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WHERE'S VESPRINI?: EVERY SILVER LINING HAS A CLOUD
Thursday May 08, 2014
Watching the World Champion in town and the revival against the Panthers should have made for a happy week.......
In a certain respect it did, Tai winning the British semi ‘with a cigar on’ as a subsequently disgraced former football manager used to say. Apart from a couple of laps behind Carl Wilkinson it was a bit of a speedway masterclass from the lad who once told me “ my Dad said I’d demolish every fence in the league in my first season and he wasn’t far wrong.†Good news for Stevie B and Young Norman who made it through to Monmore even if Steve did raise the blood pressure a notch by overtaking Ritchie Worrall on the final bend of Heat 20 when he’d already qualified. Speaking to him afterwards he admitted he had no idea he’d booked his place and thought he had to win to have any chance. Young Norman was also a happy bunny his early season machinery woes seemingly behind him and a drop to reserve promising plenty of points. The other highlight of the night was the return of Webby’s Union Jack shirt the only disappointment was he didn’t have the trousers to match although we did suspect that they were actually being used for the tablecloth on the centre green.
Must say the taming of the Panthers was very welcome although a bigger winning margin would have been nice. Strangely we did become the only team to beat them in the League Cup group unfortunately what happened between the two victories was the problem! One thing that joined the two meetings was the matter of helmets and tapes, those in the know tell me the new rule is you won’t be excluded if your helmet hits the tapes rather than the bike. Fair enough but on Wednesday Leigh Lanham found himself in that position and back in the race on Sunday the 747 did an action replay and got excluded? There’s nothing like consistency and that was nothing…….
So all in all a good few days until I heard the sad news that former Rocket Trevor O’Briern had passed away. For anyone who soldiered on through the dark days of the late 80’s and early 90’s young Trevor was one good reason for turning up every week. He wasn’t the quickest, he wasn’t the most skillful he had his fair share of spills but I don’t think you’d find anyone with more determination. He leaves a lot of good memories but you can’t help but feel sad when you see he was only 47 and still involved in the sport down under. RIP Trevor.
This weekend brings cup action to Hoddesdon as we look to go one better than last year. The pairing with Glasgow was certainly not welcomed with anything but a scowl by Team Manager John, nothing against our Scottish friends as I’m sure they feel the same about the 760 mile round trip between the two tracks. As I’m writing this the weather forecast is calling the animals in two by two so it could be a tough weekend for everyone.
Up The Rockets!
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