When my two kids were much younger we used to take them to Weston Super Mare for a day on the beach. You could park your car on the sand and then spend the day walking to and from the sea - at times it is that far away. Some say there is more sand on the beach at Weston than anywhere other than the Sahara. Not so. We have our very own Weston here at Blunsdon.
Thursday morning and it's just three of us, Gerald, Punch and me. Roy is ill and wont be able to make it. The weather is horrid - cold and wet. I've been listening to the Blog's favourite broadcaster / reporter Chris Seaward's excellent commentaries on the Aussie Championships - all sunshine and blue skies. Not here at Blunsdon.
Gerald has decided that we need to get as much of the creeping sand off the shale as possible before it works its way into the surface and breaks the binding qualities that we strive for. It's amazing to witness the sheer volume of sand that has been washed off the greyhound track onto the speedway surface. But it's not just the sand, it's the little rivulets of rain water that run across the track and carve through the surface that we must guard against. Unless these are filled and packed very carefully they will prove to be weak points come the season.
We also felt that the track was sufficiently soft to get the big blade out and start to relay the track. But the sand had to go before the blade came out - it's one thing having sand on the surface where you can see it and treat it ; it's another thing having the damned stuff buried under the surface!
And so we dug and dug. The sand castle above was the result of sand creep from one of the gates where the greyhound starting gates protrude onto the speedway track.
With some very welcome help from Clerk of the Course, Mick Hunt, Punch and I managed to get the errant sand into the JCB's bucket while Gerald tried to coax some life from the hitherto dormant motorway blade.
We added three large bucket loads of a heavily clayed shale to the main straight while Gerald worked the blade up and down and then packed in the material with the blade's vast wheels. We chose the clay based material because we want it to bed down really hard, allowing us to add a lighter shale closer to the start of the season.
The area near the starting gates at Swindon is much smoother this year. Regular readers will know that the introduction of midget cars in the 1960s resulted in the laying of a huge concrete slab under the starting area at Blundson. Presumably this stopped the cars' rear wheels digging down too deeply into the shale and beaching themselves. Sadly this concrete slab has moved in recent years, dropping just beyond the start gates but rising just before them. This hump has been difficult to deal with. If we blade down too much we reveal the concrete before the gates and it we leave that area covered with shale we risk have shale so deep beyond the starting gates that machines will "bottom out" as the wheels sink in. We are hoping that this clay based shale will fill the abyss successfully and provide a rock hard base quickly.
Ever a man with an eye for fashion, Gerald demonstrates his new hat, a stylish little number that is apparently both water proof and comfortable.
We are now working on the track on both Thursdays and Saturday mornings and I have to admit that I set out to drive the 15 or so miles to the track with a little apprehension after the torrential rain and snow that had dogged the area on Friday night. The first "water splash" was just out of Malmesbury but it got worse as I approached Cricklade.
Trying to cross the main road between Purton and Cricklade was problematical - I couldn't see the road at all. As can be seen, the water was right up to the bottom of a large 4 by 4. I didn't even want to think what it would be like around my little, trusty diesel Peugeot 205!
Having kept on the road, more by luck than judgment, the next challenge was to cope with the combination of a brilliant low sun and the reflective qualities of the surrounding water.
Certainly the track was wet when I arrived, and Blunsdon's own version of the Grand Canyon was in evidence on the back straight.
The task for the morning was to clear the mounds of sand and shale that had built up between the greyhound track and the speedway safety fence. With turns 3 and 4 already complete, we set to turn 2.
Under a brilliantly bright sky we worked as a team and it was good to see some of the lads back again at the track. Big Al, he of the Da Vinci boys, sported a dashing orange hoodie, whilst new boy, Mark Price was more content with a blue hoodie and jeans.
Mark, who hails from Chippenham, came along last Saturday, and was sufficiently moved to come along again this week. It's a breath of fresh air when someone new comes along and declares that they enjoyed themselves so much that they want to carry on. Just one extra pair of hands make so much difference and, by the end of the morning, we were able to stand back and admire all of the material that we had shifted.
Mark worked alongside the ever youthful Punch, who once again, demonstrated the subtle art of wielding a long handled shovel with considerable elan.
The working party was completed by Dave (Da Vinci) Whiting and Big Al's daughter, the delightful Sophie, who offered encouragement when we were flagging and made a wicked cup of coffee when we needed it.
Roy Hicks put in a cameo appearance - he's still not well enough to come back to work but certainly better than the deathly visage that he displayed when I saw him last week.
A great morning's work was made even better when we heard that we are being given some lino for the floor at number 96 together with a new television.
Luxury!
Finally, we must congratulate honorary Blunsdon Blogger Chris Seaward who commentated so excellently on the recent Australian Speedway Championships. Well done, Chris! Great job.
