Three brass monkeys and ................... not a welder in sight!

Merry Christmas to all our readers - remember to log on to the all colour, all dancing version of the blog with this link.

"Seasons of mist and mellow fruitfulness ..." Keats described Autumn thus in his great Ode. Little chance of fruitfulness today, but it was beautiful driving from my home in Malmesbury to the top of Blunsdon Hill and our beloved Abbey Stadium.

The pits area was like an ice skating rink and the mist was gathering as we walked the track.

From the pits gate we couldn't even make out the starting gate let alone turns one and two.

The surface was frozen through and very, very hard indeed, thus ruling out any chance of any blading or grading work.

We decided that we'd check the track surface.

Punch and Gerald wandered off to take a look at the entrance to turn three. Gerald has an idea that we remove one air bag from turns 1 and 2 and a further bag from 3 and 4. By starting the air fence a little further around each bend he hopes to present a wider entrance to the turns and so help to develop more racing lines.

Tracks made in the shale surface last week have now been filled with ice. Ideally we would have liked to have put at least two or three JCB bucket loads of new shale down but, apart from this section on the inside of turn 3 and a dip near gate 4 on the start line, the track looks to be in pretty good shape.

Infact, this frost should help us.

A lesson I learned early on was that you have to make the weather and conditions work to your advantage - there's no hope in trying to work against the elements. Frost in the track will help to break down the surface when it thaws and should help us to produce a "billiard table" surface in the new year.

The trench that we dug last week shows up quite clearly with a ridge of frost.

The frost is evidence that this part of the surface is not as hard or well packed as the rest of the track. It's as much as we had expected and we're not worried about it. The good news is that there is a muddy puddle at the end of the pipe by the white line. The brown pipe end can just be made out) and alongside it is a sandy residue - the result of sand laden water that would, previously, have snaked its way across the entrance to turn one but now is gathered in the concrete trap that Punch laid at the weekend and then drained under the track.

The plans to join the new drain pipe to the main drainage are on turn one are shelved when we take a closer look at the ground - it is rock hard.

We retreat to the relative comfort of the track staff room and wrap ourselves around cups of hot coffee.

We are all cold, very cold, and the decision to cut short our day's work is taken with little hesitation.

The good news is that we are ahead of schedule - the bad news is that there are only 15 or 16 days work left (each Thursday) until the next season begins.

Punch, Gerald, all the other chaps who give up their time to come and work on the track, and me send you all the best wishes for the festive season and a good year both on and off the track for everyone, especially the Swindon Robins.

Next week the blog will publish its annual Speedway Quiz, so make sure that you log on for that and get those speedway brain cells exercised.