Despite the decidedly damp atmosphere at Blunsdon this Saturday, the extended work team met, but more of that later.

Important announcement for all prospective track staff.

The vital pre-season Staff Meeting will be held in the Paddock Bar at the Abbey Stadium at 7.30pm on Wednesday 13th February. Attendance is important for anyone wishing to work at the stadium on race days and race nights. All the necessary paperwork will be completed on the night and Passes will be issued on the day of the first meeting of the season.

Those attending should enter the stadium via the Pits Entrance and park in the Pits car park - if you try to enter through the main entrance you will be charged an entry fee for the greyhound meeting!

If anyone is unable to attend, but would like to be considered, please could they email me as quickly as possible.

Back at the track we were joined by Mark Price, Mick Hunt, Dave Whiting, Brian Cox and Bob Crowther.

While Brian set about the Cistene Chapel inside the changing rooms and Bob tried to breath his own special brand of magic over the rather ancient air pumps, the rest took up their paint rollers and applied liberal amounts of the white stuff to the walls of the home and away pits.

It was good to see Da Vinci Dave demonstrating his style with the the paint roller and, within a matter of two hours, both home and away pits had been sharpened up with a new coat of dazzlingly white masonry paint.

Swindon has often been criticised by away teams and promotions for the paucity of pit provision for the away team. Let them know that we take their comments very seriously - so much so that we have expanded the available space for away team riders 6 and 7. A staggering extra 50 square feet of space has been made available. And how do we achieve this staggering feat? Well, the wet stuff had leaked through the roofing panels and had soaked the ceiling panel, part of which had fallen down. My task was to pull down the rest, in doing so creating the extra space. As the rain sodden plaster board fell away so did the strip lighting fitting that illuminated the area.

Gerald thought the dangling lighting unit posed no real hazard and removed the tube. I was less certain and certainly less certain when, five minutes later, there was a distinct explosion behind me and cries from Brian in the changing rooms that the lights had all gone out.

The track has taken a real pasting from the recent rain but is in a surprisingly good state. Yes, there are areas of Somme like slime, and Lake Russell has re-appeared on turn 1, but the drains are working and the surface water is much less than we expected.