Sunshine !!

Sunday 26th June

Slept really, really well. The early morning was a beautiful sight, all blue sky and the promise of a nice day. For once the early promise was a good indication and it was a superb day. Had some cereal and toast for breakfast and then a bacon and tomato butty for early lunch. Neil has an excellent allotment by the sounds of things and grows all sorts of vegetables and if the tomatoes were anything to go by he’s not half bad at it. Met son Richard and grandson Owen, they were off up Neil’s allotment for a walk and Neil joined them.

Lynda and Neil kindly gave me a lift down to Newport speedway for the Welsh Open, they were then off to visit Tredegar House and catch up on some culture and were going to pick me up again on the way home. I think culture is something that passed me by somewhere along the way but the speedway is a good substitute. I walked into the stadium and what a lovely little set up it is. There is a grandstand down the home straight and turns 2 and 3 plus the back straight are totally ringed with lovely trees that gave excellent shade. Met up with Dave and he was well on the way to being totally refreshed. He had time to kill and I suspect had been led astray by some locals who plied him with free alcohol. Dave is a weak individual when it comes to free drinks and knowing he would not want to disappoint his hosts he probably drank everything they bought him and said thank you as well. What a man.

Also met up with a few BSF’ers, I can remember Dietbowers (nice chap he was too) and his wife (an even lovelier chapess) but after that it gets a bit hazy. One gent I met had a speedway forum name with “lager” in it, I remember that much. I can remember the faces but the names were all starting to sound the same. Dave was in full flight and had made about 50 new best friends in 15 minutes. Gavin Elmes from Queensland was there again and I had a nice chat with him (then again it’s always a nice chat with Gavin). Later on I went for a wander and met Todd & Brady Kurtz father and also a family that came from Anstey. What a small world, my auntie is from Anstey and I am staying there next weekend. We are going to look out for each other at Leicester speedway when we are there.

As far as the meeting went the track looked superb at the start but the hot day didn’t do the track any favours. I wondered why they didn’t keep the water up to it, in Oz they would be watering the track frequently to stop it going off. Perhaps hot weather is a new thing in Wales. No David Howe or Ben Barker either who were both late withdrawals which robbed the meeting of two of the better riders which was a huge shame for the organizers. There was a blue groove evident later in the meeting which meant only one racing line and that removed a bit of value I thought. Craig Cook had a nasty off after Ben Wilson fell into front of him and he had nowhere to go and Cook was catapulted into the air fence which caused a long delay while the fence was fixed which didn’t help matters either. I hope Cook is ok. Kevin Doolan was immaculate all day until it really mattered and totally stuffed the start in the final to lower his colours to Ryan Fisher. Fisher was a cocky sod in the final as he punched the air with delight once he hit the lead on the back straight on lap one. It was that kind of track, once in front unless there was a major stuff up the result was pretty well a foregone conclusion. The other Aussies were a bit hot & cold, Sweetman, Sedgmen and Morris all had some good rides but all threw in one or two bad ones as well. Sam Masters was unlucky with a puncture in one heat and a fall in the final. Not a bad meeting but it could have been better I thought.
I got picked up by Lynda and Neil and back to Hengoed we went. Neil came to the stadium and managed to meet Dave and I don’t know what he thought, by now Dave was well and truly “over refreshed”. Back at Hengoed we sat out in the back garden, had a cup of tea, chatted, I played with the dog and we watched the clouds go by. It was a lovely way to spend half an hour. Then it was off to my other cousin (Ruth) and husband Ian to spend the night there. Again we had a nice drink and a chat in the back garden. Ian was telling me about the problems his daughter in law has been having with having her second child and I was left thinking it’s not fair how one person can have so much bad luck. The weather was really looking after us and it was glorious to sit and relax and chat. We even ate tea outside and didn’t venture inside until getting on for 10pm. Alas the comfortable chairs Ruth and Ian have in their lounge room are way too good and I was soon suffering heavy eyelids and excused myself and called it a night.