Well, that was quite some win at Workington, don’t you think?
Not often I’ve gone to the huge Derwent Park bowl and won. Don’t think Ipswich have the greatest of records there either.
But what a win it was and everyone played their part and we have as good as got ourselves a place in the play-offs because of it.
It was the end to a busy three days for us all, but seven points picked up home and away against Workington and it was a happy, if long, journey home back to Suffolk on Saturday night for me and Ritchie Hawkins – more on our weekend away later on.
Before our win in Cumbria, we had taken three points off the Comets at Foxhall last Thursday.
What a great crowd there was in.
And I thought some of the racing was top drawer and really exciting.
Chris Harris was a good guest for the Comets but it was a better result for us, another home win and we headed off to Edinburgh in good heart on Friday morning.
It’s always a long trek to Edinburgh and it was disappointing to arrive at the track and see it had been raining steadily.
Personally, I think the meeting should have been called off before we all set off up the A1. But Edinburgh obviously thought it would go ahead, so that was up to them.
As I said, the track was wet, but seeing as we had come all this way and didn’t fancy coming back for a one-off fixture later in the season, we all agreed to give it a go.
As the track dried, all the riders, us and Edinburgh could see the track required work on both the starting grid, which was like mush! And the entrance to the first bend, which for some reason had loads of material on it.
Both myself and Ricky Wells, the Edinburgh captain asked for the starts to be sorted and the track bladed to get as much of the material off the first bend as possible.
With all that seemingly in hand, we went off to get changed and came back to find little had been done.
Again we spoke to the officials and said just blade the track a bit and we are ready, but it didn’t happen and the referee came down to speak to us and called it off.
It was a shame because there were people in the stadium, including Ipswich fans, and although the meeting would not have been a classic, it would have been another fixture ticked off – now we do have to go back for another go.
With the Edinburgh meeting off, we headed off to Livingston, where Chris Louis had sorted us out a nice little place to stay with a nice restaurant, Tony Macaroni was the name of the restaurant and it was one of the best Chinese restaurants I’ve eaten in... Only kidding, of course it was an Italian and it was superb.
If you are ever up Livingston way, I can thoroughly recommend it.
Anyhow, we all had a great laugh, a really relaxed evening and one that was very much needed after some strained weeks with the saga of the team change chaos still having been about.
We missed Justin Sedgmen of course, who had to pull out of our meeting against the Comets on Thursday night and didn’t travel to Scotland. It’s a shame because he is key to us and here’s hoping he gets his shoulder sorted sooner rather than later.
The next morning we headed back into England and off to Workington.
If you have never been to Derwent Park, it is a big track, sort of square because it goes round a rugby pitch.
We won by 12 points and were excellent, even if I say so myself.
All the riders contributed, which was just as well for Cameron Heeps because he gave the boss, Chris Louis, a lift for the weekend. Can you imagine how quiet that van would have been if we had been thrashed at Workington and Heepsy got two points!
Thankfully we weren’t and Heepsy didn’t, so it was, I’m sure, a happy van trip home.
While on the subject of our win at Workington, we were all so happy for young Connor Mountain when he crossed the line to win heat 14 and seal us the four point victory.
As you know, Connor was caught up in our team changing saga, but he has just shrugged it off and got on with his racing.
I think he is a terrific young rider with great character and a great attitude. I noticed he rattled off 15 points for Mildenhall on Sunday too – top lad. He and Nathan Greaves have been terrific for us.
Tomorrow night then, it’s Peterborough at Foxhall. See you there.
Don’t forget if you want an autograph, just ask!
AS TOLD TO MIKE BACON
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