marko

Looking forward to this one, Scunthorpe always a pleasure, seldom a chore to watch.

Not sure to be honest, it would be smooth, slick, dry and predictable, everything the modern riders seem to want.

Its a track, likely the inside where what little shale was there, has been quickly scrubbed off and now its down to the hard base and tyre rubber starts to create a blue haze. The track at Arena Essex was like that for its final meeting, saw it close up with my own eyes as we were allowed on it at the end of the meeting, not so much blue but it was like your garage floor, very hard and dusty, I was not impressed. Proves that whilst technically you don't actually need shale to ride, just that of course if tracks were all like that from kerb to fence they could only run in perfectly dry conditions because as soon as that base gets wet, its becomes like a skid pan. Shale is good at soaking up rain, remove that and you remove all your redundancy to get meetings on or through to a conclusion. If they don't care about rain off etc, they might as well just put tarmac down and be done with it, zero cost to keep buying more shale, no preparation required before or during the meeting, no need for tractors or water bowsers, exact same conditions week in, week out.

Been saying it for weeks, first bit of rain comes and you will see rain offs left, right and centre because everyone has got used to riding on dustbowls and anything else, they will not want to know.

Barker busted a gut to try and get past Chris but its not his fault the track is so narrow, it makes it very easy to block, but the way Baker acted after is typical of the petulant attitude he has always had when he does not get his way. Bomber acted totally out of character so whatever Barker said to him, must have been out of order.

And Peterborough would always turn up at Arena missing the Dryml brothers when they had them and used small track riders as guests.

Chance of rain tomorrow so if it goes ahead hopefully will not be the dustbowl it was Saturday night.

Track is a disgrace as always

If Batch gates he will likely do well as you really have to bust a gut to pass anyone around here, I like Tate and how he rides, stick it on the kerb like he normally does and should do well hopefully.

Guests mean travel expenses which could be quite a lot but ultimately it comes down to promoter and rider agreeing a deal and I don't see Plymouth paying silly money just to have a guest for the sake of it. I think it could be a close meeting but depends on if Batch and Kemp are gating, Batch wont want to get stuck in around such a confined space and Kemp might want to go big but will only likely fence himself through a lack of room for error.

How can riders possibly know what will happen next season never mind the points limits given how things are with the sport in this Country? Might only be one league, should only be one league. Also how come Dickson didnt kick up a fuss about the track being wet after what happened not so long ago?

I doubt it is written down quite like that, but we have all seen over the years how riders and managers have argued that when i rider is in front they get to choose the line (mostly this is going into a corner not out). So i believe most ref's will always act on who hit who and not why, its like their thinking is very rigid and no room for grey areas.

Also Cooper Rushden at Northampton when he veered to the left and this sent a rider behind (Luke Harrison?) into the deck, i think also on that occasion the fallen rider was excluded much to many peoples expectations, least not Jan on comms. Honestly think Ref's should spend a day or two learning how to ride a speedway bike just for the experience so they can better understand race situations, or even have a rider from the riders association give a talk to them pre season so they could help identify some of the nuances of racing. The ref's read the book as its wrongly written, "the leading rider can choose his or her line"

Jye is a classless punk for having two riders off and not checking on them or at least apologising, i mean for christ sake, he is supposed to be team mates with Jordon at Berwick.

Track was bone dry, they could have waited a while and graded it again once it stopped, or is it like I said, riders are no longer interested unless it’s a dust bowl?