PROGRESS!

First up, I went to Ashfield last night…………..

Well, I came away numb – when the sun set over Saracen Street it got very chilly indeed.

But otherwise it was a nice feeling to have collected 40 points and dropped the Series bonus point by only 92-88, at a place we scored just 32 and 27 points on our two visits last season. Progress!

Could we have done better? Maybes aye – Rory’s Heat 10 defeat by the two-minute clock when he was taking two races in succession may well have cost us the race point that would have taken the tie to a Super Heat for the bonus – but maybes naw, the Tigs had Claus Vissing in as a 13-point guest, and his presence made all the difference, nowt we could do about it.

No complaints, then – and reasons to be cheerful? Plenty of them.

Drew Kemp showed us why Stewart Dickson has hired him, and Bastian Borke (while still our worst gater by a margin) battled through the pain barrier to collect scalp after scalp from the back. Only by his fifth outing did his injury from a week back (indeed, a weak back!) overtake his enthusiasm. A fit Bastian might have been able to take a couple more rides – the lad we saw hobbling in the pits last night certainly couldn’t.

Our guest Sedgy, pipped on the line in Heat one by Bomber, scored in each outing thereafter – including an impressive revenge on Mr Harris in Heat 13 – and may or may not have achieved what Lewi Kerr would. We just don’t know.

Jye was solid until he blanked in the re-run of Heat 13 (against Bomber and Worrall) after a hefty thump onto the shale in the first attempt. Given his luck with first-bend thumps recently, he was doubtless pleasantly surprised to be allowed the second chance………..

Danyon won Heat 14 to keep the meeting alive and set up the last-heat decider – and all this added to my sense of wellbeing, however chilly the night, as I departed Ashfield.

This year folks, we have a seven-man squad, all of whom can win races for us. We surrendered that first bonus point (indeed, the away win) to the reigning Championship champions, who were augmented by a very productive guest, but we gave them a very fair fight. No complaints.

Moving on, with a blank Saturday at Shiefield I took myself down to Northside for this afternoon’s entertainment.

Liked it. Track surface is better than last season, Steve’s got some muscle into the dirt now and there was passing a-plenty as Redcar (have they been sooking our unlucky sweeties?) had a go at the Comics, who looked pretty good, apart from Claus Vissing, who was poor value for his four points, and in no way resembled last night’s Tiger.

Grrrrr…… Or Hmmmmm……

It was a lovely afternoon in the sunshine, with main match and a six-heat NJL affair done and dusted (except there wasn’t any) in two hours.

I used to hate Derwent Park, but I really like Northside. Just saying……..

Next up, we’ve got a VERY big weekend double – at Armadale on Friday night to conclude out BSN campaign and then back home against Scunny, the team that are swiftly becoming a lot of folks’ title favourite, in the KO Cup.

By this time next week, we’ll know a lot more about how our season might be going to go – and we won’t even have raced a league match yet.

Funny old game, innit?

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Want to disagree with Dick (as so many do)? He is always happy to hear from interesting people on dick@crystalfm.co.uk