It had been a funny old week as Arkwright said in Open All Hours. Tales of gloom and despondency on the BSF Uncle Len losing his patience with the punters and young Mitchell saving himself at the last minute from a meeting with the back straight fence. So after all that everything appeared to be set for the Rebel army to ride into town and take a win away from creaking fortress Hoddesdon for the first time. Well how wrong can you be? Two Heat wins yes TWO is all the league leaders managed as The Rockets showed they might yet turn the season around to at least a respectable level. A cracking paid maximum from the skipper who went within half a second of the track record Jordan back to form after the Byker nightmare and Nelson at last giving a glimpse of what he can do. To cap it all Heat 4 (now up for viewing at http://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/Sport/Speedway/Beaming-Boxall-sends-Rebels-packing-23052011.htm ) marked the return of Steve Boxall looking as good as when he left with a Championship Medal in 2007. The Boxmeister reeled off 2 more wins and was unlucky to get the rough end of a clash with Cory Gathercole in Heat 13 which robbed him of a perfect comeback.
Time I feel to put whatever went on before Press & Practice Day firmly behind us and move on. Its a long time since I've seen a broader smile in the pits afterwards to say the lad is up for it is a massive understatement. As usual it wasn't all plain sailing with Luke injuring an elbow in a horrible looking crash that took out most of the second bend fence once again Mr Gathercole was involved. Hopefully unlike quite a few 747's at the moment our one will be flying shortly as there's a busy weekend coming.
A Rye House Speedway Blog
Tuesday 24 May 2011
Monday 16 May 2011
KO'd By The Toon
Hmm an interesting night on Saturday to say the least! Plenty of action before the meeting with Uncle Len receiving a decidedly mixed reaction from the terrace when he tried to explain the nature of Jason Doyle's departure. One thing is for sure though, fighting back in public rarely wins any friends. If the arrangement was as stated and nothing else was on then fair enough but in these days of Facebook Twitter etc its important to get that message out to start with and not leave fans days to speculate and make up their own stories. Its a long way from 1971 when you could rely on the fact that Speedway Star and the local paper only came out once a week so you had plenty of time to get your story straight. Now if you decide one night to have a sausage instead of your traditional fish and chips it can be on twitter before the chips have come out of the oil!
A KO'ing by The Toon was fairly predictable after the 39-39 at home which once again saw our reserves let us down. Little Ben is a lovely lad who is polite enough to shake your hand every time you interview him but for his own sake the time has come for him to take time out. It can't do your confidence any good constantly coming away with less than a handful of points and we must have reached the stage that if its allowed to continue he may never achieve what we hope he is capable of. As for Nelson well in the words of Forest Gump "you never know what you're going to get". Unfortunately for the lad though the poor performances are outweighing the promising ones about 4 to 1 at the moment. On Saturday he looked totally bemused when he fell on the first bend and the crowd yelled at him to get off the track as Luke was leading Stuart Robson. On the subject of the 747 he may have his critics but you can't fault the lad for effort and personally I'm glad to see him back in form.
Predictably someone has snapped up Jason Doyle, Newport's gain will almost certainly be our loss, all we can do is wish him good luck and say thanks for getting us out of an almighty hole at the start of the season. Who knows what we'll get from the returning Steve Boxall Sunday's performance looked promising but he'll have to get back to his 2007 form pretty quick to calm down the fans I've not seen an atmosphere like Saturday's since the last days of the Russell Empire!
A KO'ing by The Toon was fairly predictable after the 39-39 at home which once again saw our reserves let us down. Little Ben is a lovely lad who is polite enough to shake your hand every time you interview him but for his own sake the time has come for him to take time out. It can't do your confidence any good constantly coming away with less than a handful of points and we must have reached the stage that if its allowed to continue he may never achieve what we hope he is capable of. As for Nelson well in the words of Forest Gump "you never know what you're going to get". Unfortunately for the lad though the poor performances are outweighing the promising ones about 4 to 1 at the moment. On Saturday he looked totally bemused when he fell on the first bend and the crowd yelled at him to get off the track as Luke was leading Stuart Robson. On the subject of the 747 he may have his critics but you can't fault the lad for effort and personally I'm glad to see him back in form.
Predictably someone has snapped up Jason Doyle, Newport's gain will almost certainly be our loss, all we can do is wish him good luck and say thanks for getting us out of an almighty hole at the start of the season. Who knows what we'll get from the returning Steve Boxall Sunday's performance looked promising but he'll have to get back to his 2007 form pretty quick to calm down the fans I've not seen an atmosphere like Saturday's since the last days of the Russell Empire!
Tuesday 3 May 2011
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
First the good news 4 points from two meetings with Ipswich shouldn't be sniffed at, quite why we had to have two meetings on the same day though escapes me. Didn't make it to Foxhall but heard the crowd was massive but certainly think the attendance at Rye was down on what it would have been on a normal Saturday night. Lets face it who can afford to shell out over £30 on admission money plus petrol plus food etc all in a day.
Now the bad yet another injury to the Rockets answer to Frank Spencer it seems in the words of a wise old blues man who's name I've forgotten "if I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all". Quite how many more injuries Luke can take is anyone's guess but we wish the lad well and hope he's back soon.then to Heat 13 on Monday night and Jason Doyle's dislocated shoulder. Must say he managed to get off the track swiftly in what must have been agony but looking at John Sampford's face in the pits afterwards told the story. Finally we have a top rider who for me was just running into form and suddenly its back to pouring through the averages to try to find a guest. On that note hats off to James Holder who was sunning himself in Poole on Monday afternoon when he got the call from Mr S and unlike some others who'll remain nameless volunteered to drive up and take his guest rides.
Finally the ugly and that had to be Morten Risager's crunching meeting with the fourth bend fence. Commentating on racing is great but there is a real downside when you have to talk through an incident like that, my mind immediately flashed back to a similar one in the late 80's involving Hackney's Andy Galvin. Thankfully Morten walked away with just a finger injury, a pretty severe one I'll admit but it could have been so much worse.
So its off to Berwick and Glasgow with half a team...... wait a minute that's the phone ringing and its John Sampford surely he's not sunk that low down the averages!!
Now the bad yet another injury to the Rockets answer to Frank Spencer it seems in the words of a wise old blues man who's name I've forgotten "if I didn't have bad luck I'd have no luck at all". Quite how many more injuries Luke can take is anyone's guess but we wish the lad well and hope he's back soon.then to Heat 13 on Monday night and Jason Doyle's dislocated shoulder. Must say he managed to get off the track swiftly in what must have been agony but looking at John Sampford's face in the pits afterwards told the story. Finally we have a top rider who for me was just running into form and suddenly its back to pouring through the averages to try to find a guest. On that note hats off to James Holder who was sunning himself in Poole on Monday afternoon when he got the call from Mr S and unlike some others who'll remain nameless volunteered to drive up and take his guest rides.
Finally the ugly and that had to be Morten Risager's crunching meeting with the fourth bend fence. Commentating on racing is great but there is a real downside when you have to talk through an incident like that, my mind immediately flashed back to a similar one in the late 80's involving Hackney's Andy Galvin. Thankfully Morten walked away with just a finger injury, a pretty severe one I'll admit but it could have been so much worse.
So its off to Berwick and Glasgow with half a team...... wait a minute that's the phone ringing and its John Sampford surely he's not sunk that low down the averages!!
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