marron

Yeah he'll no doubt find some way to deflect the attention

Think you're being kind to Worrall with that description. Emotions are obviously running high because of the collision between Robbo and Lasse but that move was nothing short of dangerous. What makes it worse is that Worrall doesn't seem to have learnt his lesson.

Worrall strikes again!

I'd take Konopka, Skidmore and Graversen from this year's team. Konopka is clearly a confidence rider and has shown more than enough to be worth taking on a 3.00 next year. Skidmore is Mr. Consistent. Graversen suffered after that Rye House crash but before then put in the scores you'd expect from him. It was a shame he came good again right at the end of the season when it was too late. I wouldn't mind if Summers came back but i think a fresh challenge is probably best for him. I'd take Lawson but think he'll be elsewhere. Wilko doesn't do it often enough for me, same with Lemon.

Nothing meeting, average performance, poor racing (other than one or two heats). Roll on 2015.

I agree. I hope he'll get the book thrown at him but I have a feeling that he will get off relatively lightly.

A nothing meeting between 2 sides with nothing to ride for. Got a Sheffield promotion which seems to be rebuilding and a Redcar promotion which nobody has any time for. Can't imagine too many people being excited about this and the return leg.

Bears Lawson - Plenty of rumours about him being unhappy behind the scenes and, if those are to be believed, he has probably done as well as can be expected. Skidmore - Very, very solid and has probably improved his passing ability this year. Probably underrated by many. Wilko - Entertainer. Sometimes goes too hard and messes up when it's better to sit and take a second or third but I suppose that's what makes him good to watch as when those moves do come off they are exciting. Done what I expected at the beginning of the season. Lemon - Looks quite slow when out in front. Nothing more than an ok second string these days. Summers - Not changed too much from last season other than maybe winning 1 or 2 more of the big races. Graversen - Solid reserve. Can be a match winner but we don't benefit from him at reserve when he's only making up for the 1 or 2 we carry. Konopka - Tries so hard and over the last couple of weeks has probably deserved more points than he has been paid for. Needs to sort out his gating.

My view on the Pijper incident was that he was all over the place going in to bend 1 causing Vissing go out wide and fall. Don't think there was contact but I'm struggling to remember just how close they were.

My point was that both situations were identical so either exclude Edberg and Jensen in their respective heats for both being the causes of the falls or exclude Konopka and Summers for both going down easily. For what it's worth, I also thought the same as you about both. The referee excluding Jensen made me wonder why he didn't exclude Edberg when he pulled the same move. I'm not sure how he can come up with 2 different decisions for 2 identical situations.

This was another case of a ref failing to show consistency. Konopka went down in a similar situation in heat 2 but was excluded instead of Edberg. It would have been nice to see the ref either exclude both Berwick riders or both Redcar riders in those incidents. By excluding Konopka in one and Jensen in the other the referee invited criticism.

I think any sort of win for the Bears tonight would be a good result as a lot of those Bandits go well around the STMP consistently (not many don't!). The Bears need the Jorgensen of a couple of weeks back to go well and Graversen HAS to fire to have any chance of winning.

I've noticed more and more at Redcar over the last couple of seasons riders going through the tapes on purpose to make a change or have a rider going off a statistically better gate. Sometimes it's obvious that a team will do it. I (along with others around me) predicted that Williamson would when Scunthorpe visited a couple of weeks back and, sure enough, the tapes were broke. Coincidence? I seem to recall a meeting vs Workington a while ago that saw both sides doing it.

Yeah, Bears' chances look pretty slim as we're carrying at least 1 passenger in all meetings. As someone said earlier, it looks like any chance we had of success was lost when Kozza's visa didn't get sorted.

Would definitely be an experience watching 7 falls, 14 2nd/3rds, 7 wins and a couple of tape exclusions over the course of 15 heats