Paulco

Wonder what Belle Vue fans think of Troy Batchelor's performance

Has anybody heard anything about wee Falkirkbandit ? I've just received a disturbing text about him

Likewise when him and Scott Autrey held a series of match races at Paisley in the mid seventies , and he brought his gold bike along too . Arguably the greatest rider ever to take to the shale , its always a sad day whenever a true legend passes away . Remember him too riding with a plaster cast on his right ankle during the 1971 Nordic-British Final at Hampden . Rest in peace Ivan and thanks for the memories .

A welcome return to Sunday afternoon action this weekend . A nice civilised lie in followed by a big cooked breakfast , read of the Sunday papers setting me up for a trip to Ashfield via the Horseshoe Bar ( which isn't anywhere near as packed as the Friday or Saturday teatime madness ). And with Spring gradually getting its act together , hopefully we get a pleasant , warm afternoon to enjoy the racing instead of the Arctic conditions we've struggled through during our two completed home fixtures to date . And as it's our nearest and dearest visiting , a hard fought competitive fixture is a given . Hopefully both sides are still at full strength after Friday night , and a repeat of the 10 point victory margin gained in the Scottish Cup fixture should be well within our capabilities .

I said the same on the Glasgow v Berwick thread , looks like the bride of Chucky . Not exactly very Bandit inclined

Just not tonight lol

Entertaining enough meeting on a cold , damp evening . We took a while to get going , but were pretty dominant when we did . Seemed to be a bit of a problem with the first bend , with a few riders having problems there , notably Harris and Etheridge . We were solid throughout apart from young Jack who had major mechanical issues . For Berwick , Doolan and Howe were good before fading towards the end of the meeting , Gappmaier looked lively and got amongst the points . Who knows what kind of evening Lindman would have had , had he not taken a pearler while leading heat 3 . Jakobsen got better as the evening went on , while Summers disappointed badly on his return to Ashfield . No wonder the kids race got cancelled , would you let a kid near that Berwick mascot ? . That's the creepiest mascot I've ever seen , it looks like a Chucky doll

Train your zoom lens onto my post and see if you can find where i said he was a three year veteran

Our latest attempt to get the season up and running is this Friday as we welcome the Berwick Bandits and their enthusiastic band of followers . At least we got to batter the Monarchs before Noah and his boat started sailing down Sauchiehall Street , Berwick's all singing , all dancing world famous anti rain off covers haven't been any match for the April deluge . So they're having , maybe , their first competitive fixture . Three ex Tigers return to the French motorcar arena , a two year veteran in the stripes - Aaron Summers , one from a dim and distant past before Edinburgh started winning anything - Kevin Doolan , and one who barely got his tyres worn , David Howe . Their strength is a potent looking reserve pairing , but i cant see that being enough to trouble Bomber , Richie , Claus and the rest of our 2018 Tigers in their quest to get 6 home and 6 away meeting completed this side of October .

Possibly a reason why Mick McKeon ended up there

Danny Bird used to fly up , so maybe he will . In the aftermath of the disappointment of a much anticipated weekend of speedway being washed out we have learned three things . 1 The weather is thankfully meant to start warming up this week 2 In a league of only 11 teams , there's no reason to start the season before the middle of April 3 From certain posters on here apparently only Edinburgh have proper rain offs . Everybody else , especially Glasgow , have an ulterior motive for calling a meeting off lol .

While Winter's evil , icy grip is still hanging on , we hope to get our Premier Trophy / League Cup or whatever it's called these days , under way . Track must be like porridge after the amount of rain and sleet that has come down in the last 48 hours , but the hope is that we get a couple of dry days now . A big welcome back to former Tigers , Rene Bach and Dan Bewley , and another former Tiger , Mason Campton , could be troublesome at reserve . The engine room of the Comets septet , Proctor - Jensen and Klindt are all much of a muchness round Ashfield and it will be interesting to see young Kyle Bickley's formative laps at this level . For us , Harris should have had enough of smelly nappies and disturbed nights , and be ready to start accumulating points in the stripes while the hope is that the early season mechanical issues that dogged Richie against the Monarchs has been remedied . We hope Starke , Vissing and Kerr continue their impressive start to their Tigers' careers and young Jack kicks on after his amazing debut 2 weeks ago . And there's James . He will want to show the Comets that for whatever reason , they never saw the best of him last season and he proves our trump card in both meetings this weekend . So fingers crossed the weather finally allows the 2018 speedway season to properly get into gear and both meetings this weekend , at Ashfield and Derwent Park , show us why we love this sport despite the negativity surrounding it .

That has come out of the blue , i hope it's not health issues resurfacing .

Apparently Stewart Dickson is going to be a guest on Radio Scotland's Off the Ball programme around 12-30

He's hampering his own career , once during a meeting going through the tapes can happen to anyone , but twice isn't good and it has to be stopped somehow . Cause he can be a decent wee rider on his day but he's no use sat in the pits excluded or going off 15 metres .

Looks like Parkinson Blackburn's decision not to ride for us could turn out to be a blessing in disguise

If last night is anything to go by , the lad is going to be a firm favourite in Glasgow . It was an astonishing debut at Championship level . He looked as if he had been riding Ashfield for years rather than his first time on the track . Obviously it was just his first meeting and you don't want expectations of the lad to get too high , but he looks a star in the making and its going to be exciting watching him progress throughout the year

Cause he wasn't very good . Decent enough meeting , still a bit gate and go , but that was only the first meeting and it has the scope for improvement . After a mediocre first ride , Paul Starke certainly attacked the track and he looks a brilliant signing who will entertain us royally . A big criticism levelled at Claus Vissing , after we signed him , was that he was too much an individual rider and not really a team player . Well he certainly killed that myth stone dead with his ride to shepherd young Jack Thomas home for a meeting clinching 5-1 in heat 14 . The legendary Shane Parker would have been proud of that ride and he was the master at team riding . And on the subject of young Jack , all you can say is wow . He looked so steady , smooth and fast with none of the wobbling you expect from a two point novice . We look to have stumbled onto a real gem in young Jack . All in all to beat Edinburgh by 10 points without Bomber and Richie below par having blown his best engine on Thursday was a satisfying beginning to the season . Edinburgh had one or two plus points . Wells and E Riss delivered what you expect , Ruml looked steady enough and Williamson again showed his liking for Ashfield with a useful return from the reserve berth . Better is sure to come from M Riss and Pickering and time will tell if Andersson is capable of better than he showed last night . But it was bloody freezing in the Charlie Monk stand , my texting finger wasn't enjoying it too much lol

There was a certain amount of the novelty factor for us both times the SKY cameras were at our place , top league clubs don't have that

Thanks for your views , i wish you and your club all the best for the coming season

The point was that r/r has been used in the past for an injury sustained before the start of the season

I understand the logistical difficulties which forced them out of the second tier in the first place . I think back to the Chris Holder inspired side which knocked us out of the play offs in a terrific meeting at Glasgow in 2006 . They would be a tremendous asset to our league , but the northern bias in it would probably prevent that from happening .

Isle of Wight seem to have the type of forward thinking promotion set up that the sport needs . Any chance of them bringing their energy back up to the second tier again ?

There is a precedent . Few years ago my own team , Glasgow , had signed Ross Brady . Couple of weeks before the start of the season he broke his collar bone on an indoor ski slope during a team bonding day out . We were allowed to use r/r until he was fit enough to take his place in the side .

It can to a certain extent . Few years back i saw a race at Ashfield where James Grieves out gated Lee Complin and blocked his every move for four laps . Complin was exciting to watch , but one dimensional . James knew he would use the outside line . Complin was all over James' back wheel and looked to have much more speed , but couldn't get past James as he covered the outside run every lap