Brave New World

Tuesday 28th June

Yay, not moving today !! I was meeting a work colleague for lunch in Milton Keynes so I wandered down the station to catch a train to Milton Keynes. The Wolverhampton to Birmingham train line must be one of the busiest around, every time I’ve been on it the train has been totally crowded. From Birmingham onwards I was on one of the Virgin super duper trains and very nice they are too. Got to Milton Keynes mid morning. What a strange place !! It was one of the new cities created in about the late 1960’s and its like something out of Brave New World. It is a strange design city, its based on a long narrow rectangular grid. The railway station is at the one end of the rectangle, then as you head up towards what you think will be the city centre there are lots the high rise office blocks, then at the top end of the rectangle is a big shopping centre. There actually is no defined city centre which is weird. The city design is all bland and horrible and square and predictable with practically zero character or atmosphere. It’s like something you would expect in Japan or Hong Kong. I’d hate to work or live there. The really funny part was at the very top end of the rectangle was an outside market which reminded me of the little markets in the alleyways Hong Kong or China so the Hong Kong remark wasn’t too far off.

Adrian Snook (a work colleague from Rockwell I had met in Milwaukee in 2010) picked me up and we went to the village of old Milton Keynes to the Swan Hotel. Lovely little old place with a thatched roof. Nice food, nice staff, and the Young's ale went down a treat with the steak and mushroom pie. Mushroom was right, there was only one and they couldn’t be accused of false advertising. Some laughs were had and stories exchanged and the time flew and it was way too soon when Adrian had to go back to work. The old village of Milton Keynes is gorgeous, how they could build an abortion of a city next to a nice village is a little bewildering. The architect probably got knighted, I think he should have been beheaded.

Mid afternoon trains are better than peak hour so the journey back to Wolverhampton was a lot easier than the one there. Got to my room, changed, and headed off to Monmore Green stadium for the second time in two days to watch the National League Dudley Heathens do battle with the Stoke Potters in the second leg of a KO cup match. Stoke were carrying a 30 point league lead from the 1st leg and it was going to be a long way back for Dudley. It proved even longer when Stoke performed well in the first few heats and Dudley found themselves 6 behind on the night and 36 behind on aggregate. Eventually Dudley found some form to run out winners on the night 47-43 but I got the impression Stoke had taken their foot off the pedal a bit. Kyle Newman was impressive for the home side with Simon Lambert looking good for the visitors. It was only to be expected as they both double up and ride in higher leagues as well. James Sarjeant at reserve for the visitors really impressed early on but faded a little as the night wore on. His third to first ride in heat 2 was a gem.

There were a few of grizzles from me about the night. One was the amount of unnecessary delays. With the bottom league there will always be falls but every time there was a fall no matter how minor all the riders went back to the pits, out came the tractor and we had a five minute delay. In my view if there are no injuries then get the fallen rider off, keep the other riders on the track and get on with it. It’s meant to be entertainment !! I thought a 9:45 finish was too late given there were no major falls or other incidents. It was a cold night and some people around me started leaving around the end of heat 10. Secondly the centre green presenter really got on my wick by the end of the night. Admittedly he is a character and paid to gee up the crowd but after two nights of him I was fed up with him and his antics. I didn’t notice him much on the first night but with all the gaps and delays to fill in tonight he had more time on the mike and was more irritating. Thirdly I also got annoyed with all the stuffing around at the tapes prior to each heat starting. These guys aren’t world beaters and I didn’t like to see them wasting time. Again, maybe I just noticed it more because of all the delays but I muttered under my breath “just get on with it” more than once
Anyway, over all it was an enjoyable night with a bit of everything. Quite a few mistakes but that made for some interesting races with some gaps being narrowed with riders out front having a few hairy moments. Then again the reverse was true, in some races it was strung out because the riders at the back made errors. That’s the joy of the national league !!