marko

Well i have no intention of going to this meeting, but more because ive learnt over the many seasons speedway that weather does not mix and there is no point in wasting petrol in going to a meeting which is by no means certain to either start or be completed. With the heavy rain we had in south essex overnight and this morning and ive seen the radar images, not many places would have got away with it, im sure the track is already in a soggy state, more rain expected during the afternoon some it likely to be heavy.

As of 09:30 this morning no mention of any guests on the preview page for tonight's meeting on the Lakeside official site, they are actually listing the Pirates side as normal, false advertising?

Bit surprised Lakeside have not called this off already as they seem hell bent on taking the moral high ground on anything in recent times even if it means they are cutting off their own noses to spite their face, is this really the same Jon Cook who was at Eastbourne? he never shy'd away from puling a few strings or taking advantage of the others misfortunes and bending rules when he was with them more often than not at the expense of Arena Essex.

Some really good racing in this meeting, Barker's heat 3rd to 1st in the last race was awesome stuff and got them the three league points, would have been harsh not to get them just because six points were gifted to Eagles via the joker rule.

Just found out the name of the rider i was thinking of by look through old programmes, it was Luke Clifton

I would not normally agree with you BCD but you are spot on as far as last night was concerned, the track was far slicker than it has been or needed to be, no excuses. RE the crowd, yes it looked poor on tv and whilst i was not there having regular knowledge of the lay of the land there i would guess maybe 500-600 tops, doesnt surprise me one bit, people who go to lakeside are seldom local to the Arena, petrol costs money so why pay for that when its on the telly, no special effort at all to advertise this meeting or encourage people to go, build it and they will come? ermmm no!

Whether Adam stayed down or not (although i think he did) no one can ever prove it, ive seen some really lame looking falls in the past where riders have still hurt themselves to the point they need medical attention, there was one case many many seasons ago at Arena Essex where the ref excluded a rider and was going fine him for staying down when the poor sod had actually broken his leg, cant for the life of me remember the kids name but yet i recall he wore blue and white leathers, i will have to look it up but i think the ref was Chris Gay. Whether the nature of the staying down is intentional or not the ref can award it if he feels no change in the order is likely, lets be honest they could have raced heat 14 over 12 laps, there is no way on that poor excuse of a track Lewis was going to get past anyone.

Track is not great tonight and that is Lakesides fault but some of the riders have been pathetic tonight, no way on earth is this team gong to win anything.

Lynn can always appeal if they want just like Lakeside have over the loss of a point at Leicester! Not buying the weather as a excuse for the poor track, why not just put some water down later? i tell you why, because there is so little dirt on it it would make it slippery. Same old Lakeside, everytime sky come into town they make its so rotten, last couple of meetings its been much better than this, Lewis is back to square one trying hard but going backwards. Massive own goal once again by the home promotion, your not going to get newbies coming to watch this rubbish!

Trouble with missing riders is no matter who is around that could ride, if they turn around and say sorry not interested as ive got a Swedish meeting Tuesday, or my bikes are in bits etc etc there is not a lot anyone can do. Lynn have to come with the attitude of give it their best shot and who knows a bit of luck here and there and a point is perfectly possible for them.

No real incentive tonight for those with Sky to make the journey, last season they offered a discount for the following meeting if the sky match was attended but nothing for this one, why sky did not demand some assurances from promoters that incentives would be given this season for fans to attend in order to save meetings appearing to be raced in empty stadiums i dont know. I dont mind too much paying £20 for the Elite League although it is on the high side, however £20 or the option to watch it at home for pennies, no brainer I'm afraid.

My top ten is based on who has impressed me this season. 1.Mikkel Bech 2.Richard Lawson 3.Piotr Pawlicki 4.Lewis Kerr 5.Lewis Rose 6.Lewis Blackbird 7.Peter Kildemand 8.Steve Worrall 9.Matej Zager 10.Robert Lambert Six out of the ten are Brits which is good, i know many wont agree but i by and large i think the league setup is working a treat for these younger riders.

Just remembered it was not too far away from this point last season we had a meeting on a Monday and a Friday, the Monday was a sky meeting and Seb Ulamek made his debut and the crowd was terrible but during that week the weather which since the start of that season had been on the cold side turned around into much warmer weather the gate for the Friday was really big and continued that way for the next couple of months so yes whilst our crowds have not been that great although the good friday was pretty good i think with the arrival of this warmer weather we are getting (if it stays) could improve matters, not for the sky meeting on the monday but Poole on the Saturday if the weather is warm i think a gate of 1500-2000 no problems at all, maybe more?

So far bet365 has not stopped me from going to watch a meeting, Lakeside were filmed a couple of weeks ago and i knew it in advance but still went to the track because its simply a better experience, maybe if there was doubt about the meeting going ahead then i would certainly consider staying at home knowing i would not miss the match completely. Sky is a different animal though, most of the time i would stay at home and watch it rather than go to the track but then so do many others so you end up finding those you chat too normally are not there anyway so it gets boring quickly without mates to talk to in betwen the races. Back in the day when there were more tracks (im going back to the 80's here! ) i knew of people who would take in several meetings a week, Milton Keynes one night, then maybe a visit to Hackney, Arena Essex, Rye House, Ipswich, Mildenhall, Wimbledon, cant do that now and if you could imagine the cost in petrol alone!

important meeting but i think the gate will be hit quite hard, i normally stand with seven or eight people and they had already made their minds up over a week ago that they were not going to the Lynn meeting because of the simple issue of cost, why pay £20 plus petrol (remember only way to get to the track is by car or public transport and most live a lot further away than five minutes down the road, for those in Kent they have to pay three or four quid on top to get over and under the river) why do all that and have to also put up with the long drawn out delays for ad breaks etc when its on your telly that you have already paid a subcription too? The words of Mr Cook sound like those of a worried man afraid that no one is going to turn up on Monday because of the performance at Poole, however a low crowd wont be as a result of that, just people watching the pennies and will choose instead to go Saturday at home to Poole, Saturday meetings are a lot more familiy friendly and no need to get worried about the M25 playing up. As far as im concerned i will watch the Lynn meeting at home and maybe go saturday depending on what time i get home from Duxford which is holding its first air show of the year.

If he is tired then why accept a guest booking for tonight and also if he really was that tired that he thought it might affect his ability to race, then in the interests of safety he should have gone sick and allowed Hammers to use rider replacement or a guest, maybe he was too worried it could lead to someone taking his place who has no hidden agendas and actually might help Lakeside get a point or more.

Riders get paid by the point so no benefit in not scoring unless it was felt sponsors would abandon them, also once a rider puts a helmet on they normally go into race mode and who they are racing against does not matter, instinct to win should be natural but time after time watty fails to perform when riding against Poole or loses form towards the end of the season when his team looks like it could be a threat to his parent club. It could and should be nothing but pure coincidence however I have lost faith in him, you can only be cheated on so many times before you realise you just can't trust them anymore.

If I was in charge I would have to let him go, most of the time he tries his best and does a good job but he just can no longer be trusted to perform when it might go against his parent club and it would be such a shame to get to the play off only to lose because one rider has a hidden agenda even if it's only on a subconscious level.

Well done to Richard Lawson, absolutely brilliant tonight, no idea why PK was in final heat but credit to him for battling into third place, at least he showed some fight which is more than our so called captain could manage.

Difference is Wolf he has pride wearing the Aussie colours, with Hammers its just a job. PK is struggling too, maybe age now getting the better of him, it catches up with everyone eventually no matter who they are.

Why dont you just put a Poole race jacket on Davey and be done with it! fed up with him taking the pee out of us.

Bit late too this argument but for what its worth i thought from my position on the home straight Scotty got the second place, maybe its hard to see from the back straight but i would have thought the cheer that went up from the main stand was evidence enough ;-)

Like I said he would Scott put the effort in tonight and was a worthy replacement for Mikkel, great last heat splitting the wolves pair on the line. Ben Morley again taking the scalps of some decent riders.

I dont see the problem here, Mikkel has been riding well and scoring a lot of points but from mostly the second string position which is why his average has climbed so dramatically, last time Scotty rode for us as a guest he was not riding well and confidence low, not exactly the case right now. I personally have every faith in him that he will score more than enough points tonight to justify his inclusion. People will moan about losing such a key rider but thats the price you pay for having a rider like that in your team, if you want the star riders and especially the younger ones this is what happens, they have a lot of commitments. I wonder if the same people that will moan about Bech being absent are the same that constantly shout for the likes of young Patricyk Dudek to be signed? We all saw this coming though, the new team building rules were always going to be heavily dependant on guests.

Scott Nicholls will be guesting for Mikkel Bech tomorrow according to the star as he will be preparing for an under 21 meeting, certainly wont make Hammers any weaker.