Steel Shoe News - Speedway 2017

[Third rate Leszno]

Really good meeting at Poole last night too, worth catching up on.

Yes, it ebbed and flowed nicely. Surprised how bumpy the track was, almost grasstrack-like going into the first turn.

[Greenlander]

Devils win at Birmingham, apparently their first home defeat since 2015, and follow it up at home after a few scares to get through to the semifinal of the NL KO Cup.

Jack Parkinson-Blackburn looks the real deal but watch out too for Henry Atkins. He's gone from reserve to a No.4 spot and rode heat 15 tonight like a champion of the future.

A happy Devil tonight.

[Greenlander]

So Rye House ditch Eddie Kennett and a little bit of speedway dies with it.

[Ray de Galles]

Yeah, that's a real shock about Eddie though his form (especially away) has been crumbling. Ellis Perks being dropped to make the averages fit is also a harsh call. The new owners are laudable in many ways but some of their actions do seem crass.

I'll admit to being excited about Barker joining as I always enjoy watching him ride (and Sedgeman impressed for Belle Vue in their victory at Rye House recently) but not sure how much of an upgrade it really is.

I saw the result at Brum for your lot, Greenlander, really impressive.

[Ray de Galles]

Speaking of the Rockets, you can check out the revised line up as we're at Wolves in tonight's BT televised fixture.

Also, GB won their semi-final at Kings Lynn at the weekend to make this Saturday's final in Poland - though not seen the recording of it yet to glean any details.

[Ray de Galles]

Speaking of the Rockets, you can check out the revised line up as we're at Wolves in tonight's BT televised fixture.

Jumped the gun on this, it's actually tonight!

[Third rate Leszno]

Finally, I managed to get off my arse and go to a meeting!

Belle Vue Aces 35 - Swindon Robins 49

Swindon had narrowly beaten the Aces at the Abbey the previous night, but this was more of a surprise. Troy Batchelor was guesting for the Robins in place of the injured Jason Doyle, and after getting filled in on his first start and coming away pointless, he was untouchable after that, reeling off three comfortable wins. Nick Morris was also excellent, but the real star for the visitors was Kiwi Bradley Wilson-Dean with 11+1 from his four rides, showing absolutely terrific speed round the wide line at the NSS.

The home team were disappointing, young Dan Bewley being the sole ray of light with 8 points from five rides. Craig Cook had an absolute shocker, mechanical failure in one race and only 3 points from his remaining 3 rides. It began to rain around heat 11, and with the track getting wetter and the result already settled, the referee called it a night after heat 14.

I liked the stadium, and it's a lovely wide, fast track (especially compared to the tight confines of the old stadium) but after watching a couple of televised meetings from there I was expecting more passing - once lap one was over, there were only a couple of passing moves made all night. I'll post a couple of photos later, but it's fair to say that I'm no Jeff Scott...

[Ray de Galles]

British GP at the Millennium tomorrow. Bored and I and a few friends popping along. Really looking forward to it after missing last years.

Live on BT Sport around 5pm

[Greenlander]

Rye House score 60 points at Poole.

Now that is some result.

[Ray de Galles]

Isn't it? Couldn't believe the updates I was getting last night. Poole Reject Krzysztof Kasprzak getting a paid maximum from his new spot as Rockets reserve too.

Looking forward to the return meeting at Rye House on Bank Holiday Monday evening, live on BT.

[Ray de Galles]

Live televised speedway from the home of the sport on BT tonight, Rye House Rockets v Poole Pirates at 7:30pm.

We're fifth and Poole are fourth in the last play-off spot, we have to take maximum points tonight to have any chance of overturning them. We then have another five meetings in the following week to squeeze all the fixtures in before the cut-off point.

[Greenlander]

We then have another five meetings in the following week to squeeze all the fixtures in before the cut-off point.

'Tis the same every year though especially in the top two leagues. Both Workington and Glasgow have ten or so meetings to squeeze in, but even down in the National Stoke haven't raced at home since early July and will now spend the closing weeks squeezing in their remaining meetings and probably failing. In previouos years this has been an issue for us however our current promotion seem intent in putting meetings on every week if possible so when league meetings haven't been arranged we usually get something like a challenge or the Southern Development League. They seem much keener to race even in inclement weather. A couple of evenings we've gone the distance in rain that would have seen the plug pulled in previous seasons.

We're out of the playoffs but have a Trophy final and the Cup semi coming up which, along with the remaining league matches, should see us racing comfortably into early October.

[Ray de Galles]

Yeah, I know it's the norm but it's not really happened to Rye House since I've been going - probably because we've never been in play-off contention before even in the level below!

We tonked a pretty woeful Pirates 56-35 in the end reducing the gap to four points and with five meetings remaining to their three, could go all the way to next Monday night's final fixtures.

[Greenlander]

True - the year we made the playoffs trying to squeeze those remaining fixtures before the cut off was tight especially as we're only allowed one meeting a week. One rain off and we'd have missed out though given we then had to wait the best part of a month for the quarter final took all the momentum and excitement out of it. That and our number one deciding to bugger off back to the US so we had to rely on guests (and trying to find suitable ones in October when many riders are beginning to pack away for the winter) meant we were never in it.

Good luck though - the playoffs sans Poole is an appealing prospect.

[Ray de Galles]

Innit. Last night's meeting in full here.

[Third rate Leszno]

We tonked a pretty woeful Pirates 56-35 in the end reducing the gap to four points and with five meetings remaining to their three, could go all the way to next Monday night's final fixtures.

I didn't see the whole meeting, but the heat where Poole went from a 4-2 position to a 0-5 in the space of half a lap was fairly entertaining!

[Ray de Galles]

So we host Swindon tonight who have won 17 on the bounce home and away. We have to win and hope Poole fail to do so at Somerset (also tonight) to keep our play-off hopes alive.

We then face Leicester on Monday and, if it's germane to league positions, will have to race the rescheduled away fixture at Kings Lynn which was rained off in last night's double-header (unlike Poole's first half where they picked up the maximum four points) by next Wednesday's cut off.

[Exiled off Main Street]

I wish Jeff Scott was still writing... he could write a whole book on this King's Lynn season and Buster Chapman... and we still don't know how it's all going to end....

[Greenlander]

Somerset's no gimme for Poole, but I didn't realise Swindon were on such a run. Looks like you'll just have to beat KL and Leicester then.

Lakeside in town tonight. Nothing on it for us but it'll be my first full meeting in weeks and the sun is shining. Can't wait.

[Ray de Galles]

Somerset's no gimme for Poole, but I didn't realise Swindon were on such a run. Looks like you'll just have to beat KL and Leicester then.

That won't be enough unless we win tonight too. Poole are currently 8 points ahead of us and the last two fixtures can only yield a maximum of 7 points.

[Ray de Galles]

I wish Jeff Scott was still writing... he could write a whole book on this King's Lynn season and Buster Chapman... and we still don't know how it's all going to end....

Has he formally packed in writing then? I presumed the books just weren't very economically viable any more. I follow him on twitter and he still seems to have plenty to say.

[Greenlander]

Well Rye House did all they could but Poole nabbed the points they needed with a 5-1 in heat 15.

The Rockets luck really ran out as Poole were 10 points down after four heats then nicked a 7-2 on a tactical ride. Those extra three points made all the difference right at the end. It's so typical Poole.

My evening was spent watching the tractor scrape the top layer off the track for over an hour. The first heat was so chaotic the riders could barely turn into the corners. I think all four led the race for a lap and it was a shock that they all made the flag as a couple locked up trying make a bend.

After repairs they managed the remaining 14 heats in about an hour and it was good quality stuff. Adam Roynon and Steve Boxall were a class apart but Henry Atkins showed some real guts to win a couple of heats from reserve. Biggest win of the season so far and under lights for the most part. Speedway at it's best (but for a while also it's worst).

[Exiled off Main Street]

I spent this past weekend in upstate New York attending the 2017 US Open Championship, a two day event. Day one, Saturday night, was held with intermittent rain showers, courtesy of Hurricane Harvey leftovers. The evening started with the announcement that Billy Janniro had missed his flight on Friday night in Sacramento, as the meeting at Fast Fridays had gone on longer than normal. He arrived at the gate but they denied him access to the plane. So one rider down. The other three California riders were in attendance. Gino Manzares (ex-Ipswich Witches), Doug Nicol (ex-Middlesboro Bear in the '90's) and his son, rising star, Broc Nicol, winner of the final heat in the WC in Poland (and soon to be British Leaguer). The track was very slick but the CA boys just opened up the throttle and won all the heats they were in. The local lads struggled with the conditions, with plenty of falls... The night ended up with Nicol winning with Manzares in 2nd place.

Day 2 - it rained all day and despite 4 hours of valiant track scraping, squeeging, and blading off the top layers, a torrential downpour at 8.30 pm killed any chance or racing. So I spent the evening (till 2am) hanging out with the riders, mechanics and promoters at their trackside bonfire. Gossiping about Chris Holder, Greg Hancock, Darcy Ward and nefarious UK promoters. They ran Day 2 on Monday, but I was on the road back to Boston. It was won by Broc Nicol with Manzares in 2nd. Gino is really hoping to land a British League spot in 2018 - but he can't wait until March to find out... Broc has a few British teams interested in his signature and he will be riding in the UK in late September and October in a few open meetings across the UK. One team wanted to sign him back in June but they could not agree terms. Broc will qualify for a work permit, as California State Champion (and possibly US Champion by the the end of month - we shall see)

[Ray de Galles]

I was too deflated by Friday night's bittersweet events to post at the time but I see Greenlander updated the result. To see the Rockets smash (an albeit weakened) Swindon after their mammoth winning run and then have to wait so long to get the final result from Somerset because of our meeting being declared after twelve heats was really weird.

I finally found out as I got off the train at Tottenham Hale and I was surprisingly knocked back by it. Not quite sure how the Rebels managed to lose a ten point lead with two consecutive 1-5 losses and then add the coup de grace with the same result in Heat 15. I don't want to find out either. Fuck Poole though, they're crap and should be hammered by any of the other play-off participants.

All that said, it's been a wonderful season and I hope the numbers add up to keep the core of this team together - they're a special (though expensive, I'm sure) bunch and a joy to watch.

[Ray de Galles]

The first leg of the first play-off semi-final between Poole (grrrrr) and Swindon about to start on BT Sport 1. Let's have a look at what you would have one.