Reading v Sheffield 12-05-08

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Reading withouth their two regular reserves again tonight.

Danny Warwick out for at least another month with a fractured shoulder and Jamie Smith also ruled out of tonights meeting following his crash in ht2 last monday where it's recently been discovered he sustained a hairline fracture of the skull.

Racers

1. Mark Lemon (Captain, 7.69)
2. Chris Mills (4.96)
3. Ulrich Ostergaard (11.07)
4. Tomas Suchanek (5.67)
5. Tom P. Madsen (6.33)
6. Nicki Glanz (Guest, 3.19)
7. Joe Haines (Guest, 3.95)

Sheffield

1. Ricky Ashworth (8.30)
2. Joel Parsons (6.96)
3. Andre Compton (Captain, 9.52)
4. Lee Smethills (5.38)
5. Ben Wilson (6.67)
6. Sam Martin (3.00)
7. Paul Cooper (5.00)

Should be a fairly close meeting, think Reading's top 2 won't be troubled too much by the Tigers heat leaders (unless Compton decides to dive up the inside & turn right as seen before at Smallmead)

Parsons has ridden Smallmead a number of times but think Millsy will have the measure of him tonight.

Fully expect to be out gunned at No.4. The mighty s000sh will probably make his obligatory gate in one ride and win a heat but expect zero's or the odd point other wise.

Top P finding a bit more consistancy at the moment & should be able to more than match his counterpart.

The reserves could go either way. We know Glanzy & Haines are young & enthusiastic and won't let us down through lack of effort - can't ask anymore than that from them.

Prediction Reading 50 - Sheffield 44

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I should make predictions more often Reading 60 Sheffield 33.

Good performances from all the Racers, even the mighty S000sh scoring points from the back and gutsy displays from our two young reserve guests.

Track very dusty after 6 or so heats, couldn't see riders once they had entered the bends until they came out to the straights, although weirdly enough when you could see it the track produced good racing lines on the inside & outside.

Big win for the Racers and all 7 escaping a fencing from Compton.

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Is there a water shortage down there then?

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No water shortage ML and unfortunately no fire brigade to come to our rescue this time either. We've just been blessed with wall to wall sunshine for the past week.

Wellie apologised over the PA last night about the amount of dust. Dougie & staff had dumped 4 tanker loads of water on the track during the afternoon and continued to water it during the meeting, the try track didn't detract from some good racing though, and it was quite entertaining especially during the races Compton was in waiting to see just how many riders would come out of the bends on each lap. ;D

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Dougie & staff had dumped 4 tanker loads of water on the track

Does that include the 1 tanker load of water that was dumped on turn 3 when the hose broke after heat 3?

Pip

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made the bend more "interesting" Pip, and it was after that we nearly saw Suchanek inadvertantly wipe out Compton on the very same bend.

We've had dust in previous seasons, but I've honestly not seen it that bad for years, yet the racing didn't seem to suffer because of it.