bigcatdiary

OXFORD manager Peter Schroeck says he took encouragement from the performances of the club’s new signings in Monday’s KO Cup defeat at King’s Lynn. The Spires went down by 16 points to give themselves a recovery job in their home leg on Thursday Schroeck said: “It didn’t look so good early on, but we had a talk together and we then did much better for the rest of the meeting. The bloke lives in cloud cuckoo land if he took encouragement from that battering by Lynn just because of the performance of Gusts. Two heat winners and two heat advantages in 15 heats is dire. A friend told me how professional the club was when he attended the Ben Fund, racing, starts, stadium and presentation, food and drink etc but it matters not a jot if the team isn’t up to the job and this one isn’t.

Tracks are generally prepared much slicker these days and the general consensus is friendly matches are not considered so this is what happens when riders are unprepared and lack match practice and race fitness. You can’t have it both ways. Of course the fact that Birmingham hasn’t got a strong line up doesn’t help but their are better sides than Leicester and the fact that they totally rolled you over doesn’t bode well at all.

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I take it updates isn’t covering this meeting

Niels and Bomber aside I don’t think any of the stars looked that hot

Pre Covid he was quite a rider, post Covid he isn’t His GSA all Premiership 2011 - 4.81 2012 - 5.52 2013 - 7.40 2014 - 6.21 2015 - 7.29 2016 - 7.37 2017 - 8.45 2018 - 7.73 2019 - 7.78 2021 - 6.98 2022 - 5.05 2023 - 4.39 2024 - 4.97

Did you get a programme

Good weather, Really good gate, queues all the way out of the stadium when we arrived and we had to park in the overflow car park (a field). Getting in was ok and we arrived in the stadium with about 30 mins to go, just in time to get one of the last programmes (800) we were told. 30 min delay to enable the crowd outside to get in, first 4 races, then 10-15 min track grade Next 4 races, then 10-15 min track grade and then junior races heat 9 then 10 min break for track watering heat 10 during which all the riders couldn’t race because the track had been over watered then 10 min track grade to repair track because the watering had left it in a very poor condition heats 11 & 12 then a short track grade Next 4 races, heat 16 was notable as with Lambert, Doyle and Lindgren all unbeaten this was the first real race of the night with numerous passing by all 3, Klindt was well off the pace Dreadful meeting with the large crowd amusing themselves with much food and drinks, I can offer no reason for the many many breaks or track grades other than it allowed the very large crowd to spend more money on food and more drinks, luckily the stadium didn’t appear to run short of everything. Unfortunately we didn’t stay for the top scorers race as we were nearly falling asleep for the tedious processional follow the leader racing (other than heat 16) Good luck to Niels, well deserved Good luck to everyone who stayed to the end, they deserve a medal, I seriously doubt Buster will get a bigger crowd again this season,

Certainly better than Royal Mail do in delivering it, I live 26 miles from where it’s printed and yet it takes on average 4 days for it to arrive on a first class stamp, RM are a complete mess.

Article in this weeks star entitled TV switch fears, it all adds up to the fact at present that watching the GP,s and British Premiership this year will cost everyone around £31 a month extra, best of luck with that as I for one won’t be bothering and judging by the letters accompanying it I won’t be alone as the vast majority will be doing the same. BSN for me going forward and I will be picking my meetings which I am sure will improve when the deal with Eurosport, Discovery + or TNT runs out.

Well let’s be fair he has previous.

You can never budget for injuries, you just have some years when nothing goes right, just ask Ipswich

Lindgren is a better option, why didn’t they get him back. Tungate is a trapper, I just cannot see him covering the position when looking at the other teams best riders, he also is a let down on some of the tracks. Riss is in because of Shrek, he didn’t cut it last year and until Gusts settles down Riss will be in the top 5.

Belle Vue - A very strong top two heading a solid rather than spectacular top 5 and an inexperienced reserve pairing.Although I see them making the play offs I don’t rate them well enough to put them in the top two. A lot will depend on how well Lidsey, Cook or Blodorn go over the season but I see them to be fairly comfortable at home but not so productive on the road. Birmingham - Better than last year but they possess nothing that makes me think they will make the play offs yet again. Once dialled in I expect the top three to ensure a better home record this time around but it will need Rew to seriously up his game and that’s of course assuming MJJ will be staying for the season, their tail wags a bit and I can see changes sooner rather than later. Ipswich - I thought they looked Champions last year but the team rebuilding this year is impressive with Brennan giving them a very powerful top 3 and Thompson at reserve seems to provide them with an edge in every department. I think they will take some stopping home and away and in reality only a repeat of last years luck will stop them. Kings Lynn - A lot will depend on the returns of Iversen and Klindt but potentially they could be the leagues spoilers, In Cook, Kvech, Lawson & Harris they have genuine points scorers with Cook and Kvech likely to kick on this year as well. It looks like a genuine attempt to replicate the Peterborough team of 2021 and it could be an interesting year at Saddlebow. Leicester - Fricke, Masters & Douglas should ensure they are competitive at home but on the road I don’t think they possess the firepower to worry most of their rivals, Lawson is a big loss and much more consistent than his replacement Howarth, and I don’t see much improvement in Becker or Cook either so I remain unconvinced they will make the play offs. Oxford - Another team who for me haven’t learned from the mistakes last year and they look weaker this time around with question marks against Tungate, Kildemand & Riss, I expect Janowski to do better whilst Gusts has potential but on the whole it’s looking like another struggle to make the play offs. Sheffield - Excellent top 3 and if Pickering moves up a gear they will again be one of the main contenders, but they do have question marks against all of the bottom 3, Owlerton is a good home base with a fair bit of home track advantage but they could struggle on their travels. Play Offs Ipswich, Sheffield, Belle Vue plus another from Kings Lynn or Leicester. Wooden spoon Oxford or Birmingham.

His last GSA was 6.52 in 2014, I would expect that to be re assessed