Reviresco

Snap. But I pay for BT Sport as well as Sky, so will just turn the TV on and tune into channel 413 and watch Northampton Saints v Bath Rugby followed by the SGP. I may be paying a fortune and I may not be techy, but I'll get to watch a professional sports broadcast (weather and track conditions permitting of course) with a decent picture quality. And I watch any Polish fixtures on the streams kindly provided by R&R and others on the Polish League thread. I'm happy with that. PS - great news that Sky Sports are broadcasting a couple of PL matches in June. I guess they know that Berwick has track covers...

Simple really, ain't it?

Full Five Ride Maximum for Romance. BWD to be not far behind. King, Covatti, Kerr and Risager to score well for Witches, with good back-up from the Sarj. Beware the Wounded Witch - but still a six point home win.

That's a big bill - a bit like a toucan. Then again, looking at the cost of his TP tours, £1,000 is just a flesh wound to Mr Easter. Look out Adam, Big Bad Ben will be after you - well, probably by about half a lap, but definitely after you. (S4K, you seem to have your finger on the Eagles pulse better than some of the Eagles fans do themselves sometimes. Good knowledge, buddy. I always enjoy reading your posts. (I'm aiming to visit Central Park for one of the Mildenhall matches next month and it would be great to say hello and maybe buy you half a shandy - as "Sidney the Robin" would say.))

I did thanks Baldy. I had it cauterised. Tempting fate, but it hasn't bled like that since. I think all of the comments made since the loss last night are spot on (apart from multumessy wotsit's). Like the idea of clappers Baldy. Situated on the Heath, the stadium has no chance of keeping in an atmosphere - if one was created, but any attempt to make some (allowable) noise has got to be a good idea. Most sportsmen react to support and the noise generated from the terraces. Wouldn't think that 'clappers' would cost too much and if they had them made in, matching, tru7.com colours, with the sponsor's name on them, it would also act as advertising for Mr Nicholls. I'm still intrigued as to what CL had in mind when he tweeted about Fan Interaction, as that seems to have died before it was born. Clappers that make the riders go like the Clappers - I'm a marketing / branding superstar. Knew I'd missed my vocation - or should that be vacation...? The SGP start line girls can't be doing anything on Thursday, 12 May. Lets get them over here - EasyJet to Stansted then up the A120 and A12, simples. Announce it on Social Media (and Tinder and such places) and, boob boom! Boobs Bob's your uncle (not sure where my mind went there for a moment...) I know two guys in their 20's who would be there like a shot (can I say that?) Get some giant tipper trucks in the car park. There must be some tipper geeks out there. Then rope them up and herd them into the stadium. Instant increase in crowd level. Ed Sheeran is a huge speedway fan (possibly) and a really nice bloke who is proud of his Suffolk (ginger) roots. Get Ed down to Foxhall to sing a couple of songs before the meeting, in the interval and after, the next time he is back for a beer in The Castle in Fram. Massive crowd guaranteed. The guy has sold out Madison Square Garden three times - he would definitely add a couple or more at Foxhall Heath Garden. All he needs is a mic and a guitar - and he would probably bring his own. His best friend is Taylor Swift. I'm sure he could ask her to trot out a ditty (I said ditty), or two on another Thursday evening. If you don't ask, you don't get and Ed can only say, no - or he may just say yes... Lots of Reasons to be Cheerful - 1,2,3 - OK, that wasn't Ed Sheeran - lets say then - Thinking Out Loud. And, Ipswich does still have a speedway team. Lots of places don't that did and many more places never did have. For a small town in Suffolk, Ipswich doesn't do too bad. Keep the faith - or alternatively, blame Mike Smillie. Does anyone know what he does exactly as a General Manager?

There will be an increase in attendance now that LofD has ended. I am 90% going to the Rye House Cup match in a fortnight - weather, health & transport permitting. Will try and bring along a car load too. The club and the team needs our support. Whereas I just need a support...

And that has to be a considerable contributory factor to the reported low attendance at Foxhall last night, hastn't it? Having followed the teams fortunes since 1972 and physically followed them around the country from 1975 to 1985 (excepting '81 & '82) - with Ipswich being far from my 'home' club during that period, I cannot recall such a disjointed start to a Foxhall season. Thursday, 17 March Thursday, 14 April Saturday, 23 April Thursday, 28 April Thursday, 12 May Thursday, 26 May Saturday, 04 June, and then Thursday, 09 June shows just how irregularly the home fixtures are arising this year, and with no Good Friday meeting to both swell the coffers and to, maybe, hook or entice a few extras to come along - coupled with a team that some didn't like the look of at the start of the season and which is proving to be inconsistent at best, it is as well that a new and well respected title sponsor is on board. (I notice that in the Speedway Star season preview edition, that Debbie Hancock's top three were Ipswich, Edinburgh & Somerset. Not sure if there was an element of 'reverse psychology' in her predictions, but currently her predicted 3rd place side looks to be in a far better position than her 1 & 2.) What was it Uncle Len used to say - 'Make it a Date, Friday at Eight' - routine, habit, blind faith, call it what you want, but I used to know that there was a speedway meeting being staged every Thursday at Foxhall - with maybe a one off Saturday against Wimbledon. The people I worked with knew it, I didn't need an organiser to tell me what day I was going to leave work early in the City of London and get on a train, to get home in time to then drive 65 miles up the A12 - every Thursday evening. Yes, I've changed since then too and will no longer blindly travel to a speedway fixture as I used to, as it was the 'be all and end all' to me then, but this season's disjointed home fixture list, presumably mainly due to Louis selecting three riders that also ride for EL teams, has not helped my enthusiasm to attend and, I'm sure, along with the climate, a forecast possibility of rain - and the concluding part of LofD, would have been contributing factors to the reported low attendance last night. And this was one of the meetings I had earmarked to attend, with the return of Romance and BWD's Foxhall début. I mentioned previously that I am experiencing transport problems at the moment, and The Scotsman very kindly offered me a lift if he was going, and I thought about the bus/es that used to be run to Foxhall from the station and other parts of town. No bus runs now apparently. I truly hope that the Club's fortunes turn around, both in terms of results and in attendances. I have invested a lot of time, money and emotion in that club over the years. It owes me nothing, but then again, I owe it nothing either. P.S. - did CL's proposed Interactive Fans' Activity show its face last night?

BWD is even better than I thought he might be and seems to be adapting to life in the PL very quickly and well. Pleased for the lad. Just a shame there are not more like him in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Can't understand Louis running against the conclusion of LofD. He must've known it would affect the crowd..... Oh, and its a good one. I don't see how two people of East Lothian heritage, not attending a match at a track in Suffolk that one of them is not a supporter of and the other does not go to that regularly these days, can be blamed for a poor attendance, - possibly leading to a club closure. Speedway's ills go a lot deeper than that. Just cast your eyes over some of the threads in the General Discussions section - 'Boring;, etc.

Made the same decision Scotsman, sometime this morning, but thanks again for the generous offer. I really hope the Caddy gets his just deserts - or even, starters, main and afters. It must be great writing, direction and acting as I could quite happily throttle the bloke myself - and I am far from being a violent man. Hopefully the guys that have gone will get to see a meeting and this predicted rain misses the Foxhall area. Would've liked to see BWD ride too, though think his style may not suit a first visit to the track.

Practice / Preach springs to mind...

I've got a VCR, but it only plays back these days and doesn't record. Not sure what the other things are that you mention Rob. My (horse drawn) plough is working fine though .

Gee thanks, that's very kind. I could easily make my way to Tesco which is just off the Copdock roundabout and not take you far out the way, straight back on the A14, etc. The transport situation is, hopefully, only temporary and should be resolved soon, but a brilliant offer and thanks again. I wouldn't have considered it Shads, in my real speedway fan era, but nearing my 60th, the way the blinking weather has been and the fact that LofD is the real cheese and biscuits of a TV programme - that's made it a conundrum for me, I'm afraid. Exactly.

Yes, not in Paco Mark 1's fan club yet, but definitely LofD. Hadn't realised it was a 90 minute final episode - that may have swung it for me. A real shame Romance's Return clashes. That and Rye House were the two league encounters I was looking forward to (plus the Scots teams of course). Plus I could keep an eye on the Europa League match - not that I'm a Liverpool fan. Totally agreed about the meeting tonight. Was sitting down looking forward to it (had even tweeted that, and I haven't tweeted for a couple of years) and, Pow, postponed. Nuts! I am currently living on the South West side of Ippo, not far from the Copdock (A12/A14) roundabout. If the track was where the football ground is, I could just about walk there, but it ain't. (I may be the only speedway fan who ended up moving to the town where he followed most of his speedway - though I'm not living here now because of that - it was a job situation kind of thing.)

Haha, yes. I don't use a pint pot to measure the volume from the other end..... that's another 'yuk', I think.

I was. Wanted to see how much I was losing out of my right nostril - whoops, just said where it was coming from.

I'm hooked on LoD Scotsman. Personally think its the best British TV produced for a long time and have loved the way that they've tied in the second series with the first. Is there a way to do both? Attend the speedway and watch LoD on a Tablet or something? Could be best of both worlds and if the speedway wasn't that entertaining, with Paco going back to Paco 2016 Mark 1, rather than the Twin who turned up for the Panthers match, you'd have LoD to provide the entertainment? Really keen to go to this and watch Romance's Return (reckon he'll break the tapes in his first through nerves/enthusiasm and then score well after that) - and to say hi to you guys too, but I'm having transport issues at the moment and I'm not convinced that the Foxhall climate will be overly conducive on Thursday evening (rain from 8 pm forecast on AccuWeather with a real feel of just above freezing).

I'll check but I don't think so, but this pint beer glass full of blood must have been very nearly an armful. I won't say on here where this pint of blood had come from, but it wasn't extracted from an arm - or a black pudding.

That sounds a great plan Sue. The more wobbling on the (always excellent) Updates site and the less on the track the better. Confuzzling is such a great word. Look forward to reading them - whisper: will be an improvement over Baldyman's - don't think he heard.. OK, Steve, that's all cool and good then (thought the emoticon was more of a grimace face than smiley, so probably why I thought you might have been a black pudding farmer, or the like). Thinking about it, I guess you're not wrong that it seems a bit daft to be happy with one but not the other. Just had a bad experience with a pint of blood in a pint (beer) glass once, which makes me a bit nauseous with the connotation . Absurd could be a good word to describe, I guess.

Agreed that possibly it would have, but he did and it was worth commenting on, and I'm not looking to pick holes, or big up one rider and not the other. From what I saw, you could "throw a blanket" over all four for a few laps, and you don't see that too often these days. It looked as if Tai was expecting Mr G to try an attempt on his outside, between him and Milik, and was caught out by Tomek diving down the inside. Whatever, it wasn't a bad ride by the old (45 years of age) boy and great to see and whilst Tai was, as you say, team riding Milik around so well, in the end the heat result will say that he didn't as TG got passed them. Looked a very clean and sporting contest too between all of them. Good entertaining stuff.

I beg your (black) pudding? Are you on the BlackPud marketing board or similar Steve, as I seem to have upset you with my comment, based on my experience of eating both products? And I wouldn't know about fillet steak, as I don't eat that either. As long as the 'plucky' sheep has been dagged and docked, its fine by me.

Geez, its the 26th April, the weather hasn't been favourable and most club's fixtures have been disjointed. Shall we give it until, say, June before we start making assumptions, eh? How many 'new' fans would be aware of this forum? That's what I was thinking, Gem, and it had been so pleasant without two of them posting, though they still couldn't stop themselves from hitting the 'Like' button, to remind us that they were still around. Guess we can expect nonsensical multiple threads to start appearing again soon? Posting about a 1946 crowd is really relevant to a thread about 2016 crowds ... not. Its only 70 years ago for pity's sake. Should be on the, in black and white only, 'Days of Yore' part of the forum. Don't know about fans being locked out, somebody needs to be locked up more like. Where do I find the 'Ignore' instruction?

Haha, didn't realise how many "foodies" the Witches had as fans . Don't pints of pig's blood or ox blood go into a black pudding..? Sorry, but yuk.

Sorry Fred, you've lost me there. Too many double negatives at this time of night for me. Will re-read in the morning. (I was suggesting that, as seems to have been suggested, the track issue was'intermittent' - or climate dependent, then if a similar intermittent issue had been detected prior to the GOM with, say, the toilets (which you say you yourself tested during the evacuation test - a good time to test toilets, I guess...) it is possible that this would have led to a postponement prior to the GOM (on H&S reasons, I suppose and due to the 'inconvenience it would have caused,,,) or, if not and the intermittent issue arose again after the NSS gates' had been opened, then the speedway public who were in attendance that night may well have just put up with it and the GOM would have progressed to a conclusion (but with the audience crossing it's legs). My point was that it wasn't an intermittent fault with a peripheral part of staging a speedway meeting - it was an 'intermittent' issue with the track - the single most important part of being able to stage a speedway meeting - no track = no meeting.)

Thanks for all of that 'ouch' - some might say that it is just not getting silly now, but that it got silly when the BV management decided to open the gates for a meeting that they could have, and probably should have, cancelled / postponed rather than having that meeting abandoned with a 'full house' already inside, which resulted in a fall out and 'sniping' at the BV management. If an issue had arisen before the GOM with, say, the electrics, seating , food outlets, toilets, turnstiles, or emergency exits, then the GOM most probably would have been postponed prior to the date or, MAYBE (that's a big maybe) the GOM could have been staged with the relevant inconvenience being accepted by the speedway fans attending - but this was an issue that had arisen with the track - probably the most important constituent part of staging a speedway meeting of any kind, anywhere in the world. No track = no meeting. I hadn't seen before anyone saying that the NSS track had failed a SCB track inspection prior to the GOM. Is that the case, or am I misinterpreting that part of your post? And, if it did fail a SCB track inspection, do you know why it failed, please? Thanks. Can you, disprove this, particularly as you are someone who admits openly that he has turned his back on attending speedway meetings? (I wouldn't dare to suggest what you should do, or not do, but having made a point of announcing your exit from this forum, what are you gaining by re-commencing posting and particularly on a subject you know nothing about?)

I love tomatoes, uncooked, fried, grilled, baked, stewed, steamed, broiled, errr blanched, errrr pickled (yuk) and drink tomato juice, but like you I don't like black pudding - which I hope doesn't make me racist... Enjoyed haggis when I've eaten it, buy despite my Scot's ancestry - I wouldn't go out of my way to make sure it was on my plate, not even on 25 January to celebrate 'Burns' Night - which some people says it's done when they've eaten it. (I've just realised that the singular of 'tomato' doesn't end in an 'e', but that the plural includes an 'e'. Is that right, or am I going mad(der)?) Haha, a 'virtual frying pan', I can just imagine a frying pan emoticon, emoji or whatever they are called, heading along the errant poster's screen and bashing their avatar around the back of the head. And wobbly bits and wotsits. Looks like I missed out by not being speedway social media savvy at that time. I would've enjoyed all that. You should make a reference to the frying pan (or the wobbly wotstis) the next time you update. It may even cheer up some of the posters, or the hundreds that appear to view but do not contribute. I first registered for the (always excellent) Updates site only this winter, during the Aussie Championships, as I was stuck at home at the time and fancied having a bit of speedway social media intercourse and thought it would help to cheer me up, which it definitely did. There you go Sue, 'Speedway Updates - it looks good, it texts good and, by golly, it does you good' (was that Guiness? No, it was Mackeson - gee, whatever happened to that?). I could not agree more, sir. That's exactly what I thought when I first saw one of your posts on here . I've always tried to inject an element of humour into everyday life and tend to carry that on in my posts on here, which I hope comes across (can I say that?). You guys are whipper snappers compared to me (big '0' birthday due in October), but I have found that the older most people get, the less they care what other people think of them and they enjoy taking the mickey out of themselves. Of course, don't be in a rush to get there, but it can be one of the plus points of older age.