More speedway-related ramblings for your edification. Wednesday 3rd June was another mainly painting day with rain threatening as usual! However it did not come to pass so we are a step further on our fence board painting task. We also put up a sheet of corrugated iron between the rear of the referee's box and the video box to try to prevent further stone throwing at the windows.
Friday was dry - again the visitors being the Rockets of Rye House with their new young star signing at reserve - Andrew Silver and welcome guest Mark Lemon who assisted us so well last season. Monarchs also had Jason Lyons guesting for the Fish who was away GP qualifying.
During the day we had more problems with the central hub for the tapered bearing on the wonderwheel being contaminated by shale thrown up by the spikes. We have rubber sheeting cut from old tractor inner tubes as a cover on top but it appears that the shale is being deflected into the centre of the wheel off the underside of the rubber sheets and is then gravitating down into the bearing hub. Any ideas to prevent this recurring problem would be gratefully received.
The meeting itself was close run as meetings with the Rockets tend to be with Andrew Silver performing very well and Chris Neath also scoring OK despite a tapes exclusion (or disqualification?) Top performer for the home side was captain Matthew Wethers with a paid 18.
The following Wednesday was - guess what - more painting of fence boards and preparation of new kick boards for the back straight as we were being honoured with a visit from SGB track supremo Colin Meredith on Friday. All was completed on schedule and only a few minor snags were noted which will be quickly rectified. A slightly amusing note was when we were asked to remove the very small stump of the old starting gate on the back straight, which has been in its position without attracting any comment for the last 12 years.
Racing against us were the Newcastle Diamonds featuring Monarchs loanees Derek Sneddon and guest William Lawson. Another interesting and incident-free evening being made interesting by a Diamonds 8-1 by Kenni Larsen and Adam McKinna, who waited until the final straight of the last lap before letting Kenni past for the win. Race times were consistently fast on the usual well prepared surface. Ryan Fisher was top man with another 18 pointer.
Two good close meetings made an excellent and dry introduction to the Summer at Armadale.
