down on his own but his flying bike caught Bellego . As for Garrity's fall later in a race he was leading , a lot of smoke appeared from the back of his bike when he fell and possibly that was mechanical . The other falls were simple slide offs . Lawson and Summers had no issues with the track and were superb , while both Sheffield reserves were very impressive and have kept their club in this tie . 14 points is a defendable lead , but this tie will go to the wire in the second leg I think .

Agreed the Ty Proctor situation was rubbish . You can get riders like Konopka plying their trade over here , blatently not good enough , and a rider who has been a steady rider in both the EL and PL for years , is forced out . The guest situation is farcical , but what other option is there ? People are quick to condemn it , but nobody has yet come up with a sensible solution to it . Ultimately the scenario with doubling up / down / sideways / will have to come to a halt as it's not working . The fast track reserve thingy isn't working either as you're going to get the same core of riders doing it year after year after year . The whole structure of our league system needs a complete overhaul and if the solution is a 16 to 18 team league with no GP riders and a strict pay structure , then so be it . As for Sheffield using a guest all season - how can they possibly replace Simon Stead ? So under the current conditions , they have no alternative but to keep on doing what they're doing .

Agreed , the Premier League would be all the poorer without one of the best tracks in the country

That's sad Sandie , she couldn't have been that old either

Best just to draw a line under this one . Nick and Richard were very good and gave us our one crumb of comfort in heat 15 . Berwick were solid throughout and the scoreline was about right . Still I had a great afternoon in the warm Berwick sunshine and had a lovely walk along the town walls this morning . I love that wee town .

No point in the lad rushing back until he's 100%

Any news of Plymouth's promoters having heart trouble ?

Ellis Perks and Matt Williamson are Glasgow's reserve pairing . Perks was completely out his depth when he guested for us in the League Cup meeting , but we shall see . Lawson , Summers and especially Morris will have to bring their "A" game . This is a meeting we don't want Nick taking three rides to get going as has been the case recently

Apart from April's League Cup meeting

Apparently we could be without both Victor and Dimitri

Riders are basically self employed workers . It would be unfair of any club to deny a rider the chance of making extra money