marko

Best meeting i think i have seen at Lakeside this season with Bees contributing towards some good racing, hope it came accross that way for people viewing it via stream, at least you would have been warmer as its a tad chilly out there tonight. Ps i know we cant have saturday night racing all the time but what a difference it was tonight being able to get to the track without the stress of the Friday night traffic jams.

Any changes to the riding order ahead of tonights meeting because we are now in May? im not asking for actual riding numbers simply who will be the heat leaders because this could affect a riders scoring potential in relation to betting handicaps.

Back in the day Arena Essex always used to be Saturdays @7pm and the only reason the later start time was used in the week was down to the traffic so really when we do race Saturdays no reason to start that late anyway. Should be a good meeting, must admit i am liking this new format and the fact so many of the younger riders are getting the chance to shine, Bees have a good pairing at reserve and a respectable 1-5 so i expect this one to be a close affair with hopefully a narrow home win by 6-8 points.

Ellis is good but been dropping a lot of points at home through falls etc so Worrall could score along the same lines as him.

Well a couple of seasons ago we had tempretures of nearly 30 at Lakeside, last season it was about 4 degrees and bloomin freezing, tomorrow looks like somewhere in between and more normal for the time of year. At home i expect Hammers to win but Lahti does have a liking for our track and Kylmakorpi knows it well enough too, i think Hammers reserves should dominate that of Eagles though. The away meeting will be very hard without Bech although with the way Lawson is riding and if our reserves go well and the others chip in with a respectable points total then im hopeful we can take a point from it, cant see us taking anymore than four points from the day though. Hope for comfortable home win and anything on top of that will be a bonus.

I was not there so i dont have much to go on but i will say this and that is if Adam felt he was ok to complete four laps (didnt need to win the race, just pick up the point) then he should have been allowed to do so, chances are he would have then pulled out of the meeting anyway if what the medic says was true. Any rider can poodle around at the back not being a danger to anyone, the only time i would make an exception to this is with a head injury because then you could have concussions and everything which would not be safe but for a arm that is hurt then all you need do is hang on and ride around quick enough not to be lapped but not so quick you cant control the machine, we see this sometimes with non injured riders nursing a very sick bike home for a couple of laps. Yes it comes down to being robbed of the chance to race for a single point which as it happend would have given Hammers a league point on the night but that was not known at that stage. So does it boil down to sour grapes? well in a way yes, much like people moan when a ref in football refuses to give a blatent penalty! everyone feels there has been an injustice done and that is what we have here, firstly the notion that Morley should not have been excluded and second that the other rider who should have been excluded but wasnt was not allowed to take part in the re-run, effectively Lakeside was punished twice.

Shame work commitments meant i had to miss this one as it would beat my previous record of biggest win seen live which was way back in 1991 when Arena Essex beat Exeter Falcons 68-22, 11 heats finishing 5-1 to Hammers vs Brummies also beats the 10 heats finishing 5-1 to Hammers vs the Falcons so another record gone. Glad to read that the whole presentation of meetings is being improved upon, does not affect everyone but if your a shift worker who sometimes has to be up in the ealy hours of a Saturday morning every little helps when it comes to grabbing a bit of sleep.

A meeting i will have to miss due to work but think Lakeside should win fairly comfortably as i feel Hammers reserves should perform well, its a good chance for Lewis to start turning things around as on paper the riders he will be up against there is not reason why he should not have the beating of them around his home track.

The result did not surprise me as Hammers do not have a good record around Saddlebow Road, people already having a pop at certain riders but i think they need to take note of this heat format, there will be plenty of times when pretty reasonable riders are going to score very lowely because the way they are paired against opposing riders. Now take Lewis Bridger for example, 1 from three sounds appauling but in his first ride he was against Rory and Kenneth so no shock he failed to beat them, in his second ride he was against Rory again paired with Robert Lambert, and he beat young Rob which is what would be expected, then he lost out to Iversen (no shock) and Porsing and maybe i would have expected him to get a point or two from that race but Porsing also beat Davey in that heat too so he cant be a poor rider. Had he taken a 4th ride he would have been against Iversen and Bjerre so probably would not have scored anything. From what little i have seen of Lewis this season i personally think he needs to calm down, he seems to be over riding and almost trying too hard. Lynn are one of my pre season favourites and last night proves just how hard they will be to beat at home, in fact i would imagine come June or July scores of 60 plus will be quite regular for their home matches.

Ok so a ten point win but not the most enjoyable of meetings to be honest, in fact i could not wait for it to end, track was poor, appeared to ride dry and slick, PK mentioned they could not get enough water into the track which puzzled me because it was not exactly a hot day so i wonder if there was a reason behind that, if there was something going on preventing work being carried out on the track it needs to stop, priority should always be to make sure the track is fit to provide a good standard of racing, mind you they did not even attempt to water it during the whole evening which makes me think it must have been because the track was too bare of shale so would have been dangerous to do so, either way its poor form, we pay enough to get in, we deserve to see and the riders deserve the chance to work their craft on a well prepared track, it clearly affected the home side more than the away as it always does so very much an own goal on lakesides part there, but none the less something that can be fixed for next time, certainly the week before the racing was in the main very good. But thats just part of it because the meeting also had no tempo to it, the constant track grading (of the dust) did not damage the tempo, it completely destroyed it and coupled with the poor presentation did not help, everyone around me and i mean everyone is getting a bit fed up with it already, both men involved in that department are good blokes, real salt of the earth types who clearly love the sport and have been in and around it for many years but what we have simply is not working, its having an adverse effect on the entire show because people cant hear properly what is being said or end up zoning out because it decends into pointless waffle without getting to the point. Thats the negatives, no point in trying to gloss over them because with technology moving so fast more and more people can and will start watching meetings from the comfort of home and they will such flaws with their own eyes instead of just hearing by word of mouth. So on a scale of 1-5 (5 being highest) i would probably give this meeting a 2 Man of the match= Richard Lawson, he seems to be getting better every week and proving those who doubted him (especially myself) oh so very wrong!

Good meeting with plenty of passing to start with although it appeared the track slickened off quite a bit towards the end but no surprise given the pounding it would have taken this week with several practice sessions taking place. I guess if there is any flaw with the Hammers it is the tendancy for one or two to have off nights, we saw that last season even with PK and Davey so the ability of this team will rest of how many of those bad days at the office can be avoided. People will say Lakeside let it slip but i think you have to credit Swindon a bit too, they maybe took a while to suss the place out but once they did they were better and only really their reserves and Gustafsson struggled. I think teams are likely to find it hard to win at the "Arena" and it would be nice to go through a season unbeaton at home, my man of match would be Richard Lawson, amazing to think a year ago i was concerned about his signing as a historically large track rider but he has taken to our track so well, maybe its in the blood? his dad always seemed to love our track when visiting back in his Glasgow days.

So many unknowns going into this match although thankfully as Bryn says the weather is not one of them (phew) No idea how this is going to pan out, seldom have i looked forward to a season opener and yet felt such trepidation as i do today and yet at the same time we wont really be able to read too much into the result whatever it happens to be because its early days and it takes time for riders to find there feet again and adjust to any new equipement brought over the winter. PK is my favourite rider though so i hope its vintage stuff from him or should that be youthful stuff ;-) but also looking forward to seeing how Mikkel can fair against the likes of Kildeman and Batchelor, could be a case of all eyes on him and someone else pops up and steals the show?

Someone hits upon a very good point because the second strings will to start with score a lot of points because of who they will be riding against, in turn they will have an inflated average which could then be used to good effect should they be injured or by coincidence missing a fixture at a track they dont normally go well at and be replaced by what was originally a heat leader at the start of the season. Yeah, averages really wont make a whole lot of sense this season, more so than ever before, what really needs to happen is for everyone to get together before the first set of averages come out and agree a system to move forward with that enables and more realistic assessment of a riders true worth, like giving a grade based upon their start average. Things will likely even themselves out but it would not surprise to see a few teams have both second strings jump straight to heat leaders and vice versa after the first set of averages, this would also mean the young reserves that were originally protected from facing the big boys could well end up racing against them.

Yeah it's just the program then that's gone up so that is an item people can choose not to buy however i do honestly think that £20 for the current elite product is too much, hopefully it won't put too many people off as good crowds create atmosphere and if Mikkel B Jensen is the star many predict then the price will not look half as bad.

Tony please corrent if i am wrong but last season was it not £17 plus 2.50 program?

interesting to see Lakeside are joint most expensive EL track this season for combined adult and program price along with Poole, however the latter at least has decent facilities which is more you can say for "Arena Essex" With the sky deal and lower costs through having NL reserves, a price increase is taking the pee a bit is it not or do you disagree?

Good racing and good crowds as those two things are the most important in securing the sports long term future.

There is still a lot of things with and around the sport i really dislike however, like the tactical ride and the horrid journey too and from meetings and the sometimes hanging around on cold nights however there is a certain freshness about the sport this season with a new heat format and the younger riders being given a chance. As for the Hammers team it looks promising but at this stage no one knows what is going to happen, i have seen teams in the past promise so much on paper yet deliver so little, so will keep my feet on the ground in that respect. What i want more than anything this season is for great racing with good crowds creating an atmosphere that has you leaving the stadium at the end hoping for the next Friday to come around in double quick time.

Excellent thread as its so easy to miss bits of action with so many sports channels around not too mention everything else, i have 12 sports channels and that does not even include sky sports F1 or or any of the horse racing channels etc

Here are some that spring instantly to mind. Sean Wilson Andre Compton Martin Dugard Richard Hall Andrew Silver Bjarne Pedersen Nicki Pedersen Josh Auty Cam Woodward

Wrestling is very much like speedway on sky tv in that results are predetermined before hand, all in the interests of whats best for business of course.

Can only see the situation we had last season getting worse with now the potential to have both reserves and maybe two out of the five main team riders being absent to ride for other clubs, record season for guests and rider replacement?

I hope its also announced what the individual meeting price will be as well because for many that will be the deciding factor. As for the Bech signing, did not expect it but Lakeside must be doing something right to lure a talent like that, as we are not exactly the most glamorous of clubs and we don't have money to chuck around.

The savings were based on last seasons prices, no where does this say this will be the same in 2014 and you can bet Bech does not ride for peanuts.

This is a real shame for me because for years its always been said sky do not have any influence in the running of the sport, well this just goes to prove that they do have plenty of say, probably too much but since they have the money i guess you cant blame the promoters for selling out. I can only hope though if sky really do have such a say they will insist on promoters making discounts as a matter of obligation when league meetings are being screened in order to attract better crowds (play offs excluded)