Special Comets meeting 29th july

[SteelShoe]

4 hours ago, Sings4Speedway said:

Certainly not surprised that Luke or Harry have dropped (although didn't expect the alarming extent) Ace virtually holding his average is success considering he was a 3.00 newbie last season. Whats most stupid is that Sam has put over 1.5 points on his average, Harry has shipped nearly 5 from his and yet Harry will more than likely get signed up first next year.

Think Harry would have show much more to secure a place next season should Comets go NDL again.

[Sings4Speedway]

2 hours ago, SteelShoe said:

Think Harry would have show much more to secure a place next season should Comets go NDL again.

But Belle Vue have probably been on the phone already.....

[Neila]

A bright and breezy day, should be some good speedway racing later on today , get down to the northside arena to support the speedway UTC 

[geoff100]

Fantastic afternoons racing riders using the outside line more often slight prob with dust at times,however once again harry very poor and lets be honest he aint going to get any better ,luke looked a little better but  young ashton has one hell of a future where ever he starts when 16,up north perhaps ??. A fine afternoons entertainment if u wernt their u missed a treat.

[Neila]

15 minutes ago, geoff100 said:

Fantastic afternoons racing riders using the outside line more often slight prob with dust at times,however once again harry very poor and lets be honest he aint going to get any better ,luke looked a little better but  young ashton has one hell of a future where ever he starts when 16,up north perhaps ??. A fine afternoons entertainment if u wernt their u missed a treat.

How far oop north Geoff??  Somewhere in Scotland 

[geoff100]

1 minute ago, Neila said:

How far oop north Geoff??  Somewhere in Scotland 

I couldnt possibly comment

[singy13]

15 minutes ago, geoff100 said:

A fine afternoons entertainment if u wernt their u missed a treat.

And yes that's a fact Geoff.............many regulars missed a good speedway session. I think after casting my eyes all around there was about 600/700 in attendance - certainly the smallest gathering since northside opened. I had the surprise pleasure of standing next to a Comet of the first generation of the team i.e. Mark Dickinson - enjoyed the craic with him. Hopefully see you again Mark marra.  Oh and well done to winner Ashton Boughen. (hope your dad's keeping well son)............

[Neila]

33 minutes ago, singy13 said:

And yes that's a fact Geoff.............many regulars missed a good speedway session. I think after casting my eyes all around there was about 600/700 in attendance - certainly the smallest gathering since northside opened. I had the surprise pleasure of standing next to a Comet of the first generation of the team i.e. Mark Dickinson - enjoyed the craic with him. Hopefully see you again Mark marra.  Oh and well done to winner Ashton Boughen. (hope your dad's keeping well son)............

Unfortunately imo your estimate of crowd is a long way out, but individual meetings never attract a good crowd anywhere,  but a very enjoyable meeting missed by many people, but what a talent that young Aston boughen is will go a long way in the sport if he keeps grounded

[singy13]

8 minutes ago, Neila said:

Unfortunately imo your estimate of crowd is a long way out, but individual meetings never attract a good crowd anywhere,  but a very enjoyable meeting missed by many people, but what a talent that young Aston boughen is will go a long way in the sport if he keeps grounded

Yeah hopefully I was miles out with my guesstimate..................and there were deffo some fine young talent on show today.

[Racin Jason 72]

1 hour ago, Neila said:

Unfortunately imo your estimate of crowd is a long way out, but individual meetings never attract a good crowd anywhere,  but a very enjoyable meeting missed by many people, but what a talent that young Aston boughen is will go a long way in the sport if he keeps grounded

What was your estimation of the crowd.  Do you think it will be championship level racing next season ? 

[Neila]

44 minutes ago, Racin Jason 72 said:

What was your estimation of the crowd.  Do you think it will be championship level racing next season ? 

Had a rough head count imo 300-350, but when I was at Edinburgh the other week the head count was 175, and about 40 comets fans,

as for next year who knows what is happening in speedway at all levels 

[SteelShoe]

Thoroughly enjoyable afternoons racing, 23 heats done and dusted in around two and a half hours so well done to all concerned. 

Young Ashton Boughen set a new track record in heat 1 in a time of 56.3 seconds knocking 0.2 seconds off Connor Bailey's previous best. The first 6 heats were nearly all sub 57 seconds and this may well have continued if the initial track moisture levels were maintained. Ashton generally looked the faster rider  throughout the meeting, his semi final 2 winning time was 1.6 seconds faster than that set in semi final 1 an indication. It was great to see him pulling his celebratory wheelies.

Other riders to catch the eye were Steve Boxall who never looked like a rider who had given up the sport 5 years ago, Max Clegg, Jack Smith, Nathan Ablitt  and Max Perry. 

Best Comet on show was Sam McGurk who very nearly made the final and may well have done so with a better start from gate 4 in the semi. Young Elliot Kelly showed signs of regaining his early season form and looked like making the semi final after riding the outside line to get to the front in his last heat only to put the bike down on the exit to turn 4.

Harry failed to beat an opponent and his struggle to find form continues.

Personally i thought the Grand Prix format worked well and at £15 for 23 entertaining heats was good value for money. Thanks to all those who took up rider and heat sponsorship in so short a time. I noticed heat 3 had been sponsored by a certain Kauko Nieminen.

Thanks to ref Craig Ackroyd who kept the meeting moving along nicely.

It was good to see Comets legend Carl Stonehewer in the crowd.

Special mention to Steve Lawson, the track was smooth  as the proverbial babies bottom.

Didn't stay for the World Cup Final showing as this didn't start until 7pm rather than the usual GP start time of 6pm.

 

[SteelShoe]

22 minutes ago, Neila said:

Had a rough head count imo 300-350, but when I was at Edinburgh the other week the head count was 175, and about 40 comets fans,

as for next year who knows what is happening in speedway at all levels 

Yeah crowd down today which was a shame as the racing was generally of a very good standard.

[Neila]

23 minutes ago, SteelShoe said:

Thoroughly enjoyable afternoons racing, 23 heats done and dusted in around two and a half hours so well done to all concerned. 

Young Ashton Boughen set a new track record in heat 1 in a time of 56.3 seconds knocking 0.2 seconds off Connor Bailey's previous best. The first 6 heats were nearly all sub 57 seconds and this may well have continued if the initial track moisture levels were maintained. Ashton generally looked the faster rider  throughout the meeting, his semi final 2 winning time was 1.6 seconds faster than that set in semi final 1 an indication. It was great to see him pulling his celebratory wheelies.

Other riders to catch the eye were Steve Boxall who never looked like a rider who had given up the sport 5 years ago, Max Clegg, Jack Smith, Nathan Ablitt  and Max Perry. 

Best Comet on show was Sam McGurk who very nearly made the final and may well have done so with a better start from gate 4 in the semi. Young Elliot Kelly showed signs of regaining his early season form and looked like making the semi final after riding the outside line to get to the front in his last heat only to put the bike down on the exit to turn 4.

Harry failed to beat an opponent and his struggle to find form continues.

Personally i thought the Grand Prix format worked well and at £15 for 23 entertaining heats was good value for money. Thanks to all those who took up rider and heat sponsorship in so short a time. I noticed heat 3 had been sponsored by a certain Kauko Nieminen.

Thanks to ref Craig Ackroyd who kept the meeting moving along nicely.

It was good to see Comets legend Carl Stonehewer in the crowd.

Special mention to Steve Lawson, the track was smooth  as the proverbial babies bottom.

Didn't stay for the World Cup Final showing as this didn't start until 7pm rather than the usual GP start time of 6pm.

 

Agree with all you say, another star in the pits was ex world champion Gary havelock 

[Woke23]

Some good riding today from a lot of young and old riders.

Ashton Boughen is an absolute star. He is phenomenal t 15 years old and only been doing speedway for a year or so. Not sure if I heard right but I'm sure he said he's got offers from championship, premiership and polish teams. He won't be in the NDL next season I don't think. 

Coming back to comets tho, I was very impressed with Sam, Elliot, and even Crangy. All three riders have had a downturn in form recently and this was some well needed track time and all of them showed great improvement, particularly Elliot. On the other hand we have Harry who just doesn't seem like he's going to improve. He done well at Edinburgh the other week but at what point do you go this isn't working anymore. 

It was a shame that Kyle Bickley didn't have the return we were all hoping for. You could tell he was rusty but there's a good rider in there, he just needs to get back to it. Would love to see him return next year.

 

[Neila]

Imo today showed why Mr bickley should not be considered for a comets team place, got an average of 9 points in the league, but struggled to score 5 today, did not look that interested, pulling up twice when at the back, but may have had bike issues, but it was still running 

[topaz325]

I think a move to championship racing would. be disastrous.for the Comets at this stage.

[SteelShoe]

7 minutes ago, topaz325 said:

I think a move to championship racing would. be disastrous.for the Comets at this stage.

On the fence re this one, there are a number of variables including degree of sponsorship that may influence any decision. The project is still very young and no doubt there is still plenty of work to do in further development of facilities so i tend to think it will be NDL in the shorter term

Like Neila mentions no one knows what the structure of speedway will look like next season. Huge doubts about long established clubs such as Peterborough (land sold for housing) and Wolverhampton (non-renewal of lease) are just two clubs who look unlikely to be at tapes next season at least. It may well be the remaing Premiership and Championship clubs will have to amalgamate to form a British League ?.

The NDL is a development league and i admit to having been very impressed with most of the young riders i've seen this season. It would be great to see more young riders stepping up and more teams joining the structure because the entertainment and skill level has generally been high.

The slight issue i have with the NDL is that there are not enough fixtures for supporters and also for riders who are not riding in other leagues.

[topaz325]

36 minutes ago, SteelShoe said:

On the fence re this one, there are a number of variables including degree of sponsorship that may influence any decision. The project is still very young and no doubt there is still plenty of work to do in further development of facilities so i tend to think it will be NDL in the shorter term

Like Neila mentions no one knows what the structure of speedway will look like next season. Huge doubts about long established clubs such as Peterborough (land sold for housing) and Wolverhampton (non-renewal of lease) are just two clubs who look unlikely to be at tapes next season at least. It may well be the remaing Premiership and Championship clubs will have to amalgamate to form a British League ?.

The NDL is a development league and i admit to having been very impressed with most of the young riders i've seen this season. It would be great to see more young riders stepping up and more teams joining the structure because the entertainment and skill level has generally been high.

The slight issue i have with the NDL is that there are not enough fixtures for supporters and also for riders who are not riding in other leagues.

True everything up in the air with the amount of tracks facing problems in running next year , maybe a slightly weaker championship and a weaker Premiership....two League set up , would probably mean the loss of the likes of Doyle , Bewley and Holder etc ...who knows ?

[Phil The Ace]

First time visitor yesterday and what a true ly magnificent set up. Built a great track and the. Just keep adding to the structure season in season. Perfect way to start a project. 
 

Racing was good. View was excellent. Moved to bend 2 for the semis and final. Huge mistake. God it was windy and cold there lol. 
 

what’s gone wrong with Harry mcgurk. That was so sad to see. That’s not the rider than left the aces. Looked very low on confidence like his heart was in it. 
 

Ashton boughen though. What a talent. Honestly. Not been this excited about a youngster since dan Bewley. Kid is going to the very top. And I’ll stick my neck on the line and say that the next SWC in 4 years he will be in the team 

 

I’ll end by saying keep up the good work Workington, you have a positive future as long as the sport I. General sorts the mess out