Chronicles of the Berkshire Pig: Round Robins

ELITE LEAGUE PLAY-OFFS S/F 2nd leg

SWINDON 43: Nick Morris 11, Grzegorz Zengota 9+1, Charles Wright 8+2, Aaron Summers 7+1, Peter Kildemand 5, Lewis Rose 3, Troy Batchelor 0.

BELLE VUE 47: Scott Nicholls 12, Andreas Jonsson 8, Josh Grajczonek 7+3, Max Fricke 7, Craig Cook 6+1, Steve Worrall 6+1, Stefan Nielsen 1+1.

Belle Vue win 97-79 on aggregate

The elite league semi final second leg. Swindon were utter shite in the first leg so it was a good chance this would be the last ever competitive meeting at Blunsdon as Swindon are vacating it for a much promised but not yet even started new track.

I was accompanied by the human handbrake, Mad Dai, which meant we were late for the direct bus and had to get the one that terminates in a nearby housing estate. The bad news is that since I last used this bus in May, the amble across a field has been disturbed by it becoming a building site.

This meant a detour by a country lane which is not your average entrance to a speedway track.

But we soon reached the soon to be theatre of three stroke dreams in the sky.

The welcoming entrance. That is unless you are a learner driver or a lorry looking to turn.

The grounds primary role is for Greyhound racing…

….with the speedway relegated somewhat below.

The track hasn’t changed in the thirty years I can remember it. Grass banks on two sides, with a cover on one of them down the side, then a large seated stand on the other side and the pits at the far end.

As there was no cider in the cover, we headed over to the paddock infront of the main stand. It was a moderate turnout due to it being on sky and also Swindon being 14 points down from the first leg.

Swindon have dropped off since the Darcy Ward injury, and most of the effort tonight seemed to go into various collections and speeches on his behalf. Belle Vue had Matej Zagar out with injury, but the replacement was Andreas Jonsson who started strongly and Swindon never looked like making up the points difference.

Perhaps the highlight was seeing this posh thing give up the ghost…

…..so this old thing was coaxed into life.

The meet was being broadcast join with the other semi, doing alternate heats. However, they kept crashing at Poole, which meant there were massive delays between our races. We wanted to wait until the last ride but this was further delayed, when, just as you think Sky couldn’t be bigger cunts, they delayed the final heat so they could do interviews with the riders as their programme was ending.

Some time around 2230 the tape went up for the last race…

…which saw Swindon’s Grzegorz Zengota taking the win.

So one last look at the Abbey.

We had been promised a ‘special surprise’ after the last heat, but unless it was the head of zero point scoring captain Troy Batchelor, I couldn’t be arsed to stay for it.