But look on the bright side; for a few minutes Rune Holta was sharing the lead in the World Championships! From his first outing he looked like a sure fire contender but then it all seemed to go down hill thereafter; I hope that the old should injury, for which he was unable to have an operation over the winter, has not returned to plague him.
The lack of activity at Blunsdon since the Sky meeting a week ago has meant that activity on the Blog has slowed right down. I have just received the latest from Ian Hawkins up at Edinburgh, and will be posting that tomorrow, but here is the first part of a trilogy of pieces that I've written for the Swindon programme about the average day in the life of a trackman. I noticed, on one of the many web forums, that someone had noted "holes appearing on turn 2 and 4 and "wondering what Ronnie and his motley crew" were going to do about it. I am not sure that I want to be referred to as a member of a "motley crew". But I digress. Here is part 1.
A Thursday in the life of … Part 1
One of the reasons for starting up the Blunsdon Blog over 2 years ago was to try to show what goes on behind the scenes at a speedway event. Up until I was seduced, some years ago, by a request on the Swindon web site for volunteers to help out pre season I have spent, on average, one day a week throughout the year up at the track, helping out in whatever ways I can.
So what does a normal Thursday look like for a volunteer up at The Abbey? I try to get to the track sometime between 8.30 and 9am. Gerald Richter and Rod Ford (aka Punch) tend to get there earlier than that but my excuse is that I’ve got much farther to come.
By 9am the daily team has formed, made up of Gerald, Punch, Ronnie, Adam, Arron, Roy, Bob and Mark.
The first task is to get the air fence up so that it can be cleaned and readied. Bob Crowther takes out the air pumps, sets them up around the edge of the greyhound track and fires them up. As the fences rise we have to draw the blue catch netting up and hook it over the top of the wire fence. This will stop any dirt being blasted onto the greyhound track while we wash the fence.
When Mick Richards from Swindon Prtessure Cleaning Limited appears we bring out the water carrier onto the track and he and Roy Hicks begin to pressure wash the fence. Gerald, Punch and Ronnie work on the track while the rest of us collect the banners from the back of the pits and lay them out on the centre green so they can be washed.
Brian Cox arrives to put up the A frame advertisements on the centre green and then cleans the electronic scoreboard.
With the washing well underway, we now have to hook the back of the air fence panels up to the wire safety fence. This pulls the air fence up and secures it. Each panel is secured in three different places along its length at the top and a further 3 places at the bottom.
Carfeully avoiding the tractors and machinery out on the track, we move the wooden structures that support the greyhound starting gates away from the track and place them on the dog track. The safety fence inserts are then put securely in place and all the kickboards organised.
It’s at this time that I normally start the petrol run. Legislation means that we can only carry one large can of petrol in a vehicle at any one time, and since we get through two and a half each Thursday, I have to make several trips to Asda, or wherever the cheapest fuel is to be found. On my return we top up all of the equipment including : all the air pumps; the generator that later will power the lights in the car park; the pressure washer; a water pump; the lawn mower; the blue pick up truck; and the Robins van used on the parade lap.
Much of the work is dependent upon the weather; if it rains then we have to adjust our timetable to take account of it; if it’s blowing a gale, as it did last Thursday, we may have the task of chasing flying banners around the stadium as they are wafted around on the breeze.
Stan Potter, Start Marshall extraordinaire, arrives to set up the tapes and to mark out a white line 4 metres in from the main white line. All personnel on the centre green must be inside this line while the meeting is in action.
Another volunteer, Shriely Jessen, begins the job of sweeping all the sand out of the pits and generally tidying up the pit area while Karen Pantry (aka Flo arrives to begin work in the Treatment Room and, hopefully, ply us with some of her wonderful home made fruit cake.
It’s lunch time so we repair back to the Track Staff Room, affectionately referred to as Number 96, but that’s another story! 4 hours down and only 10 to go, but that’s another story as well.
