Ian sent this through to me at the start of last week before the trip to Lakeside, so it's a bit late. References to being sodden apply to the thorough soaking that we got when the recent Eastbourne match was washed out at Swindon. The "Eastbourne Death Race" refers to the televised carnage that was Eastbourne v Swindon.
Graham
Having just read your latest blog I can fully sympathise with you. After the horrors of Eastbourne's Death Race 2009 on Monday We all needed a pick-me-up other than our Cam's (former Edinburgh track staff) sensational heat 15 win. Wednesday dawned bright and breezy so off we set on a massive fence cleaning and power washing session after Friday's mudbath. It took 3 of us and latterly 4 to complete the job in a little under 4 hours. Surprisingly the track had dried out in fact it is a long time since I had seen it so dusty with as Doc described it "knackered shale".
We then went on to spruce up the pits a bit. Some of the wooden roof supports had rotted just above ground level so after propping up the roof metal reinforcing plates were bolted through the good part of the supports which did the job a treat and literally raised the roof (ouch)
Following on we then attempted to alleviate a severe flooding problem in the away section of the pits caused both by rain blowing in, which we cannot do much about and by water seeping through from a very wet area on the other side of the pits wall. We tried to cure the problem by lifting the old fence boards which form the floor surface and adding a layer of shale to the floor - not for us the luxury of concrete - and relaying and levelling the boards. Only time and more rain will tell if this is successful although it did look much better.
Friday dawned dull and drizzly but with a very poor forecast, After our normal fence building and some minor repairs we were all set to go, During the afternoon the main bearing on the wonderwheel gave up the ghost so it was all hands to removing the old one, cleaning out its housing and refitting and regreasing the new bearing to allow Doc to carry on whisking up the track surface.
However about 4.30 p.m. it started to rain which increased until the meeting was called off about 5.20. Unfortunately we it had been decided to lay the covers on the greyhound track early. So it was that Graeme and Gordon Campbell, myself and Doc were left to lift the sodden things, all other track staff having sensibly not appeared or disappeared. I was congratulating myself on remaining reasonably dry until I sat on a very moist tractor seat. It was still very gratifying when our Promoter John Campbell thanked us for our efforts afterwards.
I can therefore echo your soaked drive home through large puddles with the heater on full blast.
