Happy Birthday Punch!

It's Punch's birthday; to be precise, it's his 48th 21st birthday (as the Americans would say, "Do the math!"). Birthday celebratory photographs and our work - click here!

There has been torrential rain overnight in this part of the world and the roads to Blunsdon are flooded. The water in the fields has filled all of the roadside ditched and there are sections of the road that are completely under water.

This does not bode well for the work at the track today. Having spent the best part of Thursday getting the first part of the fence in place on turn 3 we must now kick on and get the rest up today or we will run into real time problems as the season races towards us.

The first task is to inflate the section of fence that Dave and I put up. We use a petrol driven air pump to inflate and have to stand back and watch as the water floods off the sections of the fence.

Each panel collects a significant amount of water and as the fence rises this runs across the track in torrents.

The tyre packing of the last two weeks means that only the top half inch of track is slushy, and that should dry out and harden with a couple of hours of sunshine.

As the water rushes to the white line I go and inspect the drain on the first turn.

Despite the fact that a river of brown water is rushing down the start and finish straight the drain is coping with it all and no water is puddling in the problem area at the apex of turns one and two.

Punch, Gerald, Keith, Ernie and Adam are joined once again by Dave and Allen (the DaVinci boys) and while they start laying out the fences on turns one and two, Adam and I put the pits' gate air panel across the gate and then fix the first panel of turn 4 in place. This allows us to position all of the other panels accurately, without leaving any gaps.

When the panels are fully inflated we check the binding on each and make sure that they have been seated and correctly attached to the bottom of the safety fence.

The yellow additions to the bottom of the fence work well - they push the fronts of the panels upwards and keep them straighter.

Unfortunately, the new inserts are no replacement for proper thick rubber kickboards, so they will have to be attached all round the track next week.

The rubber kickboards fulfil a number of functions. Primarily they will stop a rider from sliding under the fence and injuring himself on any fence struts etc.

They also protect the fence panels themselves from tearing, when foot rests catch in them, and from burning, when hot exhaust pipes come into contact. The kickboards also help prevent build ups of shale from getting under the fence.

Satisfied, we make our way to turns 1 and 2.

We lay the panels out face down on the track and then link them up using the clasps and straps at the back. The air pipes are joined and then we inflate. At this stage we are looking for any straps that are either too loose or too tight. We also need to make sure that the panels fit together tightly. When we are satisfied that the spacing is right we deflate the fence and then begin to attach each panel to the safety fence. We use a minimum of two clips per panel and attach these to the bottom rungs of the safety fence. This will help to seat the panels squarely on the track when they are inflated. It's important to get this right - if we do then it's unlikely that we'll have to re do it this season.

We re inflate the fence and check that it is standing properly and that there are no gaps. We are more than happy. Keith sets too with a pair of blunt wire clippers and hacks his way through the safety fence to allow us to feed the air tubes through from the other side of the safety fence.

We'll use two air pumps on turns 1 and 2 - one pump just wont have enough power.

Turn 4 is relatively easy and we get it settled in less than an hour.

The escaping air bubbles up through the seams, but that OK. Many fans believe that the air fence is air tight. It's not. It lets out air along each seam, and it's meant to do that. If it didn't the fence would soon balloon up and riders would bounce off it like gymnasts on a trampoline. The air fence is supposed to absorb impact, and so it must be always allowing air to pass through it.

We end the day with birthday celebrations for the birthday boy.

A Victoria sponge is adorned with six candles (one for each successfully completed decade) and a special singing candle that serenades us with "Happy Birthday to you" over and over again.
The final joke is on us. As we stand around and watch, Punch makes a wish and blows out the candles. He's so happy that he has sufficient puff to blow them all out in one go that he sits back with a supremely smug look on his face. And then the candles relight themselves. The more he blows, the faster they relight.

It will be just Punch and me on Thursday - Gerald is unavailable. If the weather is reasonable we'll be working on the kickboards; if not we'll just have to get on with the green netting that we put up to prevent shale covering the greyhound track on the corners.

The future's safe

Please click here to get to the all colour version of the Blog.

It is uncanny - every Thursday it seems to rain, and it poured down today, so much so that there are precious few photographs because I didn't want to get the camera too wet.
Punch, Gerald and I were joined by my 12 year old son, Dave. A glance through the Blog's photo album features a good few photos of him, and quite rightly so.

He (and his sister, Steffie) has been a true speedway fan since he could first walk. His autograph book is stacked with the great and the famous and he's as knowledgeable about our beloved sport as most fans.

Last season he gave up every Thursday during his school holidays to come up and work on the track and often would end up staying to tidy up after a meeting long after the racing had finished. While many of his contemporaries are content to spend hours on the PlayStation, Dave has always been more than willing to come along and work alongside us and learn from people like Gerald and Punch.

Today has been no exception. Kitted out in his new overalls and with a sturdy pair of boots, he worked alongside me assembling the air fence on turn three. The fence, as those who read about it before Christmas will know, is b.....y heavy and very awkward to manoeuvre. Add the fact that it was cold and tipping down with rain and you'll soon appreciate that the work wasn't a bundle of fun. But there were no complaints from him. He just got on with the work. With youngsters like David the future of the sport is as secure as it could be. Well done mate!

The air fence has been modified with a triangular piece added at the bottom of the front side. This should push the front of the fence upward and stop it from slipping forward.
We'll still need to add the heavy rubber kickboards to protect it but we'll get round to that later.

Getting the first section of air fence up is a very time consuming activity. Each panel must be connected by the air flow pipes and then strapped to the next panel. When the 13 sections were ready we inflated them to see how they sat against the safety fence. We then had to calculate how the gate to the pits would open and close with its air fence in place.

You can't rush this and we ended up having to move the whole air fence three times before we got it right. The fence then had to be clipped to the safety wire fence behind it. By three o'clock we had finished. The rest of the fence on turn 4 should now fit perfectly.

So what of Punch, Gerald and Shirley?

Shirl provided us with piping hot cups of coffee to ward off the cold and damp. Punch and Gerald fought an ultimately winning battle to get the old cherry picker, that has cluttered up the pits area car park, into life so that a team of scaffolders could come and remove some of the apparently unnecessary lighting poles around the edge of the track. If you look at the photograph above you'll see the lights on short poles with cross pieces running parallel to the ground. It's these latter pieces that are being removed to make the whole place look smarter and also to improve camera views when Sky come a calling.

We packed up as the sun came out, sadly too late and too wan to dry us or the track. Saturday will revolve around getting the whole air fence in place. What fun - I can hardly wait!

Oh, before I forget, it's Punch's 69th birthday on Saturday. We'll celebrate with a cake and a few candles. I'm sure his fan club would like to send him their best wishes. Email me with any special birthday sentiments and I'll make sure that he gets them on Saturday.

To send a birthday email to Punch please click here.

Christmas Quiz answers published - winner named!

The Blunsdon Blog is proud to be able to announce that Mr Malcolm Gough from Swindon has won the first Blunsdon Blog Quiz. Malcolm will be presented with a signed copy of Jeff Scott's marvellous speedway book "When Eagles Dared" at the season's opener versus Reading on 15th March. Commiserations to Gordon Campbell, amongst many others, who missed out narrowly on this excellent prize. Many thanks for all those who entered.

Answers can be found via this link to the main Blunsdon Blog site.

DaVinci Boys take pits by storm

The DaVinci boys in action, cubism and impressionism clash on the back straight and the leviathan takes to the track. It's all in a Saturday's work at Blunsdon.

After coming to terms with the non appearance of the infamous air fence last week, the motley band of volunteers this Saturday paint the pits, the kickboards and re-contour the track at Blunsdon.

Click here for the full colour version of the action.

But where's the b......y air fence?

Remember that the colour version is available through this link.

The weather forecast was surprisingly good for a Thursday - temperatures of 9 degrees and a guaranteed clear sky and plenty of sunshine.

Right! Think again. More like 6 degrees and overcast with a constant threat of rain. Still, the three of us met up expecting to be able to receive the air fence back after its winter hibernation.

Wrong! No air fence! It's not due back now until next Monday.

Plan B. Let's fill in the dips in the track with some absorbent gray shale. This is the material that was taken from last year's Cardiff GP track. It doesn't bind well so we don't use it as a top dressing but it does help to form a hard base.

Punch, who secretly loves his JCB, leaps at the chance of collecting bucket loads of the gray shale and bringing it out on the track for Gerald and me to distribute as evenly as possible on the inside of the entrance to turn 3, in the dip in the main straight and in the problem area at the apex of turns 1 and 2.

The JCB would be perfect but the power steering doesn't work and the application of brakes makes it veer violently to the right. With these facts in mind Gerald and I keep a wary eye on Punch as he manoeuvres through the pits gate with a bucket load of heavy shale.
The gray shale fills the dips well and I brush any excess water from the puddles to clear standing water. Gerald grades and then tyres packs the surface while Punch circulates behind him with the wire mesh to draw out excess moisture.

We decide to pack the track down well. It's still too wet for heavy packing but the lorry tyre packer works a treat.

As Punch and Gerald amuse themselves on the track I start to tidy up the pits area in readiness for some serious painting on Saturday. Mick Richards from Swindon Pressure Cleaning appears and while he jet washes down the pits I follow behind with a brush, sweeping the sand and mud. The whole process takes over 2 hours but the place looks almost presentable by the time that we finish.

Lunch is taken later than usual in the superb surrounding of our plush staff room. Mick and Punch both seem very pleased with their contributions to the 2007 Blunsdon Blog Calendar (available as a free download on this site) but Gerald is less certain. He thinks I've lost the plot! He may be right.

Our peace and quite is shattered when the large skip is collected. New scalpings have been delivered so that we can try to improve the surface quality of the area at the back of the pits. We would have spread them sooner but the skip was in the way.

With the skip gone and the pits looking clean, if not tidy, we could have run a meeting - no problems.

Saturday will be a painting day. If the weather holds fair then there's a chance we might be able to get the blade out for a final cut before the start of the season. We'll also have a chance to make preparations for the return of our beloved air fence on Monday, although I'll believe that it's really coming back when I see the b....y thing!

Past 4 o'clock and it's time to head home and begin the blog. It's been a funny sort of day - very much plan B but still satisfying.

Blog launches Glamour Calendar - free download

Responding to requests from its reader and fan, the Blunsdon Blog has launched the Glamour Calendar to beat all Glamour Calendars - the 2007 Blunsdon Blog Glamour Calendar.

And it's free to download on the all colour version of the blog, available at the link below.

The author of the blog wishes to make it quite clear that persons of a nervous disposition should refrain from viewing and downloading the 2007 Blunsdon Blog Calendar - the pictures are that hot! Phew!!

I'm not of a nervous disposition and in full command of all my faculties yet still wish to view, and possibly download a copy of the 2007 Blunsdon Blog Speedway Calendar. Please rush me to the site where I can feast my eyes and satiate my innermost desires!!

Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair ...

Saturday morning dawned wet and cold. Fortunately we were joined by a number of volunteer workers who helped us clear out the pits and the area behind the pits where the machinery is stored. Despite the weather it was an excellent morning's work, as can be seen in the all colour, all dancing blog - click here to access it.

Where the snow lay round about ....

Deep and crisp and even ...!!

Heavy overnight snowfall in North Wiltshire wiped out any prospect of work at Blunsdon today. The all colour blog (link here) does, however, include some new photographs of Punch and Gerald, as you've never seen them before!!

It's a beautiful day!

The latest two blogs have been sent straight to the all singing, all dancing version of the Blunsdon Blog - click here to access them.

The colour blog has been tidied up - all blogs from 2006 have been archived and are now available from the main options bar.

Reminder to track staff at Blunsdon that there is a meeting on Thursday 8th February at Rosco's beginning at 7pm.

Under Pressure

And England have won a One Day International against Australia. Euphoria! Can there be anything better in the whole universe? Well, of course, Swindon winning the 2007 Elite League title would be one!

At last, here is the Blog for 1st February 2007, replicated, with pictures on the all singing all dancing Blog website (link here).

The season is racing towards us at an unnerving speed and it is clear that we will have to work each Thursday and Saturday if we are to be ready for the first of a set of behind closed doors practice sessions for the Magnificent Seven prior to Press and Practice Day and the official start of the season.

Last Saturday Keith, Ernie and I removed all the kickboards from the main straight and re-aligned them. Last year the kickboards followed the contours of the safety fence. The principle was OK if the top of the safety fence had been level - but it wasn't. And since the level of the shale is linked to the bottom of the kickboards we did have problems levelling out the straights. Two hours later and the kickboards were sorted.

This Thursday Punch and I turned our attention to the pits car park, left in a state of desolation after the archaeological excavations just after Christmas. Deep ruts and some perilously wet areas meant that, unless urgent remedial work was carried out, we would have vans and lorries bogged in as soon as the first rain fell.

While Punch gathered up the last of our shingle in the JCB I played with the sit on roller and smoothed it all down.

The shingle surface is not popular with visiting riders and their mechanics who find it more than difficult to push heavy tool boxes into the pits. At least the surface is a bit harder now and we can turn our attention to the track.

Shirley arrived in time to make the mid morning cup of coffee and Da Vinci (Brian Cox) was lurking in the changing rooms applying more white paint to the walls and red paint to the fittings. He assures us that he is not planning a replica of the Cistene Chapel but it is clear that his artistic tendencies are being stretched by oceans of brilliant white.

While Punch and I have been playing car parks Gerald has been experimenting with the giant tyre packer after he and Punch had smoothed out the major humps and bumps using the small blades (it's still too wet to bring out the motorway blade).

The tyre packer works a treat and it is clear that, if we had had to run a meeting on Thursday, we could have.

Brian has now turned his attention to the detail on the outside of the pits. He admits that the painting work will take him several days to finish so we expect to see him still going on Saturday morning.

After lunch I turn my attention to the new drainage scheme on the approach to the first turn.
The pipe under the track is clearly doing its job - the water runs out easily and actually drains away through bottom of the hole. My task is to dig out a larger hole and then run a thin 9 inch deep trench alongside the white line right through to the main drain on turn 1. The pipe will run through this but we have also devised a cunning plan - we will fill in around the pipe with stones so that any water running down the main straight will drain away through this new soakaway, thus relieving the overworked drains on turns 1 and 2.

It's hard work digging down because there is a thick layer of stones just below the grass surface and then an even thicker layer of clay. Two hours later and Gerald approaches asking if I'll let him know when I hit oil!

Over the past couple of weeks (OK, months) I have complained about the aches and pains that I feel after a day's work at the track - and this has attracted some comment from the physio who works at the track during the season.

The fact is that I am not used to manual work, having spent 25 years teaching at a Wiltshire Comprehensive school, the last few years of which were spent behind a desk as part of its management team. I now spend my time working as a ceramic artist, designing commercial web sites, resourcing and purchasing IT equipment for individuals and teaching basic IT skills to those unfamiliar with computers. None of these are physically demanding and I admit, I have become soft in middle age.

Working with Punch and Gerald is amazing fun and I do try to keep up with them but it does take its toll. I will be making full use of the physio once the season gets underway. In the meantime I'll put my faith in whiskey and a good, hot bath!

Shock - horror - Blog delayed

Whether it's because the England cricket team look as if they have a chance of winning a one day international or, more likely, that my back feels as if it has been assaulted by a sledgehammer after over ambitious trench digging at the track yesterday but the blog will have to wait until this evening for publication. Sorry!