"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness," wrote John Keats in his magnificent "Ode to Autumn" of 1819 and so it was on Thursday. A day that started with headlights on to cut through the fog and mist on the way to the track, past trees with leaves turning colour and on to a quiet day at the track under the most brilliant of blue skies.
The season may be reaching its climax, and the weather conditions (distinctly autumnal as I leave Malmesbury) fresh but today is another blank day at Blunsdon as far as racing is concerned. Our tasks for today are to get as much of the preparation for next Monday complete as possible. On Monday we host the second leg of the Elite League Play Off Semi Final in front of the Sky cameras against Coventry and, it being a Monday and there being a greyhound meeting in the morning, we will have little time to do anything than get the fences up and the track readied.
Our first task this morning on a wonderfully cool yet bright day is to thoroughly wet down the track so that when we add new material and a top dressing the necessary binding together of the material can begin.
It falls to Roy to bring the tractor and the Mowlex water cart out onto the track. His problems become manifest as he climbs up the ramp out of the pits and then plunges down the banking of the track. While he can manage the sudden "ups and downs" on his sprung seat, sadly several hundred gallons of water are rushing up and down in the Mowlex. As he applies the brakes this body of water hurtles down to the front end of the Mowlex and bursts upwards through the filling vent. A geyser like column of water rises into the air and then descends upon the Mowlex, tractor and the track. We've all had this happen to us. Once the water starts moving backwards and forwards it is almost impossible to stop. Cue laughter and much good natured banter.
While Ron uses a hose pipe from the back of the Mowlex to water the track down, especially on the corners, where we will need new material to bind in most effectively, Arron and I pull out the rubber kickboards and prepare the banners for washing. It's a skeleton crew today but we all know what has to be done and the and just get on with it.
With banners spread and Mick Richards already washing them, I wander off to inspect some interesting damage.
On the centre green is the result of the conflagration that was the firework from last week. Some time after the fans had departed the stadium, the hitherto dormant firework, burst into flames. Given that half an hour before it had unleashed several hundred rockets into the air and probably still housed some explosive material, none of us fancied approaching it. Yet, as we stood at pit gate, the fire became more intense and a hero sprung to our assistance. Unafraid of the consequences he ventured forth with fire extinguisher in hand, approached the inferno (well, little fire) and, in a cloud of extinguisher foam, doused the conflagration and saved the day. Step forward Michael Hunt, Clerk of the Course and our Hero!
The remains of the fire are still on the centre green. Not far away are the remains of two of my new kickboards. I will say no more about this other than that start marshall Stan Potter employed some crafty woodworking skills to salvage as much undamaged boarding as possible and re-used a section of one board to replace a damaged short board over by the starting gate. Still, these boards will have to be replaced and the only ones I have at my disposal are four partially painted boards stored in the pits.
My next job is clear; the boards must be finished, allowed to dry in the sunshine and then used to fill the gaping hole on the back straight.
Whilst the others carry on with cleaning and top dressing, I finish off the painting, stand the newly primed and glossed boards in the pits to dry and then prepare for my next job. Reports came to me last week that one of the falls on turn 2 had resulted in some damage to an air fence panel. I try to locate any problems but find no obvious ones. I do know for a fact that when Travis went down last week and clattered into the air fence on turn 3 that a significant tear was made at the bottom of a panel. At the time I was able to fold the edges over and use the weight of the air bag to keep the air loss to a minimum, turning up the air pumps to even out the pressure along the length of that section.
On closer inspection, the damage is even greater than I had thought. We already have one panel back at Gavin's for repair, another waiting to go and only three spares back in the pits so I am anxious to get this one repaired rather than have to take it out completely. If everything goes to plan we should have a maximum of only 3 more meetings to prepare for at Blunsdon this season (Play off semi final and, hopefully, final and a junior fixture of some sort) so if I can get the fence repaired we should be OK. Rumours of a new fence for next year abound so any repairs I make now may only be necessary for two more weeks of use.
The seam has split open on a small part of the bag at the front. This piece was added a couple of years ago to the basic design to force the front of the air bag upwards and stop it from sagging but it's not a vital component. If the stitching had merely come un done then the repair would have been quite straightforward but sadly, whilst some has come undone, the bag itself has ripped. After some consideration I determine to cut the front section away and seal either end of the tear. Residual pressure in the bag will still inflate the two ends - it simply means that air will not travel the length of the section. First task is to clean the edges and then tidy up the tear. Once this is done I apply some contact adhesive to the two sides, wait for the glue to "go off" and then force them together. In order to prevent further tearing I then use cable ties to add greater strength to the join before covering the work over with a patch.
And then I find another hole ... and have to repeat the process. Let's hope it all stays together on Monday!
The last task is to replace the damaged wooden kickboards and replace a couple more of the old ones with the newly painted boards.
By 4.30pm it's time to head home. It's been a good day but it's just the start. With Sky and, I've just been informed, BBC Points West in attendance it will be a lively day on Monday.
