Yearbyred

Hard to predict how well the Bears will do, have been pretty inconsistent this year so far. R/R not really working and Berwick are a different team at home. Hope, rather than expectation, from a Bears perspective

Well apart from the result, I really enjoyed it. The stream (although it went off briefly a couple of times) was excellent quality, decent commentary, interviews and a good production. Well done to Glasgow for providing it. Bears were never really in it but battled hard and were involved in some excellent races, Wright and Allen in particular. MPT started really slowly and whilst both of the reserves gave it their all they weren’t quite on the pace. Anders struggled and r/r only got 3 points so that tells it’s own tale. Glasgow have an excellent, well balanced team and have a cracking reserve in Jensen so will win many more matches, home and away this year. Hume rode brilliantly at reserve too and was more than an adequate replacement for Jack Smith. Track got very slick and dusty at the end but there was some really good races. No disgrace to get beaten by Glasgow (we will do well to beat them at home) and will give some teams a proper hammering I’m sure. They look like the team to beat to me and as was said on commentary things seem to be falling nicely into place for them.

Extremely tough meeting for the Bears against the leagues in form team. Hopefully the lads put up a good show and we have a safe and entertaining meeting.

Predict a massive home win tomorrow. Hopefully closer on Friday when the opposition turn up.

Apparently I get 10% of the gate receipts if it’s behind closed doors (they originally only offered me 5% but I’m not daft)

“Thanks for your enquiry. Currently we are awaiting a decision from the local council before we can advise if spectators are allowed into the Stadium for the meeting on Friday. As soon as the decision is made it will be posted on our website and through social media.” Doesn’t take much really and it’s better than ignoring genuine fan enquiries. (This is not a Glasgow club statement btw but they can cut and paste it if they like )

Shame that such a cracking meeting has so few posts. Guess it’s the nature in most sports to highlight the bad (Wednesday night) over the good.

Well the track was great at Redcar on Friday, after many days of hot dry weather. No dust and produced some fantastic racing. (not a dig at Birmingham btw, just a response to saying the pressure was on Redcar to produce a good racing track)

Cracking nights entertainment on an excellent racing surface. Bears started like an absolute train and were 14 points up after 4 races but the Brummies fought back mostly due to the efforts of Riss and Harris. Turning point was Heat 11 - Bears were on a 5-1 coming out of bend 4 lap 1 when Allen and Harris tangled and the Bears man was excluded. Sarjeant touched the tapes in the re-run and a 5-1 turned into a 1-5, an 8 point swing in one race. After that two 5-1’s by Riss and Harris made it much closer than it ever looked like it was going to be. As I thought R/R probably helped the Brummies as it brought in 6 points. Riss was exactly the rider he was for us, extremely quick if he gets in front on lap 1 and difficult to catch. Harris used all his experience to keep Wright and MPT at bay in Heats 13 and 15. For the Bears, they are still a bit inconsistent. Charles can’t seem to get out of the gate as well as last year yet and is giving himself too much to do. MPT was good tonight and Allen won 3 races. Flint was very good but his rides and R/R brought in 12 points and Rowe/Stewart would hopefully have produced more. Reserves showing flashes too. Some fantastic racing though - Allen and Wright in particular with stunning passes. So that’s a 10 point aggregate win for the Bears and into the next round .......

First/Second leg of the KOC after Wednesday’s events. Bears without Stewart (r/r) and Rowe (on international duty tomorrow) so Flint guests. For Birmingham Grobauer is out so operating R/R. Team changes probably weaken Redcar although the second strings have done pretty well so far and Flint has started the season well. R/R should help the Brummies, Castagna has had some success at Redcar previously. Hopefully all goes well and it’s a good match.

Flint in for Rowe on Friday, R/R for Stewart.

Redcar have issued a statement too Redcar Speedway would like to thank all the fans in attendance at Perry Barr last night on what was a hugely frustrating evening. Contrary to a press release made elsewhere earlier today, there were huge concerns from both sides in relation to track conditions, not just from Redcar. To the credit of the riders, they showed patience and asked for track work to be done to improve the situation, due to concerns for their own health and safety - we strongly believe this was justified and support the stance they took, as they have every right to expect a safe surface to race on. Under increasing pressure, racing began after a delay lasting over an hour, but sadly resulted in serious injury to Jordan Stewart in heat 10. We feel as a club, we did everything possible to assist in making last night a success and to get the meeting finished, though we question whether the meeting should have gone ahead in the first place. We have appealed to the SCB regarding the result, which we believe should stand. The meeting was abandoned as a direct result of the delay and the inadequate track preparation - under no circumstances should Redcar Speedway suffer due to the errors of the home promotion. Mistakes happen and we accept that, but responsibly needs to be taken and a just outcome reached. It is a fact that Redcar would have been leading by at least 8 points after heat 10. Finally, we would like to wish our rider and friend Jordan Stewart a speedy recovery and best wishes. He is currently awaiting surgery on his collarbone and shoulder. To say we are gutted by his situation would be an understatement.

Full statement on the Birmingham website.

Taken from Ipswich Witches website:- Jordan Stewart crashed whilst riding for Championship club Redcar and suffered a broken collarbone, dislocated shoulder and broken ribs. Poor Jordan, awful start to the season for him and not good news for Redcar either. Get well soon, Jordan

Absolutely agree. I was following on speedway updates and commented that the delay was unacceptable and was told my comment was unnecessary and I should be grateful something was happening (at the time nothing was).

Just checked the Brummies website, no free dates until Wednesday 21st July at he and no mention of an alternative raceday? Bears are back there in the League on the 7th July in the league.

So meeting has to be re-run because 10 races not completed, meeting abandoned at about 9:50pm. Grobauer has been excluded so 3 riders only in heat 10, had it been run best Brummies could have got (barring something unusual) was a 3-3 which would have left the Bears with an 8 point lead. Very harsh on the Bears to have to do it all again ( any idea when it could be fitted in?) through no fault of their own. I seem to remember Glasgow being awarded a 4 point away win at Redcar when the meeting was abandoned after Heat 9 in 2017.

Pretty disastrous night all round. The 65 minute delay for the track can’t really be excused, if they had access from 2pm then surely 5 1/2 hours was enough time to get into shape to start somewhere near on time. Hope that Stewart isn’t too badly hurt after his nasty sounding crash. He’s had a really torrid start to the year. Result not standing is hard to take too, no idea when they can fit another meeting in and seems very unfair on the Bears.

Food and drink available, but you are not allowed to move around the stadium while consuming it under the current regulations.

No tac subs allowed in two leg matches.

Stewart I agree with (looks short of confidence to me at the moment) but Wright saved us at home on Sunday and whilst not at his best he’s at least shown flashes. All of our Heat leaders have been up and down so far. No idea what to expect given its the Brummies first home meeting but think it will be close over the 2 legs.

Very unlucky for Plymouth to lose their star signing before the first home meeting of the season. Cruel sport at times.

Last year decider (again) between two well matched teams and most of this thread is about what constitutes first bend bunching . Good to know nothing much changes.

Only allowed one Tac sub though and Masters was used in Heat 9.

Well that was quite some reintroduction to speedway at Redcar. Afternoon speedway and warm dry weather are not a good combination and the massive dust issues meant too many breaks to try and sort the track out. Glad the next meeting is on an evening. Well done to the Monarchs on a fully deserved draw. To be honest going into Heat 15 I was fearing the worst as a Bears fan but Charlie finally rode like we know he can to keep the scores level. Masters was untroubled until the last heat, Worrall very good, Pickering only made one good gate but looked quick and guest Jordan Palin probably earned them an extra point with his last two rides. Thomson struggled on his first visit but wasn’t too far away by the end and the Monarchs looked a good team. For the Bears all the new boys had very encouraging home debuts - Sarjeant was excellent, Rowe looked good and Jordan Jenkins gated well and looks like a handy reserve. It was the more experienced riders who were below par - MPT and Allen struggled with the track at times and Jordan looks to be really struggling and a long way off how he was riding last year. Hopefully just start of the year rustiness. If we can get those 3 back to anywhere near last years (you know what I mean) form then we could have a very good team. Crowd to me looked actually bigger than usual but maybe having people on the backstraight and less in the grandstand made it look that way. Nice to see a few old faces and catch up.