Speedway

SGB Championship

Sunday 28th May 2017

18.30 Start

Newcastle Diamonds 46 Scunthorpe Scorpions 44, attendance 400 est.

Diamonds :

Robert Lambert 14 pts

Ashley Morris 5 + 1

Lewis Rose 6 + 2

Ludvig Lindgren 7

Steve Worral 9

Ben Hopwood 5 + 2

Connor Coles 0

Scorpions :

Michael Palm Toft 12 pts

Carl Wilkinson 4 + 1

Lewis Kerr 16

Ryan Douglas 0

Josh Auty – Rider Replacement

Tero Aarnio 10 + 1

Jack Parkinson-Blackburn (guest) 2 + 1

@ Brough Park

Fossway

Byker

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE6 2XJ

£16 Admission

£2-50 Programme, 28 pages

£1 Car Park.

This was the first speedway meeting I have attended for around 24 years.  The result was in the balance right through the meeting, helped by the fact that three ex-Diamonds were riding for Scunthorpe, the pick being Lewis Kerr, who top scored with 16 points.

Newcastle took the first heat 4-2, but Scunthorpe took the next by the same score. Heat 5 went 4-2 in favour of the visitors, which put them ahead 14-16. Heat 10 finally saw Newcastle edge ahead 31-29, courtesy of a 5-1 from Lambert and Morris, but level again at 36-36 after heat 12. Newcastle took the next two heats by 4-2, giving them a 44-40 lead going into the final heat, leaving Scunthorpe needing a 5-1 to get the draw, but they were denied by Robert Lambert, who managed the all important second place, his only defeat from his five rides.

Brough Park first hosted Speedway in 1929, having hosted Greyhound racing a year earlier and Rugby League has also taken place here. Having closed in 1930, it was reopened in 1938, but had to close again due to WW2, re-opening in 1946, where huge crowds were reported, some as high as 20,000 !

Admission is available on-line, for £1 reduction, but Speedway is not the best sport for booking advance tickets, as it is so reliant on favourable weather conditions.

Rugby Football League

Championship

Sunday 21st May 2017

Kick Off 15.00  Actual 15.02

Oldham 28 Batley Bulldogs 48,  attendance 578

@ Manchester Regional Athletics Arena

Rowsley Street

Manchester

M11 3FF

£17 Admission

£2-50p Programme, 24 pages.

Oldham normally play their home matches at Bower Fold, home of Stalybridge Celtic F.C. Due to the pitch being re-seeded, they had switched this game to the Manchester Regional Athletics Arena, which has an all seated capacity of 6,500. I had previously been here for football, seeing Manchester City Reserves v Everton Reserves on 26th October 2004.

Oldham were up 10-4, before being pegged back to 10-10, then led 22-10, but were once again pegged back to go in level at halftime 22-22. Batley were well in control and after the 12 unanswered points at the end of the first half, they put on another 26 points without reply to comfortably lead 22-48. Having had a player red carded, they were finally breached as Oldham converted a last minute try.

So, this is now the seventh venue I have seen Oldham use to stage their home matches……Watersheddings, Ewen Fields (Hyde United F.C.), Boundary Park (Oldham Athletic F.C.), Surrey Street (Ashton United F.C.), Bloomfield Road (Blackpool F.C.) and Whitebank Stadium being the previous ones. Oddly, it is the third time that Batley were the visitors as they were the opposition for the games at Surrey Street and Bloomfield Road.

 

Rugby Football League

League 1

Sunday 5th March 2017

Kick Off 14.00 Actual 14.02

Oxford 40 Hemel Stags 12,  attendance 100

@ Tilsley Park

Dunmore Road

Abingdon

OX14 1PU

?? Admission

Programme, only available as a download. Printed off as 26 pages, A4 size.

My first rugby league game of the season and where better to start than a battle between two hotbeds of the game…..Oxford and Hemel Hempstead !

I had already noted from the Oxford RL website that there would be no programme today, although it was available as a download, which defeats the object really. Arriving at the ground I was charged £3 to park my car. I then went round to the far side of the stadium to take a few photos, before taking my place in the stand. No evidence of any admission being charged and no one came round to collect any money, which seems odd at this level. Perhaps with such a poor crowd, they didn’t bother ? I don’t think there was even one away supporter here, which again was odd, as this is one of their nearest games. Is there really any point in these teams trying to take rugby league from the traditional northern heartland.

Despite plenty of rain, there was going to be no problem concerning the pitch, as it is 3G. It doesn’t look right when all the kits are still in pristine condition, rather than muddied up as the tackles go in.

Hemel both opened and closed the scoring today, but were woeful in between, as Oxford ran in 40 unanswered points. It was 24-6 at halftime and it took 19 minutes of the second half before they added to it.

Stockyards Championship Rodeo

Friday 1st April 2016

Start time 20.00

@ Cowtown Coliseum

121, East Exchange Avenue

Fort Worth, TX 76164

$17.50 admission

$3 Programme , 30 pages, plus schedule insert.

The Stockyards Championship Rodeo is held every week on Friday and Saturday evenings. It is not something I would watch regularly, but as a one off nights entertainment it was worth the trip.

The Cowtown Coliseum was built in 1908 and is part of the Fort Worth Stockyards. It was the first ever indoor arena to host rodeos in the U.S.A. It was refurbished in 1986 and has seating for 3,418, which all seemed to be sold tonight.

Formula 1 United States  Grand Prix

Sunday 25th October 2015

Race start time 14.00

@ Circuit of the Americas

9201 Circuit of the Americas Boulevard

Austin, TX 78617

$99 admission

Programme, yes, but didn’t bother at rip off price !

Car park had been booked, right next to our chosen corner for viewing the race, at an astronomical $75. However, a text message was received the evening before saying that the car park would not be open due to the rain of the last 2 days and we were to exchange our voucher for a shuttle bus journey from Austin city centre to the track, which was adding a couple of hours on the journey at each end. If that wasn’t bad enough, this option was a lot cheaper than we had paid, so a very expensive alternative. Despite e-mail correspondence this matter has never been resolved and just to really rub salt into the wounds, we arrived to find them using the car park we had booked as a $25 cash option on the day !

I had been brought up as a Rally fan, during the great days of the Audi Quattro, Peugeot 205 T16, Lancia Delta S4 et al so it seemed strange to be watching so called super cars driving past at speeds of 200 mph and thinking I could hear the next door neighbour mowing his lawn  or my wife drying her hair !

This is certainly a sport far better viewed from the comfort of your own home and without the feel of being ripped off at every opportunity they can.

The F1 race was preceded by the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup race and the Masters Historic Race, both of which featured proper sounding engines, but as the rain only stopped 5 minutes ahead of the F1 sadly this meant the drivers in these races weren’t  able to push their cars to the limits.

As for the race……..a win for Lewis Hamilton saw him crowned as World Champion.

1. Lewis Hamilton….Mercedes

2. Nico Rosberg………Mercedes

3. Sebastien Vettel……Ferrari

4. Max Verstappen….Toro Rosso

5. Sergio Perez……Force India

6. Jenson Button…..McLaren

7. Carlos Sainz…….Toro Rosso

8. Pastor Maldonado…..Lotus

9. Felipe Nasr……Sauber

10. Daniel Ricciardo…….Red Bull Racing

The entertainment after the race was a concert by Elton John. Now, I am a fan of Elton and know a fair bit of his stuff, but when he started off with 6 of the first 7 songs unknown to me, then it was time to call it a day. Unfortunately everyone else seemed to have the same idea which meant a huge queue to get a bus back to Austin and pick up the car. We reached the car 3 hours later……..the same time as we could have driven the 200 miles back home from the car park we had originally booked !

Safe to say F1, this first time attendee at one of your events will not be returning for more.